Our communications with emergency contacts during Super Storm Sandy did not go so well prior to the storm, when South Post residents witnessed an alarming amount of water pooling on Mercer County Community College’s industrial-sized solar site and not draining away. MCCC’s 45-acre site has just recently been cleared and destroyed with the careless removal of more than 130 trees.
Funny, our neighborhood lost electricity early on Monday night, but the campus of MCCC remained brightly lit throughout the storm and for the remainder of our days without power. With the removal of all the buffering trees in the campus parking area and now compared to our very dark neighborhood, MCCC was just full of blaring light pollution.
We’ve been trying to get the attention of the county, the college, and the MCIA to meet and address our storm water runoff and drainage concerns for months now.
And I think we are all very lucky that this storm did not come with the heavy rains that were predicted. But thanks to modern technology, we visually captured the massive collection of storm water runoff on video, and we hope the township can help us finally address this major concern appropriately. We need to be very proactive.
Listening to and watching the flood victims on television during this past storm has just been absolutely devastating to all of us.
So once again, here are some of our other significant issues with MCCC’s massive solar site.
Why are 33,000 solar panels 75 feet away from homeowners? Despite all the poor planning with respect to environmental, drainage and fiscal issues, this is our Mercer County government at work:
Submitted by MCCC President Patricia Donohue on May 21 to MCCC’s Voice newspaper:
In recent weeks, there have been some questions from the community about the solar energy project to be installed by the Mercer County Improvement Authority (MCIA) at Mercer County Community College (MCCC). I would like to correct some inaccurate perceptions and emphasize to the MCCC student body.The closest solar panel to any private property is 100 yards –– that’s the length of a football field. (The whole letter is available at www.mcccvoice.org/rebuttal.)
On May 22 MCIA Executive Phil Miller and Chairman of MCCC Board of Trustees Mark Matzen state in their op-ed piece to the Trenton Times:
The facts are these: The closest solar panel to any individual home is 100 yards away — that’s a football field away. (The whole op-ed is available at www.nj.com/times-opinion/index.ssf/2012/05/opinion_mercer_county_communit.html)
Again, why are 33,000 solar panels 75 feet away from homeowners? Why is a large-scale, industrial-sized solar project on farmland, in a residential and environmentally sensitive area filled with streams, wildlife, and wetlands? Why are there no berms (also promised in MCCC’s press release) to buffer this huge utility from our beautiful neighborhood? So many questions and yet there is no accountability to be found with MCCC’s renewable energy project. Imagine what can go wrong with our significant drainage concerns and the removal of more than 130 trees, if MCCC and the MCIA cannot figure out what the distance of a football field is!
Believe me: We are very worried! The many flaws in MCIA’s project demonstrate the importance of proper planning in New Jersey, especially in Mercer County and in West Windsor, to steer massive solar development away from farmland. West Windsor residents and the Mercer County Board of Freeholders were told a courtesy planning board review would be held in West Windsor, but of course neither MCCC nor MCIA kept that promise. A formal and legal public hearing should have been required for a $40 million project and would have helped the residents get their numerous concerns addressed.
We need to be more proactive and responsible with our solar development in Mercer County and especially in West Windsor so that it will not destroy anymore farmland, beautiful forests, or environmentally sensitive areas. The more than 450 petition signers at SmarterSolarNJ.com agree that we need to save our farmland now!
Teresa Lourenco
South Post Road, West Windsor
