Earth Protect Blog

EASTERN PLAINS

By Justin Wingerter

BusinessDen

A $2 billion wind energy project near the Kansas border has prompted two lawsuits against a small Eastern Plains county: one aiming to stop it, another by the firm building it.

The Towner Energy Center, near the Kiowa County town of Towner — population 18 — has been in development since 2014 and is scheduled to be operational next year. Its 265 turbines will connect with Xcel’s grid and power 400,000 homes, according to its developer.

But first, there are some legal matters to sort out.

On April 11, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe sued Kiowa County and asked a judge to stop work on the Towner Energy Center. Members of that tribe were killed at the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864 — as memorialized at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site about 10 miles away — and the tribe worries the wind farm “will cause great cultural and spiritual harm.”

“Tribal members regularly visit the site and plan to do so in the future, and the sanctity of the site is very important to the tribe and its members,” the lawsuit states.

“The major industrial construction and operations … would occur near the site, would impair the sanctity of the site, and diminish the tribe’s and tribal members’ experience of their history.”

While the project is not being built on Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site land, the tribe believes it is being built on land “where tribal members sheltered following the massacre” and where there are likely undiscovered tribal artifacts, its lawsuit explains.

“It is our policy not to comment on pending litigation involving the county,” Kiowa County Administrator Tina Adamson told BusinessDen last week.

Invenergy, the Chicago-based company that is developing the Energy Center, said that it “is committed to listening to and engaging with tribal governments and Kiowa County.”

“Invenergy conducted thorough resource and field studies for the Towner Energy Center projects, adhered to the requirements of Kiowa County’s permit, and continues to take additional measures to ensure the projects are sited responsibly,” it said in a statement.Six hours after the Northern Cheyenne sued Kiowa County last week, Invenergy also sued the county. It takes issue with Kiowa County’s decision to levy a 1% impact fee on the $2 billion project, believing the county is drastically overstating the wind farm’s impact on public services, such as its fire department and landfill, while ignoring its benefits.

“The record clearly demonstrates that the $20 million in fees that would be paid to the county would be used, in substantial part, to remedy significant deficiencies in Kiowa’s County’s existing capital infrastructure, services and facilities,” Invenergy wrote April 11.

The company is represented by attorneys Mave Gasaway, Tess Hand-Bender and Nick Peppler with the Denver law firm Davis Graham & Stubbs. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe is represented by Stephanie Zehren from the firm Hester & Zehren in Louisville.

Kiowa County is Colorado’s fourth-smallest county by population, with fewer than 1,500 people.

There have been only three lawsuits filed in Kiowa County District Court this year: the two involving Towner Energy Center and a third involving a car that collided with cows.