Beaumont ? Despite ongoing opposition that includes two still-pending lawsuits, work has begun on a $190 million project to harness the Flint Hills wind and turn it into electricity.

Road work and site preparation began this week, but Butler County Administrator Will Johnson said the towers wouldn’t be visible until the end of July.

“We’re excited to see it moving forward at this point,” Johnson said. “It’s been a long and lengthy process.”

For some, the Elk River Windfarm project represents another step on the road to renewable energy and a potential tourist attraction. For others, it signals trouble for the nation’s last remaining stand of tallgrass prairie.

Rancher Pete Ferrell, whose land will be used for part of the project, is in the former camp.

“We’ve been portrayed as destroyers of the prairie, when in fact I know we’re not,” said Ferrell, who said his land had been in his family since 1888. “The grass will be just as green, the sun just as bright, the water just as clean, and the cattle just as fat when we get done.”

But a neighbor, Steve Trent, continues to oppose the project despite the failure of his own lawsuit.

Trent had hoped to raise and train falcons on his land, west of the project. But he now fears that the birds would be killed if they tried to rest on the giant turbines.

“I’ll just have to find someplace else to do it, which is a killer for me,” Trent said. “We’ve invested everything we had to do it.”

The 100 turbines, each 260 feet tall, will be placed on 8,000 acres by PPM Energy of Portland, Ore. Together, they are expected to generate 150 megawatts of electricity annually.

The energy – enough to power 42,000 homes for a year – will be sold to the Empire District Electric Co., which serves about 157,000 customers in southeast Kansas, southwest Missouri, northwest Arkansas and northeast Oklahoma.

One environmental activist said the start of work on the wind farm should not cause people to give up on preserving the region.

“It’s not a time for celebration, but a time for folks to redouble their efforts to protect the remaining Flint Hills,” said Ron Klataske, executive director of Audubon of Kansas, who owns land in Pottawatomie and Riley counties.

“It’s a very tragic occurrence.”