The proposed commercial Veteran Hill Solar Project submitted by Dynamic Energy LLC and Wedge Solar, LLC for parcels 39.00-1-14.1 and 39.00-1-14.2 benefits corporations and funnels the money into the Canadian Pension Plan. This is after they use NYS taxpayer dollars to pay for a good portion of this project. To add to this, the corporation wants to avoid putting down a security escrow in case something happens - don't let the town allow this variance.

Many homes sit directly down-gradient and face an imminent, severe threat from this proposed 30-acre development site. I urge the Planning Board to stand firm on the financial protections mandated under Local Law #1 of 2026 and deny the developer's request for a financial variance to substitute a corporate surety bond for a 100% liquid cash escrow account. Given the catastrophic topographical, hydrogeological, and residential property risks inherent to this specific site, and considering the developer's history of local regulatory avoidance, the board must mandate strict, independent engineering safeguards before considering any approvals.

1. High-Velocity Runoff, Steep Slopes, and the Williamsburg Disaster Precedent

The proposed site on the Veteran Hill ridge sits at an elevation of approximately 1,330 to 1,350 feet above sea level. The Birdland neighborhood below sits in the valley basin at roughly 890 to 900 feet. This represents an extreme 430 to 450-foot vertical drop over a horizontal distance of less than half a mile.

This steep slope gradient (15% to 18%) creates a high-velocity runoff funnel. Ground-mounted solar panels act as massive, impermeable metal roofs. Rainwater sheets off the panels, creating concentrated "drip lines" that rapidly strip away topsoil. If the developer clear-cuts this hillside, millions of gallons of unmitigated stormwater will accelerate down this 450-foot decline with massive kinetic energy. This poses an immediate, destructive threat to downstream residential properties and seasonal wetlands, promising severe flooding and mudslides.

The board must reject standard "meadow" stormwater drainage models and look closely at the developer's direct corporate track record. In Williamsburg, Massachusetts, Dynamic Energy Solutions LLC constructed an 18.5-acre solar array on a steep hillside. In their application, they assured local boards the site was "relatively flat" and would minimize pollution. Instead, once construction began, they completely disregarded fundamental stormwater controls. The resulting hillside blowout tore down trees, buried protected wetlands under an acre of thick sediment, and heavily polluted a local cold-water river fishery. The state Department of Environmental Protection designated the violations as "egregious," and the Massachusetts Attorney General ultimately forced Dynamic Energy to pay a $1.14 million settlement for their environmental devastation.

YouTube video about the Dynamic Energy Environmental Disaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DEvEU4BCKU

2. Proof of Destructive Impacts on Residential Basements and Foundations

The threat to our homes extends far below the surface. Historically, our neighborhood has maintained an exceptionally stable water table, meaning the majority of homes here have naturally dry basements and do not require or possess sump pumps. By stripping the hillside of its deep-rooted, mature vegetation, the developer will fundamentally alter how water moves through the hillside, introducing severe water issues where none previously existed.

We have explicit, real-world proof of this specific type of disaster from a near-identical project in Plainville, Massachusetts, where a developer cleared an uphill lot for a solar farm. Residents who had lived peacefully for years with completely dry basements suddenly found their backyards, driveways, and basements entirely destroyed. When the trees were cut, rainstorms sent water "gushing" down the hill and directly into basements, leaving families needing rain boots inside their own homes and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage.

If this project proceeds unchecked, our neighborhood faces the exact same mechanisms of structural destruction:

• Inundation of Subsurface Water Tables: When the Veteran Hill ridge is stripped, the volume of water traveling subsurface will spike dramatically at the base of the slope, forcing an unprecedented, rapid rise in the localized water table directly beneath our neighborhood.
• Hydrostatic Pressure and Structural Cracking: Our homes are entirely unequipped for this sudden influx of groundwater. This new water line will create immense hydrostatic pressure against residential basement floors and foundation walls. This extreme pressure will force water up through concrete pores, floor seams, and foundation joints—flooding basements that have never leaked a drop of water, overwhelming properties that lack drainage infrastructure, and causing basement walls to bow, shift, and structurally crack.

YouTube video about the Damage to Nearby Homes:[goog_1227159523] youtube.com/watch?v=JAFz7nMKT34&is=a5CQJlSZwtg6rpVe

3. Critical Threats to Private Well Water, Aquifers, and the Illusion of "UL Approval"

Our neighborhood relies 100% on private wells for our drinking water supply. Heavy vehicle soil compaction on Veteran Hill will destroy the soil's natural porosity, forcing water to run off the surface rather than infiltrating the ground to recharge our underground water table, which risks drying out shallower residential wells entirely.

Furthermore, subsurface construction poses a direct physical threat to our water supply. The board must look at the precedent set by the Horseshoe Solar Project in Rush, New York, where construction crews driving heavy steel piles accidentally punctured a primary underground aquifer. This hydrogeologic disruption caused immediate pressure drops and left neighboring residential homes entirely without water for weeks. On a sloped site like Veteran Hill, pile driving and structural drilling carry an unacceptably high risk of puncturing localized bedrock fractures, causing severe sediment turbidity (cloudy, muddy water) or a total loss of water supply for our homes.

