DEP public hearing on Gamesa's Shaffer Mountain Wind Project

There will be a DEP public hearing on Gamesa's Shaffer Mountain Wind Project on August 28th at 6:00 pm in the Shade High School gymnasium. Gamesa plans to make a presentation from 5:30 – 6:00. From 6:00 – 7:00 DEP will host a public meeting – an informal session between the public and DEP -- which will include questions and answers about the project.

Gamesa's relations with local authorities and the community surrounding this project have been criticized for a deficit of transparency, so the hearing should be lively. (Most recently, for example, "More Investigation Needed," in the Somerset Daily American, August 25, 2007.

Word has it that Gamesa is requiring their employees to attend the public hearing using them as pawns.

Even if you aren’t directly effected by the proposed wind project on Shaffer Mountain, please try to attend. If DEP permits this wind application, then there is an excellent chance that any wind project will be approved, no matter how great the environmental damage.

We have been told by reliable experts that public pressure may stop this project – so we need a thousand people at the Hearing on August 28. You don’t have to speak, but your presence is greatly needed!

Directions: Take 30 W to Reel’s Corner. Turn right at the flashing yellow light onto 160 N. Travel for 4 miles, and just past the gas station on the left, turn left onto School Road. Travel about 1 mile and take a right – you’ll see Shade High School in front of you after you go down a short hill. Park in the big parking lot in front of the high school and enter the gym doors. The hearing is in the gymnasium.

The Department requests that individuals wishing to testify at the hearing submit a written notice of intent to Helen Humphreys, by email at Hhumphreys@state.pa.us or by post at Department of Environmental Protection, 400 Waterfront Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15222-4745, (412) 442-4183. The Department will accept notices up to August 27. The Department requests that individuals limit their testimony to 5 minutes so that all individuals have the opportunity to testify. The Department can only review comments made with regard to the NPDES Permit Application No. PAI055607001 documentation and plans. Written copies of oral testimony are requested. Relinquishing time to others will not be allowed. Individuals attending the hearing will have the opportunity to testify if they so desire; however, individuals who pre-register to testify will be given priority on the agenda.

Stay tuned at http://www.shaffermountain.com/