Natural Perspectives:

A couple of weeks ago, Lou made a negative comment about the wind power generator proposed for the Bolsa Chica mesa. A letter to the editor from Kim Kolpin, the restoration coordinator for the Bolsa Chica Stewards (the restoration team of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust), responded to Lou’s brief comment (“Project will not harm wildlife,” Mailbag, Nov. 24). In case you missed it, here is what Lou wrote about the Bolsa Chica Land Trust garnering a grant to build the first phase of their Terra Farm on Bolsa Chica mesa.

“Looks like their Terra Farms with solar and wind power are off and running . . . I just have to hope that someone notices that wind-generated power and a bird sanctuary don’t go together. First we had the Glass Wall of Death, and now we have the Wind Turbines of Trouble threatening the birds of Bolsa Chica.”

I believe that wind is an important source of electricity and one that we should all want to see expanded. But there is a place for everything, and Bolsa Chica is not the place for wind power.

Kolpin’s letter informs us that the proposal by the land trust is for a vertical axis wind turbine rather than the familiar horizontal propeller-type rotors that we see at the wind farms along the 10 Freeway near Palm Springs. I have no difficulty believing that vertical rotors are safer than the standard horizontal type. But safer is relative.

Kolpin cites a statement from one manufacturer to the effect that their models kill very few birds. According to information from the National Academy of Sciences, collisions with wind turbines in 2006 accounted for less than 0.003% of human and feline caused bird deaths. Because pet cats are thought to kill an estimated 1 billion birds a year and collisions with buildings cause another billion, that means that wind turbines cause “only” about 6 million bird deaths a year. Why on earth should we consider that acceptable?

Bolsa Chica is not the middle of the Mojave Desert. It is one of the richest bird life areas in Southern California. It is well known that the frequency of bird-strike death is a function not just of the type of windmill but largely of the site at which windmills are constructed. The Altamont Pass wind farm of Northern California has a much higher rate of bird death than does the 10 Freeway wind farm near Palm Springs in part because Altamont Pass is a high value area for eagles, falcons and other birds of prey. The 10 Freeway near Palm Springs has a much lower density of bird life.

From a bird life point of view, Bolsa Chica is the extreme opposite of the desert. As columnists, Lou and I are supposed to have opinions, and it is our opinion that an ecological reserve along the Pacific Flyway is a poor location for a wind turbine of any kind. Wind farms are going to be necessary in the future to generate clean electricity, but wind turbines don’t belong at Bolsa Chica.

Lou also uncovered some interesting facts about bats and wind power. Bats that approach wind turbines don’t collide with them. Instead, they die from what is called barometric trauma. Their lungs literally explode from the low-pressure zone that exists at the tips of a horizontal wind turbine.

Bat deaths from wind turbines are double and triple the number of bird deaths, depending on which research study you look at. Because vertical axis turbines are not used much commercially, no specific figures for bat deaths could be found for that type of turbine. But because 16 species of bats are thought to migrate through Bolsa Chica, it doesn’t seem like a good place to place a turbine.

It’s not like there aren’t alternatives for generating electricity. At the presentation that Lou and I attended in May, the land trust proposed to install solar photovoltaic as well as wind power on the mesa. We have no objection to solar voltaic electricity because we are aware of no hazards to wildlife from solar panels. In fact, if there are actual studies of the safety of vertical axis wind turbines to wildlife — not just promotional statements from manufacturers — we could change our minds about the turbines as well. But we could find no such research data.

According to the American Bird Conservancy’s website, “Wind energy project location, design, operation and lighting should be carefully evaluated to prevent, or at least minimize, bird and bat mortality.”

They further state that sites that require special scrutiny include (1) sites that are frequented by federally listed endangered species of birds and bats, (2) sites in known bird migration pathways, (3) areas where birds are highly concentrated and (4) areas that have landscape features known to attract large numbers of raptors. All of those would apply to Bolsa Chica.

Land trust Executive Director Flossie Horgan stated that the land trust will do no harm to wildlife. And we’re sure that they will keep that commitment, even if it means using only solar panels to generate electricity.

Whether or not to erect wind turbines is a serious matter. But there is an even more profound issue here. Kolpin criticized Lou in large part for making comments without knowing what kind of windmill the land trust proposes. Lou based her comment on 100% of the information that has been released to the public by the land trust.

Kolpin commented that Lou had attended only one public meeting. That’s true. It was the one and only meeting that the land trust has held to inform the public about the mesa project. Kolpin said that more information is available at the land trust website. That’s true. But none of it mentions wind power generators, solar panels, composting, biofuel production or any other aspect of the proposed Terra Farm.

Because no details of their proposed Terra Farms have been revealed to the public other than at that one meeting, we have gone on what we heard, plus two PDF files of plans of the Terra Farm kindly sent to us by Guy Stivers.

The legend on the drawing for the Terra Farm states that they will grow switchgrass (a grass species not native to this area) for making biofuel, and that they will compost 10,000 cubic feet of green waste every two months. That’s a commercial-scale composting operation. The drawing also shows a vertical axis wind turbine that is about three times taller than a person, as well as solar collectors.

In a recent conversation with Lou, Kolpin stated that the type of Falcon wind turbine that they are proposing is too new to have had any safety research done, but that it is supposed to be the safest one available. Kolpin further stated that if their turbine did harm wildlife, they would remove it, but they want wind power in part to help educate the public about its benefits.

We think that the Bolsa Chica Land Trust owes the public more information. Post the plan on your website and provide details so the public can judge the merits of the plan — and the plan does have merits. It may even become an award-winning plan.

And the Department of Fish and Game owes the public the opportunity to know and comment on the details of the proposal that is under consideration for our — the public’s — land.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].