Residents continue to push county officials to act on battery storage system

The majority of Monday’s regular Dubois County Commissioner meeting was devoted to discussing the county’s role in regulating solar fields and associated battery energy storage systems.

On the heels of the Huntingburg Council’s decision to enact a moratorium on solar projects within the city’s jurisdictional limits, the county commissioners are exploring a similar action at the request of Huntingburg and Holland area residents.

Commissioner Chad Blessinger began the discussion by addressing a few questions he had received regarding the AES Crossvine Solar project.

Regarding the benefit to the county, Blessinger stated that, according to an economic benefits and land-use analysis of the project completed by the developers in 2023, the Crossvine Solar project was expected to create 215 jobs during construction and support 1.8 jobs in operation.

The report also states the project would pay about $12.8 million to the school corporation and about $3.4 million to the county. Overall, including the townships, it would pay about $17.9 million over the project’s life.

“Again, I’m not putting my name behind this report because we didn’t order this report, and I didn’t have anything directly to do with it,” Blessinger said. “It is something that was just provided to us several years ago when they were starting this project.”

He also said the report was completed before the most recent legislative changes to the state’s property taxes and assessment methods.

Blessinger acknowledged that Huntingburg recently determined that its approvals for the project had expired after two years and had passed its own solar moratorium to review its ordinances. Residents are asking Dubois County to take similar action.

Commissioner Nick Hostetter said he would like for AES to reapply for the permit since the company has not met the timeline outlined in the permit process.

Regarding the moratorium, Hostetter said he supported it for future projects but didn’t think it would stop the AES project.

“I think it is best to go back to Crossvine (AES) and try to renegotiate some of the setbacks and whatnot, and hopefuly get what you guys are wanting,” Hostetter added.

Blessinger said that in talks with the county attorney, the county was limited on what they could do to regulate the land without zoning.

“We are limited on what we can do,” he said. “I, too, would be okay with whatever is within our power to consider a moratorium.”

County Attorney Greg Schnarr advised they could issue a moratorium and that if the Crossvine permit had expired, it could lead to renegotiations with AES during the subsequent refiling process.

“We have restricted ourselves and our ability to do a lot of things, which allows a lot of people to do many things,” Schnarr said about the lack of zoning in the county.

He said that as the county goes through its comprehensive planning process, it could consider studying the enactment of zoning ordinances, which would likely require several months and public input, including the creation of several new commissions.

Blessinger reiterated that he would prefer the land remain farmland, but given the lack of zoning, they were limited in what they could do.

He said they would direct the county attorney to continue research into what the county can and cannot do.

“We are trying to protect the county and people that live here,” Blessinger said.

Regarding the construction permit, Blessinger said the commissioners have County Engineer Levi Leffert looking into it and working with AES.

Leffert explained that the current designs provided by AES remain within the scope of the approved construction permit, although some layout changes were noted. He stated that their overall footprint appears to be less than initially permitted.

“Keep in mind, their design is preliminary,” Leffert said.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, several residents raised concerns about the project, particularly regarding safety issues with the battery storage component. Lisa Matthews, a property owner near the proposed facility, questioned who in the county is looking out for public safety.

“We are becoming a dumping ground for all these companies that know they can come in and get away with building this stuff. Who in our county is looking out for the safety concerns of all of these people?” Matthews asked.

Dr. Norma Kreilein, speaking from a health perspective, raised concerns about AES, citing pollution violations and associated fines. “There isn’t hardly a crookeder company than AES. They’ve been fined $40 million on pollution violations as recently as August,” she said.

According to a website called Violation Tracker, AES has numerous violations, with the majority being environmental-related offenses, mainly air pollution violations. https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/aes-corp

Dr. Kreilein noted that the infant mortality rate in the area, linked to pollution levels, is among the highest in the state.

“Indiana has the highest per capita pollution in the country and ranks in the bottom 10 on infant mortality,” she said.

Dr. Kreilein acknowledged she wasn’t concerned about the solar portion of the project, but about the community impact if there were a fire at the BESS and the additional burden on residents already affected by pollution in the area.

Residents requested a response by the next meeting, emphasizing the urgency of their concerns regarding the project’s proximity to schools and residential areas, but the commissioners did not commit to any timeline on their decision-making process.

“I just want to make the point that we are taking this very seriously,” Blessinger told attendees. “We are looking into it. All of your comments and people showing up, that is meaningful.”

He added that they are trying to balance the individual rights of landowners with the safety and health of the community.