A northern Virginia county moved closer to denying a third application for a large solar farm, citing concerns over environmental and agriculture impacts.
"I'm from a farm family and maybe bring some sort of perspective to flooding," William Foshay, a local farmer, told the commission during the Jan. 11 hearing."It's a wet area with highly productive soils. In an average wet year, we get corn into the ground in the middle of May. If we are dealing with an enormous amount of impervious [solar] panel coverage and vast amount of tree clearing, the subsoil is going to remain impervious — runoffs are going to be substantial.
"In just an average wet year, it means that the soils — we won't get into them until June," he added."Furthermore, for the truly bad years, you're going to see enormous sediment runoff. You're going to see vast amounts of erosion that permanently jeopardizes productive agricultural land."Josiah Wilkes, a young resident who was accompanied by his father, told the panel the project was about"the money a few people would make" from it.
"I think solar panels would be really good on top of office buildings and hospitals and even on top of people's houses," Wilkes said."Can we keep our farmland for the cows, the crops and the woods? The farmers need to grow the food and the lumber that we all need. We don't have to be like other counties in Virginia that want money from data centers and solar fields."
Wilkes' father Joshua added that the proposal would benefit"a few select landowners who will pocket money" while having the potential to cause"disastrous environmental issues and the wasting of land."Sarah Parmelee, a local landowner and a member of the Piedmont Environmental Council, wrote to the commission earlier this month, arguing the proposal would"destroy nearly a thousand acres of timberland.
In addition to the environmental impacts, the planning commission voted against the proposal because it violated the county's
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