Buffalo Township municipal Building.

BUFFALO TWP — The township’s municipal building was packed Wednesday night, June 11, for a series of public hearings on whether or not to grant Atlanta-based energy company SolAmerica a conditional use permit to operate solar farms on two different sites in the township.

The two plots of land on which SolAmerica is planning to operate solar farms are along Grimm and Bear Creek roads and total nearly 100 acres — 19.25 acres for the Grimm Road property and 80 for the Bear Creek property.

A vote by the supervisors had not been reached by press time.

During a public hearing lasting two hours for the first of two properties alone, Michael Kissinger of engineering consulting firm Pennoni made a point-by-point case to the board of supervisors how the proposed solar farms meet every criteria of the township’s solar energy ordinance, which was adopted this past September.

However, residents expressed concern on multiple issues, such as potential environmental impacts, glare from solar panels, negative effects on property values, the possibility of fires at the facility and other issues.

Darin Alviano, an executive director on Armstrong County’s planning staff, criticized the developers for not taking into account the solar farms’ potential impact on wildlife, particularly since at least one of the proposed sites isn’t far from the Buffalo Creek Nature Park.

“This community spent a good amount of time and money to bring a Nature Center to the community down in the Buffalo Creek area,” Alviano said. “We have many people coming into this community spending money to walk the trails, to look at the birds. And now we're putting a solar field right above where these birds are flying. ...You're just asking for a bird issue and the last thing we need is birds flying into solar panels.”

Bob Buterbaugh — who recently won a primary election in the race for Buffalo Township supervisor — gave the most impassioned plea of all, asking the current Buffalo Township supervisors to reject the applications outright. Buterbaugh, who lives on Grimm Road, said he and a neighbor would inevitably be affected by glare, since they live above where the solar farm would be built.

“The ordinance itself says you have to eliminate glare,” Buterbaugh said. “How do you do that when you're putting a solar farm below where people live? ...If I get glare at my house, what do I have to do? Do I come back to the township because you guys couldn't follow the ordinance because they're not in compliance with it?”

Multiple residents expressed concern about how the developers would respond to a potential fire at the facility. One comment made by Kissinger received some criticism, when he was asked about fire response plans.

Kissinger stated that by default, any responding firefighters would not be allowed through the gates to the solar farm, for their own safety, until the solar energy system is shut down.

“A lot of times, if the fire occurs deep in the facility, it is actually left alone and allowed to go out,” Kissinger said. “Really, the only time emergency services would enter it is if somebody were hurt inside.”

This drew a harsh response from some residents, including Buterbaugh, who expressed concern about the possible environmental contamination a fire at the facility would cause.

“I would not want a fire in that field to burn all night,” Buterbaugh said. “I don't want cadmium, arsenic... I don't want the things that are inside of there to burn all night next to my home.”

“I honestly think this needs further discussion,” Alviano said, in asking for the board of supervisors to table the two proposals. “This is the first solar field that's going to be coming to Buffalo Township and the last thing this community wants to do is screw this up.”