By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

HUDSON, Ill. — The Camp Grove Wind Farm, which sprawls across 14,000 acres of prime central Illinois farmland in Marshall and Stark counties, boasts 265-foot-tall towers and 135-foot blades. Counting the blades, each structure reaches a height of 395 feet.
The 100-turbine wind farm’s oft-spinning rotors and blades can present a formidable challenge to even the most seasoned aerial crop applicator. Guy wires extending from the structures are another, sometimes deadly, obstruction crop dusters face.

Because of the unique challenges to pilots by Camp Grove and other Illinois wind farms, representatives of the Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB), Illinois Agricultural Aviation Assoc. (IAAA) and Wind for Illinois (WFI) are teaming up to develop a system to increase wind tower visibility and awareness. Through IAAA, wind farm developers will actively report specific locations of current and proposed wind turbines, and will disclose the locations of wind speed measurement towers (METs) to help keep pilots safe.
As wind energy companies are historically loath to disclose the sites of their wind speed measurement towers, citing the need for secrecy from rival developers, the agreement allows IAAA to release their locations only to pilots affected by their presence.

Though safety markings for wires and towers were devised as part of the new system in Illinois, many commercial applicators currently refuse to service crop fields containing wind towers, citing the inherent risk involved – a Texas applicator was killed when his plane hit support wires for a MET tower. Some companies, such as Schertz Aerial of Hudson, Ill. (McLean County), have developed their own policies for treating crop fields containing wind towers, which often includes a hefty risk surcharge.

“My policy is 50 percent application surcharge when they impact aircraft operations,” owner Scott Schertz said. “I’ve sprayed between them and downwind of them and I don’t like it.”

Schertz said the presence of wind turbines or MET towers in a farmer’s field can be a deal-breaker, if pilot safety is an obvious issue.

“This is not something to take lightly by any means; this has already been a pilot-killer,” he said.

Jean Payne, president of the Illinois Chemical & Fertilizer Assoc., said farmers need to be aware that signing a 20- or 30-year contract to lease cropland for wind turbines could greatly affect the quality and cost of aerial crop treatments, if they can find a pilot willing to take the risk.

“A farmer should not make any assumptions a pilot is going to work around a (wind) tower,” Payne said. “It’s going to be up to each individual pilot whether they choose to fly around them.”
“If we can do it safely,” said Schertz, “it takes more time and fuel, and we are going to charge for that.”

Schertz and the IAAA are disappointed with past efforts by wind energy companies to keep the safety of aerial applicators in mind when building or planning new developments, but are hopeful the new safety measures and cooperation agreement will help change that.

“There has been varying degrees of (past) cooperation as far as marking the guy wires and the MET towers, in particular,” Schertz said. “We’ve been able to get most of them marked, usually by getting the locations through local zoning offices.”

Payne said though not all farmers apply chemicals to their fields aerially, crop diseases yet to be discovered could pop up that require aerial treatment during the term of a typical wind farm contract.

“Ten years ago, no one had heard of soybean rust,” she said. “Farmers need to consider the impact on their productivity if they sign away the (option) to have an airplane come in.”

The IFCA has posted a handy tool on its website at www.ifca.com entitled “Wind Energy Contracts: Guidelines for Landowners” that is designed to educate farmers on what to ask when contacted by a wind energy company – including whether ordinary and usual farming practices such as aerial spraying will be affected.

“Landowners and farmers need to know (wind turbines and MET towers) are real concerns, and they are injuring a tool in crop production by allowing (wind farms) on their property,” said Schertz. The safety system for wind towers is believed to be the first of its kind in the United States, the IFB reported.