photo by: Matt Resnick | Journal-World

Dan Fuller addresses commissioners during Wednesday evening's Douglas County Commission meeting. Fuller spoke of the potential harmful effects of corrosive metals on Wednesday, August 9, 2023.

After a rural resident voiced concerns about potential groundwater contamination from solar farms, Douglas County commissioners have started a process that could result in new testing requirements for future solar energy projects.

The commission voted 2-1 on Wednesday, with Commissioner Karen Willey opposed, to initiate a proposed code amendment that would require annual testing near solar energy developments for groundwater contaminants like lead, cadmium and zinc. The amendment was submitted by Dan Fuller, who owns a winery in southeastern Douglas County, and it’s meant to prevent metals from the structures that support solar panels from corroding and getting into the groundwater.

The amendment is far from being approved — it will first have to go to the Planning Commission, then back to the County Commission again — but planner Mary Miller said the decision could “get the ball rolling” on more extensive research.

At Wednesday’s meeting, county leaders praised Fuller for bringing the issue to the county’s attention in the first place. Miller told commissioners that harmful metal contaminants were “not something that we looked at when we were developing the solar farm regulations,” and she noted that it’s rare to see someone who’s not part of the county staff propose a code amendment themselves.

“I appreciate and want to affirm that this is what civic engagement looks like,” Commissioner Shannon Reid said. “… And so I appreciate that, Mr. Fuller.”

Fuller said his proposal made sense as a matter of public health.

“Nobody in this courtroom wants to be drinking water that is contaminated with lead and zinc, no matter how minute (it) is,” Fuller told commissioners.

As the Journal-World previously reported, the proposed amendment would require tests for the harmful metals to be conducted once per year at wells dug specifically for that purpose. It also would require those tests to be processed by a lab certified by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and send the results to the county “by certified mail with chain of custody from the lab.”

photo by: Matt Resnick | Journal-World

Alan Claus Anderson, a Kansas City-based attorney affiliated with NextEra Energy Inc., pushes back on the need for a proposed code amendment on Wednesday, August 9, 2023. 

Not everyone at Wednesday’s meeting agreed that the proposed amendment was a good idea, however. Some public commenters who spoke at the meeting said they thought the issue was overblown, and some said it sounded like an attempt to obstruct progress on one solar energy project in particular — Florida-based NextEra Energy’s West Gardner Solar Project, which has been proposed for southeastern Douglas and southwestern Johnson counties and has generated some public pushback in the past. One commenter, Karlene Thomson, whose family has signed a lease option with NextEra for use of their land in the West Gardner Solar Project, said testing should be the responsibility of property owners, not energy companies.

Willey disagreed for a different reason. She said that there were already programs in place to test soil and water quality that weren’t specific to solar projects, and that if special measures were required for solar farms, they could be mandated on a project-by-project basis by adding special conditions to a project’s permits. She said she didn’t want to “take additional staff time running through the motions when we already have what we need.”

“So I don’t see (the code amendment) as a necessity,” Willey said. “I think that we have that power to dig in and assess this and apply that knowledge to any conditional use permit that comes forward.”

Commission Chair Patrick Kelly said he was initially on the fence, but that a recommendation by county staff to initiate the amendment helped him make his decision. Reid voiced similar sentiments.

With the commission’s vote, the proposed amendment will next go to the Planning Commission, which will set a public hearing and make a recommendation. The amendment will then come back to the County Commission for a final vote.

In other business, commissioners approved:

• $10,000 in matching funds for Midco if the internet provider is selected for the Kansas Office of Broadband Development’s Broadband Acceleration Grant. Midco wants to use the grant to provide high-speed broadband internet to homes and businesses in the Lecompton, Kanwaka and Wakarusa townships.

• A site plan for a well-control building at the intersection of North 1900 and East 1600 roads, east of the Lawrence airport.

• A request to rezone approximately 33.5 acres at 1577 North 1550 Road for transitional agricultural uses.