LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Six-month program to monitor Altamont Pass bird deaths OK'd 

Alameda County supervisors approved the initial phase of a monitoring system that will study the impact the Altamont windmills have on scores of birds – including golden eagles, red tail hawks, burrowing owls and other protected species.

The board unanimously approved the $610,000, six-month program after hesitating in July to support a $3 million, three-year plan to monitor bird deaths in the Altamont. At that July meeting, supervisors agreed to cap the program – to be paid for by the turbine operators in the Altamont – at $2 million, saying costs for the monitoring had spiraled out of control.

The monitoring program will be a collaborative operation of UC Santa Cruz, WEST Inc. and Jones & Stokes, the top three bidders for the project. The group will monitor avian deaths at the 5,400 windmills east of Livermore.

In September, a newly appointed five-member scientific review committee made a recommendation to the supervisors to approve the six-month contract, in an effort to minimize further delays in the study. The committee is expected to give the board a full recommendation on how to proceed with the remaining 30 months left on the monitoring program in January.

A sticking point on how to proceed with the rest of the study may be money. The approved six-month contract eats up nearly a third of the $2 million cap the supervisors approved for the study, with 21/2 years scheduled to be monitored after that.

The cost of the monitoring program played a large role at the July public hearing, when supervisors and attorneys for the windmill operators questioned the rising cost of such a program. County Supervisor Scott Haggerty pointed out that one of the leading bids had originally come in at approximately $1.4 million – half of what was being asked for in July.

According to a study released in 2004 by the California Energy Commission, an estimated 1,700 to 4,700 birds die each year by flying into whirring turbine blades or being electrocuted by transmission lines that thread through the 50,000-acre Altamont Wind Resource Area.

By Chris Metinko, Contra Costa Times
Reach Chris Metinko at 510-763-5418 or cmetinko@cctimes.com.

mercurynews.com

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon