BEATRICE – The Saline County Board has filed an answer to a court action brought against the county and its board of adjustment in a dispute with Milligan 1 LLC, which operates a 99-turbine wind farm in Saline County.

The answer, filed with the Saline County District court by the county board, admits that the Board of Adjustment doesn’t have authority to enact zoning ordinances and cannot retroactively apply wind turbine sound limits on the Milligan 1 operation, after it had already received a conditional use permit.

The Saline County Board admitted that a July 25th Board of Adjustment decision imposing sound limits on the Milligan wind turbines should be vacated.

Saline County is requesting that the district court enter an order vacating the Adjustment Board’s decision to impose the sound limit and dismiss all other claims or requests for relief.  The county is also requesting a Temporary Injunction Order issued by the court, be vacated.

When the permit for the Milligan 1 project was approved in Saline County in October of 2016, there was no wind turbine noise limit that applied to utility-grade projects in the county.

Attorneys for the wind farm claimed that the Board of Adjustment used a “meritless citizen complaint” to invent and enforce a sound limit that was not part of its original conditional permit.