Erosion & Silting of Brooks

Erosion is inevitable when the top of a mountain or hill has all its vegetation removed. It also results from the construction of roads. Without proper controls, this erosion can have disastrous effects.

Erosion basically rearranges the soils in a given area. The soil from the upper elevations is carried downhill by water runoff and is deposited at lower elevations. This alters soil composition at all elevations so that it will be impossible to ever return the area to its original state. Over time erosion and runoff kill vegetation farther downhill and the problem migrates downhill with it. Before long the runoff joins the small brooks that spring from the higher elevations, muddying their waters and depositing silt along their length. This can have disastrous effects on insect, fish and animal life in the area.

The Bowers Mountain is home to Barker, Getchell, Lindsey and Wallace brooks. These four brooks, as well as several unnamed brooks, flow into Lindsey Bog, Duck Lake, Mill Privilege Lake, Shaw Lake, Pleasant Lake and Baskahegan Stream. Several of these have populations of native Brook Trout that are extremely sensitive to silting.

Wind developers consistently downplay the destruction caused by erosion. When asked about it, their typical reply is to state that they are operating in compliance with all applicable ordinances and laws.

But when Maine's mountaintops and ridge lines are 'protected' by the Department or Environmental Protection and Land Use Regulatory Commission, can we be sure the ordinances and laws are enough? After all, these two groups have, at the request of the Governor's Task Force on Wind Power Development, rezoned the mountaintops and ridgelines as industrial sites on which structures the size of 50-story buildings are considered 'an acceptable use'.

If the laws won't prevent erosion, can we count on the developers to adequately address the problems? On its website, The American Wind Energy Association states that "Erosion can be a concern in certain habitats such as the desert, where a hard-packed soil surface must be disturbed to install wind turbines." But what about on forested mountaintops? When they clear cut hundreds of acres at the highest elevations and cut a massive network of roads through the forest, they simply say that "standard engineering practices... are adequate".

The following articles provide a look at how the Windustry handles erosion at their industrial sites.

April 2, 2010
Garrett wind project halted temporarily over mud runoff
Timothy B. Wheeler, Baltimore Sun
Maryland's first industrial wind farm has gotten off to a rough start, with construction temporarily halted after environmental regulators discovered mud washing from the remote Garrett County mountaintop site into a tributary of one of the state's wild and scenic rivers. Constellation Energy has scrambled to put in stronger erosion controls as it erects more than two dozen 400-foot-tall turbines along an eight-mile stretch of Backbone Mountain.

March 24, 2010
Clear-cutting project for wind turbines abruptly halted by MDE
The Republican News
Startled residents in the Eagle Rock area, some located within just 15 or 20 feet of the project, used words such as "shocked" and "horrified" when they were awakened by the sound of chainsaws, trucks, dozers, and massive excavating machines felling thousands of trees adjacent to their properties. Several acres of forest land timber were leveled within a matter of a few days. The project, however, came to an abrupt halt Tuesday after one of the residents - who happens to be a contractor -suggested that the work was being done in a manner that was not in compliance with state environmental law.

September 5, 2009
Kerry locals in spat with wind farm firm over bog slide clean-up
Mark Hilliard, Tribune News
A wind turbine company is being sued by a farming community in Kerry one year after a bog slide - which has still not been cleared - blocked access to their land. Residents of Lyrecrom­pane in the Stack mountains have insisted that the wind farm - currently being developed by Tralee-based Tra Investments - is to blame for last August's bog slide.

February 13, 2009
Plum Creek apologizes for incident of erosion
John Richardson, Kennebec Journal
Plum Creek owns the property west of Greenville, and its logging contractor was clearing land for TransCanada, the developer of a wind farm. The Land Use Regulation Commission issued a notice of warning to TransCanada based on the erosion. A Maine environmental group called for the state to fine Plum Creek and a logging contractor for cutting trees too aggressively. The Natural Resources Council of Maine released photos of the erosion, which it said was effectively a 900-foot-long mudslide, along with internal communications that it says show Plum Creek's logging contractor was warned to stop working in the area until after the ground froze.

February 10, 2009
Environmental groups critical of Plum Creek and Maine regulators
Susan Sharon, Maine Public Broadcasting Network
This time the focus is Kibby Mountain in western Maine where Transcanada is in the process of developing a wind power project, and where related logging operations by Plum Creek and a sub-contractor have been linked to serious land use violations. Pictures taken at the site by an independent engineering firm and provided to the Land Use Regulation Commission in late October show a logging road so damaged by rain, logging activity and erosion that it created a mudslide described as nearly 900 feet long.

January 14, 2009
DEP holds hearing on wind park plans
Josh Mrozinski, Wyoming County Press Examiner
With two pipes beneath a road clogged in Noxen, Supervisor Carl Shook is concerned about runoff from a proposed wind farm in Wyoming County. "There is going to be a lot of water running off the mountain," Shook said. Shook was one of about 30 people last Wednesday who attended a public hearing ...The state Department of Environmental Protection held the hearing to receive public comment as it reviews an application from BP for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.

August 25, 2008
Salmon and trout stocks wiped out by Kerry landslide
Anne Lucey, Irish Times
The chief executive of the Shannon Region Fisheries Board said yesterday there were no fish remaining in the spawning grounds affected by the landslide in the Stacks Mountains in north Kerry last weekend. ...However, the full effects of the landslide on the Smearlagh and Feale rivers may not be felt for five to 10 years, because of the migratory pattern of the life-cycle of the fish. ...Residents have called for a change in the county council development plan which has designated the Stacks area for wind farm development.

November 1, 2007
Pollution at Lough Lee: Wind farm under investigation as wild trout stocks disappear
Ulster Herald
SILT run-off during the construction of a wind farm is believed to be the source responsible for the wiping out of valuable vegetation and a colossal decrease in wild Brown Trout fish stocks in one of Tyrone's hidden beauty spots. ...One source described the fish caught as "feeble and malnourished" and indicated that the "damage to the rare genetic strain was irreparable." Lough Lee has long been considered by angling tourists as one of the most unique freshwater fishing sites in Ireland or Britain. ...problems arose during the construction of the 9MW wind farm by leading company Airtricity, who was given planning permission to position turbines on the slope of Bin Mountain facing and in close proximity to the Lough.

May 4, 2007
Group cautious on wind turbines
Patrick Buchnowski, The Tribune-Democrat
A local environmental organization is calling for an independent study of surface and ground water on land where Gamesa Energy USA is proposing to erect wind turbines. In a three-page position paper, the Mountain Laurel Chapter of Trout Unlimited said the proposed Shaffer Mountain project could adversely impact the Piney Creek watershed and wants a water study done.