ALBANY — The New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment (Siting Board) today announced it would hold public statement hearings in the Town of Arcade (Wyoming County) and the Town of Yorkshire (Cattaraugus County) to receive comments on the Alle-Catt Wind Energy LLC (Alle-Catt Wind) proposal to build and operate a 340 megawatt (MW) wind energy project in the Town of Arcade (Wyoming County), the Towns of Centerville and Rushford (Allegany County) and the Towns of Farmersville and Freedom (Cattaraugus County).

The proposed facility, the Alle-Catt Wind Farm, is a wind energy project that would include up to 117 wind turbines. The project is also expected to include access roads, meteorological towers, construction staging areas, a temporary concrete batch plant, and an operation and maintenance facility. The project would also include construction of collection lines to take power from the turbines and deliver it to a substation, as well as the construction of a 345 kilovolt (kV) interconnection line to a new point-of-interconnection switchyard.

Opportunities for public information and comment will be held, as follows:

Prior to taking public comment, the examiners will provide an overview of the Article 10 process before the Siting Board. Representatives of Alle-Catt Wind will then present a brief description of its proposed project and have maps of the proposed project area available for viewing. After the presentations, members of the public will have an opportunity to pose questions about the process and the proposed project. To provide adequate time for public comments, the examiners may limit the information forums and questions to no longer than one hour.

Immediately following the end of the information forum and question sessions, the examiners will conduct public statement hearings. At the public statement hearings, members of the public will have an opportunity to comment on Alle-Catt Wind’s proposal by making a statement on the record. It is not necessary to make an appointment in advance to speak at the hearing. Persons wishing to comment will be asked to complete an information card requesting time to speak when they arrive at the hearing. Speakers will be called in the order in which the cards are received. Speakers are not required to provide written copies of their comments.

Each public statement hearing will be held open for a minimum of one hour and will be kept open until everyone wishing to speak has been heard or other reasonable arrangements have been made. A verbatim transcript of the hearings will be made for inclusion in the record. Reasonable time limits may be set for each speaker as necessary to afford all attendees an opportunity to be heard. Lengthy comments should be summarized for oral presentation and submitted electronically.

Persons with disabilities requiring reasonable accommodations should contact the Department of Public Service’s Human Resources Management Office at (518)474-2520 as soon as possible. TDD users may request a sign language interpreter by placing a call through the New York Relay Service at 711. Individuals with difficulty understanding or reading English are encouraged to call the Department at 1-800-342-3377 for free language assistance services regarding this notice.

Other Ways to Comment

For those who cannot attend or prefer not to speak at a public statement hearing, there are several other ways to make a comment about this case to the Siting Board. Comments should refer to “Case 17-F-0282 – Alle-Catt Wind.” Comments will be accepted throughout the pendency of this proceeding, but they are requested by August 30, 2019.

Via the Internet: Comments may be entered directly into the case file from the Department of Public Service website, www.dps.ny.gov, by clicking on “Search” at the top of the page and then entering “17-F-0282” into the “Search by Case Number” field. In the open case, access the screen to enter comments by clicking on the “Post Comments” box at the top right of the page.

Email or Mail: Comments may be submitted via email to Hon. Kathleen H. Burgess, Secretary, at secretary@dps.ny.gov, or by mail or delivery to Secretary Burgess at the New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment, Three Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York 12223-1350.

Toll-Free Opinion Line: Comments may be submitted by calling the Department of Public Service's Opinion Line at 1-800-335-2120. This number is set up to take comments about pending cases from in-State callers, 24-hours a day. Telephonic comments are not transcribed verbatim, but a summary is provided to the Presiding Examiner who will report to the Siting Board.

All written comments will become part of the record considered by the Siting Board and may be accessed on the Department of Public Service website by searching the case number, as described above, and clicking on the “Public Comments” tab.

Documents filed in this case, including the application and supplements thereto, may be accessed by going to the Department of Public Service website, www.dps.ny.gov, and then either (1) clicking on “Search” at the top of the page and then entering “17-F-0282” into the “Search by Case Number” field, OR (2) clicking on “Alle-Catt Wind” under the heading “Generation Siting.”