On March 28, 2018 at the Rush Town Board meeting, Thomas Guzek, Managing General Partner of SolarPark Energy, did a presentation before the audience. His company was a leading developer of community-solar projects in New York State. He was there to propose the construction of two projects on about 4o acres of a 125 acre plot of land at the corner of West Henrietta Road and Honeoye Falls #6 Road. The land is owned by Bruce Howlett from Avon. Bruce is the biggest land owner in Rush and he's the biggest farmer of Rush's land.
The soil classification of most of this field is "Ontario fine sandy loam" which means it can grow stuff better than your child's sandbox but as soil goes it's more like sand than clay. We found this out from this site which is fun to play with if you want to find out what kind of soil you have around you. You can sign up and get two free reports before they charge you.
Here's another site that can tell you about the soil types by their names. The majority of the soil in this particular field is "way down in the lower left corner" which makes it sandy. Bruce might have grown corn or wheat on this field, but it may have not been that productive.
What's a farmer to do if he has a poorly producing field? Taxes for this field are $3,000 per year. What if the cost for seed, fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide, fuel and time doesn't make enough to pay the taxes? He could sell the field to another farmer if there was a buyer, but who would buy? Or he could carve it up into lots and try to sell it to a developer to build houses on it.
But realistically this one is one ugly patch of land and it has one more little problem. There is a liquid petroleum pipeline running right through the middle of it. If you as a land owner so much as sneeze next to their pipeline, you better follow these rules. Here's a map of the pipeline in Monroe County in case you were curious. If you want to see more detail you can go here and look up any State and County. Using this land for building isn't possible. But if it didn't have a pipeline in the middle of it, it's right next to the expressway and right next to busy West Henrietta Road. Who wants traffic in their back yard?
But what if there was no pipeline and someone wanted to put up a building here? Since there are no sanitary sewers in the town of Rush, all the waste water of all buildings needs to flow into the ground. Because the soil is sandy, it may not "percolate" into the ground at the proper rate for a septic system. Here's how the average septic system works:
Every building in Rush has a septic system like this. There are all kinds of rules about how quickly the water has to seep into the ground based on soil type, building type and building size. Have fun reading all the details from The New York State Department of Health. Another factor is drinking water for a building. Here's a map of the Town of Rush. The blue lines are where the public water pipes run. The blue dots are people who are on well water.
There is no public water where this field is. This means a water well for every building that might go here, and you betcha! There are New York State Department of Health regulations on those too!
What if there isn't good enough ground water in the area and the soil doesn't "perc" for septic? Then forget about building houses on that field, even if it is ugly and there wasn't a pipeline running through the middle of it. But still the taxes still need to be paid. What's a farmer to do?
Enter the new alternative: Solar Power
A “solar farm” of multiple photovoltaic cells can generate between 1 and 30 Mega Watts of electricity that is sold to the electric grid. The State of New York has created the “Clean Energy Standard” that has the goal of producing 70% of the State’s energy using renewable sources by 2030. With the State of New York offering incentives to landowners to lease their property, and a steady income that is greater than what they can make with crops, the choice becomes simple. Work with a Large Scale Solar developer to put a “solar farm” on your property and make good money leasing the land.
Here's an infographic of the New York State Clean Energy plan. A big part (28%) of “Contracted/Pipeline Renewables” (which is fancy speak for “We are working on it and it is going to happen”) is expected to come from “Large Scale Solar”. Notice that the “Operating Renewables” (which is fancy speak for “What we got now”) is 88% hydroelectric, and that there is no “light yellow” colored “Large-Scale Solar” in that chart. That's because there is no “Large-Scale Solar” in New York yet and none built in the last 10 years. Want to know why? Back in 2011 New York State established real tough laws for building electrical power plants. The law was so good at protecting people that no renewable energy projects were built at all in 10 years under this law. So guess what? They changed the law to make it less effective. (More on this later.) There are a whole bunch of projects just "ready to pop" just like this Rush solar project that has started and still isn't built. Other projects are in the planning stage or in the construction stage. More are coming because New York State is going to "grease the skids" for them.
Bruce's "Helios" solar farm project isn't controlled by New York State, so the Town of Rush has jurisdiction. This of course means there needs to be a solar law, but there wasn't one in in 2018 when this project appeared.
