photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

An area resident studies a map of proposed stormwater projects for the Kansas Sky Energy Center on Nov. 6, 2024.

Two large detention basins and acres of native grass are designed to be the main defenses against flooding that could be caused by a controversial solar farm development proposed for northern Douglas County, neighbors were told Wednesday.

The developers of the proposed Kansas Sky Energy Center hosted an open house Wednesday evening at the Union Pacific Depot to publicly unveil the proposed stormwater plan for the project, which would add about 8 million square feet of solar panels to farm fields in the Kansas River valley north of North Lawrence.

The goal of the proposed stormwater system is to ensure that once the farm fields are developed with the solar panels, the amount of water that escapes the land and flows to neighbors or into North Lawrence during a major storm is no greater in volume than what occurs today, Seneca Stairs, an engineer with the design firm Westwood, told the crowd.

The two proposed stormwater detention basins are a new element to the plan. The original stormwater plan for the project did not include detention basins, and the county’s engineer rejected that original proposal as inadequate.

Some neighbors at the event said they were concerned this plan was inadequate too, and said it is based on faulty assumptions, such as how quickly native grasses can be grown on the property.

“I don’t think these folks have a realistic idea of what it will take,” Debbie Milks, an owner of the Chestnut Charlie’s farm that is downstream of the proposed solar site, said.

Ultimately, it will be up to Douglas County commissioners to judge the feasibility of the plan. The plan is currently under review by the county engineer, who is expected to provided a recommendation of whether the plan should be accepted or denied. The three-member County Commission is scheduled to make a decision on the plan prior to the end of the year, and before the County Commission expands to five members in January.

A lawsuit filed by neighbors and businesses in the area may delay that hearing, though. A Lawrence attorney for the plaintiffs, which includes Grant Township, the North Lawrence Improvement Association and more than 20 businesses and individuals in total, has said he’ll seek an injunction to stop the County Commission from making any decisions on the project until the lawsuit is resolved.

The plans unveiled on Wednesday provided some details to neighbors and others who attended the open house. The two new detention basins planned for the site are significant additions to the plan. One would be 11 acres in size, and would be just south of U.S Highway 59 and north of North 2000 Road, a bit west of the grain elevators at the point on U.S. Highways 24/59 commonly known as Midland Junction. The second basin would be about 1 acre in size and would be east of U.S. Highway 59 north of Shuck Implement and west of the Lawrence Regional Airport. Stairs said the basins will not hold all of the stormwater that is expected to be produced by the site. Some will flow directly into streams and creeks, but she said the native grasses will slow the flows and keep them within acceptable limits.

While representatives from the development company — Savion, a subsidiary of the energy giant Shell — answered some questions from residents, a lead official with the project declined to answer any questions from the Journal-World about the plan, but referred questions to a spokeswoman. The spokeswoman said she didn’t have sufficient details about the plan to answer questions, but said the company was committed to gathering feedback from neighbors and others.

The project has been billed as having high stakes for the North Lawrence community. Stormwater that does escape the solar site primarily will flow through a series of pumps and pipes in North Lawrence. Studies by the city of Lawrence have determined the North Lawrence drainage system already is badly strained, and new development north of the city could worsen flooding in North Lawrence. The North Lawrence Drainage Study has recommended that an $11 million pump station — in 2005 dollars — be constructed north of the city to divert water around the city.

However, the solar project is entirely outside the city limits, so the Lawrence City Commission has no regulatory authority over the project. Thus far, the County Commission has not required the solar project to build the recommended pump station. A Savion spokeswoman on Wednesday said she could not provide an answer on whether the developers had ever considered building that pump station as part of the $234 million solar farm project.

Questions also have emerged about whether the project is required to meet a set of special stormwater regulations the county approved in 2020 for the flood-prone area north of North Lawrence. Those regulations for the Maple Grove Watershed were touted in 2020 by the county engineer as being “tough” for big projects to meet. He told commissioners at the time that the tough regulations likely would force big projects to either abandon plans in the valley or follow the recommendations of the North Lawrence Drainage study by building millions in pumps and other infrastructure.

But whether the project is required to meet the standards is unclear. In May, the county said the project “will meet and exceed” the requirements, but that was after the county said in April, in response to a question about whether the project would be required to meet the standards, that the “scale of this project will require a completely different technical approach.” The situation has remained unclear, and is now part of the lawsuit filed against the county.

On Wednesday, the spokeswoman for Savion said she couldn’t speak to whether the plan met those 2020 stormwater requirements.

The project — which largely would surround the Midland Junction grain elevators — has drawn both large numbers of opponents and supporters. Supporters have said the 600-acre project would help Douglas County do its part in battling climate change by producing enough electricity to serve about 30,000 homes.