A creek on Joe Forrester's property near the Timberland Solar Project in Goose Pond turned orange after heavy rains in January. Code Compliance Officer Jeff Sharp said residents in that area are concerned about sediment and runoff. (ERIN KENNEY/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO)
Residents have concerns about the solar farm projects in the county.
Code Compliance Officer Jeff Sharp said residents are concerned about sediment release into Goose Pond from the Timberland Solar Project and the heavy traffic that comes in and out of the project on Saxon Mattox Road.
Commission Chair Jay Paul said residents have also complained about the project on Double Bridges Road for the same reasons.
Those issues led the board of commissioners to pass a six-month moratorium on new solar farms because at their March meeting.
Sharp said he’s even heard rumblings of potential lawsuits against the companies running the projects. Sharp said he’s also received multiple open records requests for photos and other information about the solar farms.
“I’ve heard that (some residents) were threatening (lawsuits), but I have no way to know those kinds of things,” he said.
Paul is concerned about the future of solar farms in the county.
“I hope that we do not experience the headaches that we went through with these first two, if any more come together,” he said. “I don’t want more of a future (of solar farms in the county) if they’re gonna be like these first two.”
Sharp echoes Paul about the future of solar farms.
“That’s something we’re looking at now and that’s why the commissioners put a moratorium on solar farms is to relook at our ordinance,” he said. “We have committees looking at different ordinances from other areas and trying to strengthen our ordinance to become more neighbor friendly.”
Sharp said he can’t speak for residents overall, but said that the few residents that he has chatted with don’t like everything about the farms.
Paul hopes if there are future projects in the county, they are more beneficial.
“I haven’t had one adjacent landowner call me and say, ‘Hey, I like it,’ ” Paul said.