WELCOME TO Rush MEET OUR SOLAR WELCOMING COMMITTEE
Everybody hates change. And if it is outside your window, you hate it even more. So the outrage against this particular installation started the day it was proposed, and the constant flow of changes and approvals and paperwork to complete this project continues to this day.
The fourth birthday for this incomplete project is coming up! Everyone please send a card with a four dollars in it to the Rush Town Board before April 13th when the first Town Board meeting occurs after the birthday. Maybe they'll buy Bruce Howlett a cake!
Please make sure you address the card correctly:
Happy 4th Birthday Helios Solar Array c/o Rush Town Board 5977 East Henrietta Road Rush, NY 14543
The project is called "Helios" as the actual builders of the project are from a company in Michigan called Helios Solar. So if you are reading Town meeting minutes or agendas, and it talks about "Helios Solar", its the project at 540 Honeoye Falls Number 6 Road, that they are talking about.
We here at the Echo are truly in need of psychiatric help after reading all of the Rush Town meeting minutes from every Town meeting about it since 2018 and we have written some "Cliff's Notes" for you.
We aren't done yet as this project is still ongoing, and we are happy to make any changes if anyone can prove there are errors in fact. Bookmark this page and check back to see what's going on as the project nears approval and heads towards construction.
Here's the SHORT Cliff's Notes on Helios
The project was introduced as a concept on March 28th, 2018. They got told straight up that a Solar Law was coming. On January 29th, 2019 a more formal presentation was made to the Town Board. A Solar law was in the works at that time and was passed on March 27th, 2019 (almost a year to the day of the first introduction of this project).
A much bigger solar project called the Horseshoe Solar Project was announced in March 2019, and everyone "freaked out" about anything solar. By July 2019, the Town Board was in gear to revise and upgrade the March Solar Law that originally didn't adequately account for large solar projects.
The Town started discussing the PILOT law (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) for solar projects. PILOT allows solar developers to pay the taxes on properties where solar is installed instead of the property owner. Without PILOT an owner pays the taxes on solar panels. Rush opted out of PILOT in 2017, but the legislation wasn't registered by the State of New York. The Town Board "opted out" a second time on October 9, 2019 to make it official.
Helios went to the Planning board in early October 2019. They got a chilly response because the Town Board still hadn't approved their application. The solar law process says that the Town Board needs to approve a project before the Planning Board could consider it.
The Solar Law got upgraded on October 25th 2019. Many more rules were added with the intent of creating a greater scrutiny and additional requirements of any large solar project.
In November 2019 the Town Board started talking about Helios again. They tried to figure out if their application was still correct based on the new law. The Town Board decided to send the project over to the Planning Board for a December review. The Planning Board asked for a 30 day extension.
The first step to putting in a big solar project is that the Town needs to make an zoning "Overlay District" to sanction the proposed land as proper for solar, and then do a SEQRA finding. The State Environmental Quality Review Act is a NY State requirement that considers all environmental and social and economic factors done by any new development. It consists of filling out a long and detailed form with three parts. If it is determined that a project doesn't cause major harm to a community, a "negative SEQRA statement" is issued and the project can continue.
In January 2020, Helios filled out all the paperwork again and submitted it. There were changes from the original plan to comply with the new Town laws. The Town Board decided to go ahead with the SEQRA process. The Town declared itself to be the "lead agency" for SEQRA. Helios filed a request for the solar overlay zoning district in February 2020 and Helios appeared before the planning board.
March 2020 is the second anniversary of this project with no determination.
In March 2020 the Town Board said they needed more information from Helios. Helios responded with letters and updated forms in April 2020. The Town Board again submitted the revised project to the Planning Board for review in May 2020.
Two months later in August 2020 the Town Board announced that it will be the "lead agency" for SEQRA on the project (again). The project got a Planning Board hearing in October 2020 and decided that there have been too many changes from the original application. Helios needed to resubmit a new application (following a checklist.)
Helios resubmitted paperwork in November 2020 and January 2021. Helios did a presentation to the Town Board. More documents were supplied in February. The Town Board decided to again refer Helios to the Planning Board in March of 2021.
March 2021 is the third anniversary of this project with no determination.
In March 2021 The Planning Board reviewed the application and decided that the Town Board should pursue the solar zoning overlay district. The Planning Board wanted to do a field trip and see the site (which they did). Helios submitted more documents in April.
