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To the Editor:

We appreciate the strong sense of community we have here in Northampton County and are proud to live in a place where residents are so dedicated to improving it. We enjoy the beautiful natural landscape, wild animal habitats that gives privilege to the sport of hunting and fishing, being part of the Roanoke River, and are blessed with a vast amount of farmland that our county has and what our farmers do to maintain it.

We are writing this letter to voice our deep concerns over the saturation of current and planned solar farms in Northampton County that continue to rise despite opposition from our citizens. This necessitates immediate action from our elected county commissioners for many reasons.

First, prime farmland is destroyed, especially when land is leased to companies for 20, 30,40, 50 years and some as many as 99 years, leaving very little available for farming. Several generations of farmers will be affected when land is not available to lease because solar farming has removed that privilege.

Second, the construction of these farms can cause severe environmental degradation, leading to the destruction of ecosystems, which is part of the beauty of Northampton County. There is the possible pollution of our water sources when chemicals are used to control vegetation growth and from chemicals leaking into the ground when end-of-life panels are not disposed of properly.

Third, solar farms pose significant health risks. During construction, citizens must tolerate heavy smoke when brush/stumps are being burned. Along with the burning is the noise coming from the machines they are using, late hours in the evening and on some weekends. This is done without concern for the residents around them, causing health problems from inhaled smoke and having to stay indoors when they are burning. Smoke occasionally enters residents’ homes.

Lastly, we are concerned about the lack of monitoring procedures that would ensure that companies are following guidelines when they construct solar farms and then many years later when they are required to decommission them. In the Vultare area alone there are approximately 3,000 acres of panels and we wonder if our county has or can afford the manpower to monitor them. Additionally, solar farms in other parts of the county will need similar checks and balances.

As such, we urge our citizens and concerned local and county authorities to take a stand against the saturation of solar farms in Northampton County. Individuals should urge their elected representatives to enforce stricter enactments and enforcement of solar farm limitations in Northampton County.

We represent Citizens For Responsible Solar Farm Limits.

Sylvia Vincent, Gaston, NC

Debbie Davis, Seaboard, NC

Alfred Kwasikpui, Seaboard, NC