Letter to the Editor:

At a recent Regional Planning Advisory Committee (RPAC) meeting in Benton, California, local residents were informed that a wind farm, such as one you might find in Palm Springs and/or Tehachapi, was currently in the planning stages for Mono County with the intent of placing it on Blind Spring Hill.

An Environmental Assessment (EA) will be released in June or July based on a proposal by Clipper Wind to install three wind-monitoring towers on Blind Spring Hill. This would be the first step on Clipper Wind’s part to place a wind farm on a culturally and environmentally sensitive area. If this is permitted to occur, it would forever alter the character of Blind Spring Hill and the Owens Valley.

The windmills to be installed would be in excess of 400’ high with 350’ blades - this on a hill that is 1,200’ tall, 10 miles long and 1 mile wide. The immediate impact of such a farm would be as follows.

• Visual blight. The windmills would be visible from Bishop, the entire Hwy. 6 corridor from Bishop to Montgomery Pass, all of Fish Slough Rd., the whole volcanic tablelands and Fish Slough area, Hwy. 120 just east of Benton Crossing Rd., Yellow Jacket Rd. and Black Rock Mine Rd., the Benton Paiute Indian Reservation and the White Mountains. The farm would be an eyesore which could literally be seen from hundreds of square miles.
  
  
• Destruction of cultural sites sacred to the region’s Paiute/Shoshone tribes.
  
  
• Loss of wildlife habitat for both mule deer and mountain lions.
  
  
• Loss of unspoiled recreation lands of Blind Springs Hill in a state whose last open spaces are quickly being overrun.
  

While the current proposal by Clipper Wind Power reflects only a permit to allow “testing,” we feel it would be naïve on our part not to connect the dots and conclude that the development of a wind farm is the company’s ultimate goal.

We are asking for your help in urging Clipper Wind Power to abandon its designs on Blind Spring Hill, withdraw its permit request, and find a more suitable location elsewhere. This wind farm is not supported by the local community nor by the millions of visitors who come to the Owens Valley each year to escape this type of urban blight.

Sincerely,

Friends of Blind Spring Hill

P.O. Box #915

Benton, CA 93512

Brian & Robin Picken (760) 793-3259

Page last updated Tuesday, May 06, 2008