County officials stress communication needed about proposed wind power project

A proposed wind power project and its impact on local roads during construction was the focus of a meeting April 16 between Bowman County commissioners and representatives of Apex Clean Energy.

According to several commissioners, they were getting questions about the status of the project, its planned transportation analysis and were asking for clarifications they could pass on to their constituents.

Apex Clean Energy is exploring the feasibility of constructing Bowman Wind.

According to the company, the wind energy project is projected to generate 200 megawatts of clean, homegrown energy. Located in rural Bowman County near Rhame, there is local wind data that confirms the area under consideration is ideal for a project of this size, which will produce enough safe, pollution-free energy to power up to 99,500 homes, the company stated on its website.

The company has projected that there could be up to 75 slowly-spinning wind turbines on the site and up to about 15 full-time jobs when it is fully operational.

But during the meeting Monday, the focus was more on the need for better communication and how to handle the impact the construction would have on local roads.

Scott Jansen, the Senior Development Manager for Apex Clean Energy, was joined at the meeting by Jeremy Spaeth.

Part of the study is doing video recording of the roads all the way from the state line on the haul routes to the project, Jansen said.

“There are three phases here – the pre-construction improvements that we are going to be doing to get the roads ready to receive components …. especially on the township roads adding gravel as needed, the plan for during construction. Lastly, the biggest question from the commissioners is the post construction improvement plan.

“The road agreement that the county is holding us to is a pretty robust agreement. At the end of the day, we need to bring these roads back to at least as good of condition as when we started the project. The purpose of bringing the post-construction plan to the commissioners is to give everyone a baseline understanding of what our process and thought was,” he said.

When the construction on the project is done, the commissioners will be able to go out and survey to see what the damage is and what surface damage needs to be addressed, Commissioner Jerid Janikowski explained. “At the end of the day, it is our job to assure that when this project is done … we are the ones responsible to the taxpayers and this community so that we don’t have to raise taxes to go back and rebuild the road when it is done.”

A big part of the project’s expected impact will be to Griffin Road and Rhame Road. Rhame Road has been rated in fair condition.

Part of the focus of the meeting was a transportation study by the company in addition to plans to return the status of the roads impacted by the construction to current or better condition.

The county officials also reminded the company that it needs to do more to keep them appraised of what activities they are doing locally at present and keep the information current.

“You know, part of the agreement is to have the roads in as good or better condition than when they started,” Commissioner Jerid Janikowski said Tuesday. “It is the gravel trucks and the cement trucks that are like ants – they are going to cause damage to our roads.”