CX-100179 Categorical Exclusion Determination

Wind Energy Technology Project and Renewable Energy Center of Excellence 
Award Number: DE-FG36-08GO88013
CX(s) Applied: B5.18
Wind Program
Date:  01/26/2015
Location(s): KS
Office(s): Golden Field Office

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to provide federal funding to Cloud County Community College (Cloud) for the reimbursement of expenses incurred during the acquisition, installation, operation, and maintenance of wind turbines south of their campus in Concordia, Kansas. On September 9, 2008, DOE completed a NEPA Determination (GFO-08-196) that categorically excluded the development of a Wind Energy Technology (WET) training program but conditioned the acquisition and installation of a 1.8 MW wind turbine upon further NEPA review. The proposed project scope was subsequently modified from one large turbine to three smaller turbines and in early December 2010, DOE completed NEPA Determinations (GFO-GO88013-002 and 003) requiring an Environmental Assessment (EA) be completed prior to the purchase, installation, and operation of the wind turbines. DOE completed another NEPA Determination (GFO-GO088013-004) in 2013 that approved the upgrading of WET training laboratories and curriculum and marketing related activities but still restricted the purchase, installation, operation, and maintenance of the wind turbines until completion of an EA. After the NEPA Determination requiring an EA was signed, the DOE NEPA implementing regulations were updated and new categorical exclusions were created that included one specific to wind turbines that could include activities such as those completed as part of this project.

Between December 2009 and February 2010, (after the determination to require an EA, but prior to the completion of the EA) Cloud installed the turbines on the southern portion of their campus approximately 3300 feet west of Blosser Municipal Airport. Two of the turbines were Northwind 100 turbines, each with a rated generation capacity of 100 kW. The third turbine was a Nordtank 130, with a rated capacity of 130 kW. In March 2010, prior to installing the turbines, Cloud received Determinations of No Hazard to Air Navigation from the FAA. In February 2011, the FAA was advised that the installed wind turbines had been constructed to heights greater than those specified in the Determinations of No Hazard to Air Navigation and the FAA notified Cloud that new notices were required for the existing structures. In March 2011, the FAA found the turbines to have a substantial adverse impact to the navigable airspace and issued Determinations of Hazard to Air Navigation for the three installed wind turbines. The turbines were modified in February 2013 to comply with the FAA hazard evaluations. The Northwind 100 turbines were removed from monopoles, the poles were shortened, and the two turbines were reinstalled with larger blades. At that same time, the blades were permanently removed from the Nordtank 130. All three turbines now have a total height less than 99 feet above the ground surface. With these modifications, the FAA re-issued Determinations of No Hazard to Air Navigation for the three turbines in early 2013.