Solar farm runoff pollutes property, couple awarded $135 million
By Bonner Cohen, Ph. D. |June 6th, 2023|59 Comments
Inflicting heavy fines on developers of a project billed as supplying clean, renewable energy, a federal jury has awarded a couple in southwest Georgia $135.5 million after runoff from “Lumpkin Solar” severely polluted waters and soils on their rural property.
According to a lawsuit filed by Shaun and Amie Harris, Lumpkin Solar’s developers – after clearing about 1,000 acres of timberland, farmland, and land previously used for hunting and fishing – failed to install adequate measures for erosion and sediment control.
“The result is what one would expect – when it rained, pollution poured downhill and downstream onto the neighbors’ property, inundating wetlands with silt and sediment, and turning a 21-acre trophy fishing lake into a mud hole,” said James E. Butler, the couple’s attorney, in a statement.
https://www.cfact.org/2023/06/06/solar-farm-runoff-pollutes-property-couple-awarded-135-million/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=solar-farm-runoff-pollutes-property-couple-awarded-135-million&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=solar-farm-runoff-pollutes-property-couple-awarded-135-million