Windmills not entirely green
William Kibler

Windmills deliver clean energy, but that doesn't give them a free pass with environmentalists.
  In a recent conference at St Francis University on wind farms, aesthetics was the biggest worry, followed by potential hazards for wildlife, said Erik Foley, director of the university's Center for Collaborative Conservation.
  "Wind energy development, like any other human enterprise, does impact the environment," Foley said.
  Gamesa Corp. proposed last week (that) it lease City Authority watershed for windmills on Brush Mountain and Chestnut Flats. If Gamesa installs 10 windmills on authority land, it eventually will generate $60,000 per year for the authority. The total authority budget is about $25 million.
  There is no price for some on the natural beauty in those areas.
  Some people don't want ridgelines broken by windmills because they want the mountaintops to stay the way they
always knew them, Foley said.
  They feel windmills are "ugly and deface the viewscapes," he said.
  Pennsylvania currently gets less than 1% of its electricity from wind. Half comes from coal.
  One windmill generates enough electricity for about 500 homes, Foley said.
  Others worry about windmills killing birds and bats.
  Windmills on local ridges may foul up bird and bat migration routes, Stan Kotala, president of the Juniata Valley Audobon Society said in a recent letter published in the Mirror.
  The society does not oppose construction of a windfarm on City Authority land on Chestnut Flats because it's been strip-mined and lacks the designations given to Brush
Mountain.
  Clearings for windmills on high-value ridges like Brush Mountain will break up "habitat islands" that the scarlet
tanager, wood thrush, cerulean warbler, fisher and bobcat rely on, Kotala writes.
  Access roads can provide a route for invasive species, with seeds brought in by tires and shoes, Foley said.
  Still, we must weigh all the pros and cons when considering windmills, and consider the net effects of choices, Foley said.
  Some people see windmills not as ugly, but as "futuristic, progressive sculptures of the new age," Foley said.
  They kill a miniscule percentage of the 680 million birds per year killed by man-made constructions, Foley said.
  Windmills also create jobs.  Gamesa will create 177 permanent jobs at the windmill factory it's building in Ebensburg, company Project Developer Terry Nicol said.
It will create about eight maintenance jobs with its proposed 8--megawatt wind farm in Portage Township and other municipalities, authorities and private landowners - from $2,000 to $6,000 a year for each turbine.
  Siting windmills properly can help avoid many of the problems that worry environmentalists.
  Windmills don't cause many problems on farms, he said.
  Old strip mine areas are ideal.
  The debate presents "big questions to think about for our children," Foley said.
  "What kind of world are we going to
leave them?" he asked.

Altoonans would see windmill turbines if they drive south on I-99 towards Bedford PA.