The American Bird Conservancy says a study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service demonstrates that large-scale wind energy projects should not be built on the shores of Lake Ontario.
The Conservancy is trying to block development of the Lighthouse Wind Project on the Orleans-Niagara County border. Their claim highlights a dispute between wind energy promoters, who say they want to provide pollution-free power for 53,000 homes, and conservationists, who say the spinning turbine blades kill too many birds.
Apex Clean Energy has been working for two years on permits for a 200 megawatt project on a 12-mile wide strip of land. The 70 turbines would be more than 500 feet high and extend back four-and-a-half miles from the shore.
The birders say wind power may be clean, but the turbines kill thousands of birds and bats — and the southern shore of Lake Ontario is smack in the middle of one of the great migratory bird routes.
The government study used radar to scan the skies along the shoreline and found vast numbers of songbirds and raptors congregate within six miles of the shore, bald eagles among them. The bird conservancy says that shows an unacceptably high risk to the migrating birds.