Helios returned to the Planning Board in May 2021. There were questions about screening the facility (putting up bushes so you can't see it).
Helios submitted more requested documents in May 2021. The Planning Board met again in June 2021 and decided that more design changes were needed. New plans and forms were requested. The required paperwork is submitted by Helios in June 2021.
In August 2021, the Town Board declared itself the "lead agency" for SEQRA (again). Helios provided additional documents in September and October 2021. Helios appeared at the Town Board in October and tries to straighten out the lack of progress. The Board tells Helios to talk to the Town Engineer.
Helios sends a letter in November 2021 asking for status. They submitted hard copies of plans and sent in requested documents in August yet the Town hasn't responded. Helios submits more documents. Helios and the Town Engineer attend the Town Board Meeting on November 23rd 2021. The Board moved ahead with the SEQRA process in December 2021. The Town found discrepancies and deemed that the project needs further review.
Helios sent a letter to the Town Board in December 2021 via it's lawyer accusing the town of "dragging its feet" on the project. The Town disagrees. Rush Government believes that there have been changes and they are following the process. A public hearing is scheduled in January 2022 to discuss the Zoning Overlay District in February 2022.
The February 9th 2022 public meeting allowed people to express their opinions about the project. A presentation was made and questions were asked. Helios responded to all the questions in writing. The public hearing is left open until February 23rd 2022. At the Town Board meeting in February, the they began the actual SEQRA process, going through every detailed question on the form and debating it and answering it. It took 2 hours at the first meeting, and they didn't finish. Helios was not allowed to respond to the issues in real time during the meeting, so they responded with a detailed letter.
The Town Board continued to fill in the form on March 9th 2022 and it took 54 minutes. They still need to complete part III of the form.
So What's the Bottom Line?
The Rush Town Government has effectively created a detailed and time consuming legal process to over examine the construction of solar projects. This project started, was changed, and then had to start all over again when the number of requested changes exceeded the ability of the Town of Rush to process the changes they asked the developer to make. Rush Town Government has spent an extraordinary amount of time and money to make the Helios developers spend an extraordinary amount of time and money in this elaborate game of "ping pong".
NO CONSTRUCTION PROJECT IN THE HISTORY OF RUSH HAS EVER HAS GONE THROUGH AS MUCH EXAMINATION AS THE HELIOS SOLAR PROJECT
If the intent is to send a message to solar developers that the Town of Rush doesn't want solar, then they have been successful. The time and money spent on over examining solar projects means less time and money spent on anything else.
There much a bigger solar issue and it has a larger effect on Rush. This time it is New York State doing it and there is virtually nothing that can be done to stop them (although some Rush people are going to try).
The Horseshoe Solar Array
Here's the "official" site. (More like an advertisement really.) Click the links on this site for all the news and official information.
Here's a map of where the installation is planned to be built (red border is the Town of Rush.)
Fast forward a year from the first meeting in March 2018 where Thomas Guzek introduced this first solar project in Rush. At that meeting the Town stated that they were, "working on a solar law".
Now the date is March 13, 2019 and there is a surprise announcement about a huge solar project to be built just over the border from Rush in Caledonia. A small small part of it will be built in Rush. The Rochester D&C Newspaper printed an article about it in January of 2019, and the paperwork had been filed with the state back in November 2018. The schedule was to tell the Town of Rush in March 2019, and apparently no one read the paper in January to see it coming. The initial planning maps didn't include Rush, but that changed as so many things do. Almost a year to the day of the beginning of the Helios Project, the Town met and "lit their torches and raised their pitchforks" once again to protest this developmental injustice. This time the developer was not a local farmer or a land owner, but it was the State of New York.
The Town of Rush, State of New York, United States of America of planet Earth has a big problem. Mainly that all of us are using more fossil fuel than we can suck or dig out of the ground. That and the burning of it is causing a problem for the planet.
This shows that we are importing more and exporting less. Of course there is an effort to prove that climate change is a hoax, and all we need to do is "drill our way" out of this problem. Predictably, this message is encouraged by the oil and gas industry. They can make their message louder by increasing the price of gasoline. Not to say that solar companies don't play up climate change as a way to make their sales go up.
Let's not be naïve children and make believe that capitalistic industries like petroleum or solar panel sellers are above trying to change your mind to get you to buy their product by making you scared or uncomfortable.
