Amicus Brief

I’m Emilie Carr.  I’m a Small System Water Operator for the city of Ford, and I’m just curious to see what the Boot Hill Solar Project does for the environment and if it’ll affect the water aquifer. And if we got any rules from KDHE (Kansas Department of Health and Environment) that we’re going to have to follow because of it.

In my past time, I do like to go camping and hiking and kayaking, and I really don’t want to see all that. I like to have a ground with grass.  We do have a lot of trouble with high nitrates already, and we don’t have the money to filter the water to get the nitrates out.  I know batteries have cobalt and lithium and all that in it. And if those leak out and get into the aquifer, what’s going to happen then?  If there is going to be any help, if it is environmentally damaging and new rules will be introduced by KDHE.  They come out with new rules every day and they also change them.  The lead and copper has been bad enough.

Ford has a new lift station and we do have the lagoons. We’re worried about new KDHE laws, state laws, EPA rules.  How would the Boot Hill Solar Project affect me as a small system water operator, and the aquifer with the batteries and the solar panels.  Are we going to have to change again and do additional testing?  We don’t get help with the testing.

There is a lot of wildlife out here. There’s geese, I see cranes, there’s turtles, salamanders.  All the solar panels are going to change their route.  Don’t know if they will even want to stop here anymore, it’s just an unknown. Wildlife likes it here now because it’s pretty open, and it’s peaceful. I come out here to get away. It’s nice to see wildlife here, and I’de like to keep it that way.  Wildlife comes out here a lot more on this side of town than on the south side with the the wind generators and stuff.

Talking about transparency…I live right here in Ford and I have never seen a brochure in the mail or anything like that about the Boot Hill Solar Project.  I’m an internet person. I don’t watch the news a lot on TV.  The city of Ford got a brochure the other day, I think it was a TIC or something, and it was all the good stuff they were doing for Dodge. But nothing about what they are doing good in Ford.  I wouldn’t have known about the Boot Hill Solar Project if it wasn’t for Harvey Dernstein telling me about it. I thought the, the Grain Bell Express transmission line was, a grain cart train or something. I didn’t know, I had no idea. I had to go Google it. After researching the Grain Belt Express, that’s where all the solar panels and the feeder lines and equipment would be coming into, its going to be changing the layouts and the environment that we’re used to here.  I’ve never seen any brochures or pamphlets or anything. I’m just getting into it. I’m curious. I haven’t heard anything said about the aquifer and how it’s going to affect me as an up, Small System Water Operator. If I’m going to have to obtain a class one or a class two, will it mean more training.  You don’t get free training.  I think my testing alone was $200 some dollars for water and then another $200 some dollars for wastewater.

My biggest worry is there’s nothing been said or told about how a large solar project is going to affect the water, and the water is always an issue. I mean, I got people calling me swearing that we’re trying to kill them with the water. So any little thing that I tell them, I need to be sure I have correct information, I need to know what will affect the quality of their water.  There’s a lot of stuff that affects the aquifer underneath that nobody even thinks about. Years ago, you know, I never thought I would be doing this. What I’ve learned so far, in the last three years, is that there’s a lot of stuff that affects our aquifer, you just never think about it because it’s way down there and you’re up here.

I want to retire and I want to be healthy and happy to be able to do stuff. I don’t want to have to take early retirement because I got sick from something and am miserable.

Right now, you know, I’m pretty happy. I want to stay that way.