Supervisors consider wind and water

By APRIL KELLEY
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors dealt with both the wind and water at their regular meeting on Monday, Sept. 23.

Merlin Bartz, Iowa County Outreach Manager with Invenergy, Chicago, a wind energy company introduced himself to the Supervisors.

Bartz will be working on a project that spans over Webster, Hamilton and Wright Counties and may also include Humboldt.

Supervisor Bruce Reimers questioned Bartz on the number of wind turbines they are wanting to place in Humboldt County.

"The truthful answer is wind energy is best utilized where the resources are. Frankly if you look at a department of energy map, particularly in Iowa, the best wind resources basically start in New Albin in the far northeast corner and go to Hamburg in the far southwest corner and everything that is northwest of that line,” Barts said.

He stated that it just depends on how many a county wants to have.

“Some counties say that’s enough, other counties have said we would like some more,” Bartz said.

Supervisor Rick Pedersen asked, “Counties can’t say no, we don’t want any so how can you say that’s enough?”

Bartz said that County Boards in Iowa are able to determine standards through ordinance and through their board of adjustments regarding wind energy, thus limiting the number of turbines.

Barts reminded the Supervisors of the livestock industry in the 90s struggled with the same issues until finally the state enacted a statewide mandate.

At the time, approximately 20 out of the 99 counties in Iowa have moratoriums or restrictions on wind turbines.

Bartz said the county has the ability to control wind energy in this county at this time.

For more from the supervisors' meeting (including updates on the Secondary Road Department, MIDAS, Hazard Mitigation Plan and the Reasoner Dam) read this week's issue of the Humboldt Independent.