At the January 15, 2024, Muscatine County Board of Supervisors' meeting, they unanimously passed a resolution establishing a temporary moratorium on the issuance of special use permits for commercial wind energy conversion systems, of which my family, neighbors, and other residents of the county are grateful.
Beginning April of 2023, Liberty Power of Canada, followed by Triple Oak Power, made known their proposed wind turbine farm developments of 50-60 656' high, 6 MW wind turbines on county land.
We have attended and spoke out at a Supervisors' meeting, wrote letters-to-the-editor, and letters to the Supervisors with concerns for the current county ordinance on wind energy to be updated for numerous points to protect non-participating landowners and residents, public infrastructure, the environment, wildfowl migration kill, and bat kill.
Now, with this nine-month moratorium, there will be time to review and update the ordinances with public input as well as other potential detrimental effects. Also, discussed at the meeting, is that the county intends to consult experts on these issues as well as the impact of wind turbines' adverse effects on the National Weather Service' Doppler radar, which has compromised accurate warnings of tornadoes and has falsely predicted torrential rain in the past in Iowa.
Thank you, Supervisors, for recognizing the importance of a moratorium to process all concerns and obtain accurate research on wind farms in our county.
Rhonda Staley Meredith
Nichols