South Dakota's Aurora County to consider wind farm permit

PLANKINTON, S.D. — Bismarck-based Basin Electric has one area county left from which to obtain a conditional or special-use permit for its PrairieWinds project north of White Lake.

The Aurora County Board of Adjustments will have a public hearing at 8 p.m. Tuesday on a conditional-use permit to build about 53 wind turbines on portions of 17 sections in Patten Township owned by 28 landowners. The meeting will be at the county courthouse in Plankinton.

Basin Electric submitted its application on May 24, said Leah Vissia, county zoning administrator.

The North Dakota utility gained state approval for the $363 million, 165-megawatt project when the Public Utilities Commission granted a permit to build the 37,000-acre wind farm last week.

Because Aurora County required more documents in the application, it took longer to get the zoning materials together, said Kevin Solie, Basin senior environmental analyst. Documents include plans and leases, site boundaries, and maps of easements, occupied homes, businesses and public buildings within a half-mile of site boundaries.

“Ordinances vary from county to county, so there were a few more things to do,” he said.

Up to 111 turbines will be built in parts of Aurora, Brule and Jerauld counties, with an 11.5-mile, 230-kilovolt transmission line that will be erected to carry electricity to a Wessington Springs substation, Solie said.

Ten to 12 permanent jobs will be created with an estimated payroll of $550,000 a year, plus benefits. Basin would pay about $500,000 in taxes annually. Solie declined to reveal how much landowners would receive in lease payments.

Basin awaits federal approval on the environmental impact statement, ratification of the Aurora County permit and acquisition of building permits in each county before proceeding with construction.

The utility already gained a special exception use permit from the Brule County Board of Adjustment on May 18 for 28 turbines involving 11 landowners in Plummer and Willow Lake townships, said Edwin Westendorf, county planning and zoning administrator.

A couple of residents spoke in support of the project during the county commission’s portion of the meeting when the commissioners were acting as the adjustment board, Westendorf said. According to meeting minutes and PUC documents, the individuals were rural Kimball landowners who signed lease agreements with Basin.

The Jerauld County Board of Adjustment granted a conditional-use permit for 27 turbines in Logan, Crow Lake and Anina townships on May 24, Zoning Administrator Darwin Reindl said. He received no comment about the project, either by phone or at the meeting.

That came as no surprise to Reindl, given the success of the Wessington Springs Wind Farm near Cady Lake, which has been operating since December 2008, he said.

So far, Vissia has yet to receive any calls from supporters or opponents or see such action at meetings.

PrairieWinds proposed a 1,400-foot setback from occupied residences, 900-foot setback from unoccupied buildings, 400-foot setback from road rights-of-way and roughly 400 feet from section lines with no roads, according to the PUC permit. The setback from occupied residences is greater than Aurora County’s requirement of 1,000 feet and the rights-of-way and sectionline setbacks are much longer than Jerauld County’s 75 feet and 750 feet for buildings.

If the Aurora County Board of Adjustments doesn’t approve the permit next week, the matter will be discussed at its next meeting on July 19, Vissia said.

If federal approval occurs in August, Solie anticipates that construction could begin shortly thereafter. He expects that PrairieWinds will be finished early next year.

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