Reader calls for others to oppose turbines

Close your eyes for a moment and allow your mind to envision Palouse Falls, one of the most scenic locations in our region. Now, alter this vision to include the construction of several 500-700-foot high wind generators, each located on private land, but placed adjacent to, and on opposite sides of the Palouse River as it cascades over the falls. 

For those of us living in Pullman, we might similarly envision one such generator placed conspicuously atop the Physical Sciences Building on the Washington State University campus.

Now apply those same visionary meanderings to this county’s Kamiak Butte, one of eastern Washington’s most outstanding and heavily visited geologic features.  Now, how are you reacting... if at all?

This exercise may seem extreme, perhaps even absurd, but is it really? The potential construction of 40-plus generators near to or around the west and south perimeter of Kamiak Butte represents a very real — not just imagined — potential threat to Whitman County residents.

The day may come (likely not in my lifetime) when we actually face an electrical deficit.  Our search for “green” increments to our electrical grid may necessitate a search for alternative sources of energy. 

I hope you will join me, however, in expressing opposition to this wind generator proposal. We can’t afford to have it visually destroy one of this county’s most scenic features and its heavily used public park.

Kenneth Duft

Pullman