We must also firmly reject the developer's inevitable claim that their hardware is safe simply because it is UL listed or UL approved. A UL certification is an electrical and fire safety standard for an individual, isolated panel in a controlled laboratory. It is not an environmental safety guarantee. A UL label does absolutely nothing to prevent massive stormwater runoff when thousands of impermeable panels are arranged across a 30-acre hillside. Furthermore, UL tests do not simulate Upstate New York's harsh freeze-thaw cycles, which can crack panel backings over time. If these panels are shattered by severe weather or structural failures, heavy metals like cadmium, lead, or gallium can leach directly into our soil and wash straight down into our private water supply.

News coverage about the Damage to Nearby Wells: https://13wham.com/news/local/some-rush-residents-relying-on-delivered-water-after-solar-project-drilling-incident

4. The Extreme Financial Risk of Corporate Surety Bonds vs. Cash Escrow

Dynamic Energy is operating this project through an isolated Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) shell company, Wedge Solar, LLC, to shield the parent company from long-term financial liability. New York State solar project statistics show a ~90% pre-construction attrition and resale rate. If this project is sold to a non-bankable entity that later vanishes or declares bankruptcy, the Town of Veteran and its taxpayers will be left with the massive financial burden of decommissioning and environmental cleanup.

Local Law #1 of 2026 was explicitly enacted to protect our town from these exact risks by mandating a 100% liquid cash escrow. The developer's request to substitute a corporate surety bond introduces unacceptably high financial risks to our town for several critical reasons:

• Surety Bonds Are Not Cash: Unlike a cash escrow account held directly by the town, a surety bond is a third-party contract that is notoriously difficult to collect. If a shell company goes under, surety companies routinely spend years fighting claims in court to avoid paying, leaving the town completely unprotected during prolonged litigation.
• Bankruptcy and Ownership Loopholes: If Wedge Solar, LLC files for bankruptcy or repeatedly flips the project to secondary LLCs, the original surety bond can be legally invalidated, tied up in federal bankruptcy court actions, or dropped entirely by the underwriting company.
• No Protection Against Environmental Disasters: Surety bonds typically cover basic decommissioning labor if a project reaches its natural end of life. They do not provide instant, liquid relief if a hillside blowout destroys a neighbor's basement, washes away topsoil like it did in Williamsburg, or punctures an aquifer tomorrow. The developer has demonstrated zero verifiable financial hardship; they are simply attempting to maximize corporate profit margins at the risk of our taxpayers' financial stability and homes.

Explanation of why Surety Bonds get Cancelled and don't protect us: https://jurisco.com/can-a-surety-bond-be-cancelled-what-to-know/

5. Demands for Essential Disclosures and Environmental Plans

To date, the community has not been provided with adequate granular details regarding the layout and operational lifecycle of this project. The board must formally demand that the developer present the following details before moving forward:

• Community Benefits Package: The developer must detail the exact scope of their proposed community benefits package, outlining localized financial offsets, electricity discounts, or direct municipal investments.
• Conceptual Layout & Assessment Metrics: The developer must share a comprehensive conceptual layout with the public and explicitly discuss how environmental impacts are being assessed, including clear avoidance and minimization strategies for sensitive steep-slope soils.
• Vegetation Management & Site Restoration Plan: The developer must submit a detailed site restoration plan mandating the use of deep-rooted, native seed mixes over standard turf grasses to stabilize the soil, alongside a strict long-term vegetation management plan that forbids the use of toxic chemical herbicides over our aquifer recharge zone.
• Vegetative Screening Plan: The developer must provide a multi-tiered vegetative screening plan using mature, native evergreen buffers that completely hide the facility from views along Meadowlark Road, Bluejay Drive, and Oriole Drive year-round.

See the Active Application from Dynamic/Wedge Solar here: https://townofveteranny.gov/active-applications/

Formal Demands for the Public Record

To protect the town, its resources, and its residents, the Veteran Planning Board must enforce the following binding clauses into the project record:

• Deny the Financial Variance: Enforce Local Law #1 of 2026. Require a dual-security structure consisting of a construction performance bond plus a 100% liquid cash escrow account for decommissioning held directly by the town.
• Mandate Compounding 5-Year Inflation Adjustments: Require the decommissioning fund to be independently re-evaluated every 5 years to account for actual panel recycling and labor cost inflation.
• Require a Developer-Funded Hydrogeological Study: Mandate a comprehensive, independent hydrogeological review to map the bedrock fractures and aquifer recharge pathways before any site approvals are granted. This must consider the nearby neighbourhoods’ private wells.
• Establish a Developer-Funded Well and Foundation Mitigation Escrow: Require the developer to establish a liquid cash fund dedicated to private well and structural foundation remediation. If any residential property within a 1-mile radius experiences structural basement damage, flooding, or well contamination during construction or operation, the fund must immediately pay to drill a deeper well, repair foundations, and install drainage systems.
• Fund Daily Independent Engineering Oversight: Force the developer to completely fund a town-appointed, third-party engineer with full stop-work authority to monitor daily civil engineering, stormwater compliance, and wetland protections.
• Hardware and Material Safety Disclosures: Demand the explicit brand, model, and bankability tier rating of the proposed panels. Mandate anti-reflective coatings and require full Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) to prove the hardware is entirely free of leachable heavy metals, irrespective of any standard UL listings.

How can you help?

Talk to your friends and neighbours about this project and go to the town hall meetings. Email the Planning Board about this at planning.board.chair@townofveteranny.gov Visit the Town Planning Board website here: https://townofveteranny.gov/planning-board/ or call them at (607) 739-1476