Are you still buying the toy AND GETTING the cereal?
I'll bet every single one of you once bought breakfast cereal because of the toy in the box. The industrial food producers of corn and sugar got people to buy cereal at the expense of a toy in the box, and the product sold well. (My mom told me I could buy any cereal I wanted for the toy, but I had to eat the cereal.) Solar people will sell you "the toy in the box" that renewable energy is imperative to save the planet, and oil companies will sell you the "toy in the box" that "fracking" is safe and if we don't do it more we'll have $7 a gallon gas.
Only infantile people listen to "toy in the box" propaganda and then argue about which toy is "better". Cereal makers had a "toy to sell" in order to trick you. They are counting on you being too dumb to realize that they are really in the cereal business. For something that cost them a penny they sold you a box of sugar sawdust worth a dime for a dollar. It's amazing that people wonder where the toys went. Today you buy sugar sawdust without the toy is why.
No one can be 100% right about everything. We can never replace all fossil fuel. There are times when solar and wind will not be available or reliable. But this doesn't mean that cheap energy and no change with continued damage to the environment and uncertainty about oil is the only answer.
Realistically we'll need both renewable and fossil fuel sources, and everyone needs to do their part. But if you listen to the loudest voices in Rush you'll hear that, "We love solar energy only if it isn't in our backyard". The fight against solar is downright war in Rush and this ain't no party. This ain't no disco. This ain't no foolin' around.
PLEASE STOP AND THINK BEFORE YOU BUY ANOTHER BOX OF CERIAL FOR THE TOY
The USA has produced more fossil fuel energy now than in the last 10 years because we allowed "fracking". Fracking isn't new. But drilling sideways into shale is innovative. It started in the 1990's. It requires injecting the ground with high pressure water laced with poisonous chemicals to break the rock and make "fractures". Then they suck the water and chemicals back up for reuse at another "frack". Then gas or oil escapes from the cracks in the shale and comes to the surface where it is stored in tanks and is sold.
What the heck is so bad about fracking ANYWAY?
People in Rush think it is so bad that you can't do it in Rush. Not that anyone tried. Rush was so scared of it that they put a law on the books against it back in 2013. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation banned it in 2015. Both were ahead of New York State that banned it completely in 2020.
It's way easier for people to take a stand on "fracking" if you look at the price of oil. Fracking for oil in particular only makes sense when the price of a barrel of oil is high (because of the investment needed to drill and create the infrastructure). Some speculate that oil needs to be around $100 a barrel for fracking to be profitable. It's is easy to ban something that is not profitable. Likewise, when there is an increase in oil price, people who support fracking will suddenly be very adamant that we should be drilling like never before.
It's the economy, stupid. Read about the economics here.
The problem bigger than the price is the destruction that "fracking" can do to land. See this cut out from the drawing above? That thin dark yellow line is cement that prevents natural gas and oil and extracted water laced with chemical fracking fluid from getting into the aquifer. Without this cement casing, poison gets into the drinking water as it seeps up from the gas from miles below where the well is drilled. In 5% of all fracking wells, this cement fails and the aquifer is destroyed forever for everyone on it. Once this happens, the land is destroyed forever. Water is gone and everyone needs to be on public water or some other supply if they still want to live there. That is if the natural gas doesn't seep into their basement first and blow up their house. Have you seen natural gas come out of faucets?
Millions of people who live in New York would be completely at risk from this kind of drilling and it has been prevented. Other states think the risk is worth it.
Put your skepticism of renewable energy and disbelief in climate change aside for a moment, do you want to put more holes in the ground to extract what fossil fuel is left in exchange for permanently destroying the land?
The United States needs more fossil fuel energy than it produces. Its number one competitor is China which consumes more and is growing. The United States just spent more than 20 years to better secure its oil supply in the middle east and was unsuccessful. Unless the USA wants to send your children and grandchildren abroad to secure oil and gas resources – and compete with China to do it – the USA needs other options.
What an excellent summary! Both regarding the dysfunction and inaction of the Board and “NIMBY”-ism in this town. The detail regarding the process, options for the land and farmer and truth about gas/oil use and extraction were clear, and visuals very helpful.
Thanks for such a terrific overview. I hope all residents take the time to read it.