Citizens Against Richwood Solar (CARS) exists to encourage and equip local residents and landowners to responsibly steward the resources for the generations to come.

1. Drainage and tile.  Driving stainless steel posts into the ground at regular intervals will break tile.  Evidence has been shown at many other projects of standing water during, and after construction is complete.
2. Health and safety concerns.  There is a 5 acre lithium Ion Battery storage facility attached to this project.  There have been at least two major fires at two of these facilities in the last year.  (Lyme, New York and Otay Mesa, California) When the fire department douses these with water what is being washed into our water tables or being washed into our streams and rivers?3
3. Noise impacts.  Evidence suggests that human sounds impact the patterns of wildlife.  How will these inverters impact the native wildlife as well as the pets of homes surrounding these projects.4
4. Wildlife impacts.  The fields surrounding our area are home to many species including eagles, deer, rabbits, squirrels, raccoon etc.  These animals hunt the fields and rely on the food and safety the farmland provides.  By making human changes you will change the patterns of these wildlife.  Animals that used to eat the corn and beans will now have to find other sources of food or relocate altogether.
5. Loss of agricultural ground.  The argument is made that these projects can be decommissioned in 40 years and the ground returned to agricultural use.  They are building a PERMANENT substation what do they think they are going to do with that in 40 years?  Furthermore in 40 years this area will no longer be considered agricultural due to the industrial look and feel of the area.  Farmers are not going to want to buy ground that will take massive amounts of work to get back into farming conditions.  With the rapid loss of farmland to topsoil erosion, urban sprawl (housing) and now green energy soon we will no longer have the capacity to produce food in our State.
6. Community safety during construction.  These areas will have higher traffic congestion and Route 4 is busy enough.  Construction sites attract theft and vandalism that we do not want to invite into our community.  Furthermore where will the workers doing this construction come from?  OPSB has no regulations mandating the workers must be Ohio based.  Other projects have been seen bussing in workers from outside of the area/state?
7. Will Samsung be the good neighbor they promise to be?  According to an article in The Korea Economic Daily “Samsung C&T’s solar power projects are mainly in the US under a system of building such a project early and selling it to another business there to monetize it.”  Samsung claims to not plan to sell this project to another company yet they have sold 3 of its renewable energy projects within the last year including one that contained 15 projects in Texas.  Will the new owners live up to the empty promises Samsung is giving?
8. Diminished property values in the surrounding area.  There are many “studies” claiming that a solar farm does not impact property values.  HOWEVER, these studies were done in a market with LOW inventory where homeowners don’t have a choice but to buy homes near these facilities.
9. Decommissioning and disposal of the panels after end of life.  It is stated this project is expected to be end of life in 40 years but how will the panels be disposed of. Staff recommends that at the time of solar panel end of life disposal, any retired panel material that is not recycled and that is marked for disposal, shall be sent to an engineered landfill with various barriers and methods designed to prevent leaching of materials into soils and groundwater.  This raises red flags that these panels even though they are expected to pass TCLP leaching studies can still present hazards to our health and safety.
10. The BESS (battery energy storage system) requires heating and cooling as well as monitoring equipment to maintain the stability of the lithium battery cells (to prevent battery damage and fires as noted above)   This can actually draw energy from the grid during off peak times when the system is not producing or producing at a minimal capacity due to lack of sunlight.  The battery itself will hold roughly 4 hours of charge.  Is this going to be drawing from our energy supplies when we need it the most?
11. Just because a property “can” be restored to close to original conditions understand this land is no longer agricultural this land is now an investment property with a very low likelihood of ever being returned to an agricultural state.

1. “Not approving this project denies me of my personal property rights to do with my land as I see fit” – Just to be clear an individuals “rights” cannot be absolute.  Your right to do anything cannot infringe upon the rights of others.  You cannot cause damages (monetary or physical) to another person or their property.  Just like you can be charged for indecent exposure if you are nude in your yard and visible by others passing by.
2. “This project will generate over 90 million dollars in taxes over the next 40 years how can you turn away that money?” – This would be a tremendous argument, however there are currently two other projects approved in this county that will already generate roughly 180 million dollars in revenue during the same time?  When do we say that the county has enough money?
3. “We need clean renewable energy sources to combat climate change!” – We are not denying climate change and we do agree we need clean renewable energy sources but we need to responsibly site and construct these projects.  While we need to be energy independent we should not do that at the expense of agricultural production.  (Don’t trade one dependency for another)
4. “Farmers put far worse poisons into the ground than these solar panels will” – The solar company is still responsible for vegetative control and management of noxious weeds so won’t they still be using the same herbicides to manage those noxious weeds?  
5. “This ground can be restored when the project is decommissioned” – While the OPSB has regulations for restoration of the ground anything below 3 feet that cannot be easily removed will be left in the ground (this is straight from the decommissioning plan) furthermore soil compaction and removal of topsoil from some areas for grading is a major concern. 
6. “New housing is taking far more farm ground out of production than solar!” – American farmland is being taken at an alarming rate for housing, green energy and loss from topsoil erosion.  Yes we agree losing ground to housing is also a problem but it does not justify removing even more ground for energy production.  
7. “This will create local jobs!” – The average farmer in Union county spends about 950/acre at local businesses.  Thats almost $1.4 million dollars/year  in revenue lost for local jobs for the 1400 acres being taken out of production.   Furthermore while some of the construction jobs may be created locally the majority of workers are typically found from outside of the project area and often from outside of the State.
8. “The developer has to adhere to the rules set forth by the OPSB!” – When asked the consequences for not following the “rules” it can vary from fines to being shut down.  Any reasonable person knows once construction starts they won’t shut it down and any fines levied are typically cheaper than adhering to any governing policies.  
9. “The farmland being used doesn’t produce food for your table.” – True the corn and soybeans produced here do not end up directly on our tables but do go to feed the cows, chickens and pigs that we eat as well as are uses as raw materials for other foods.  These also feed into the supply chain that provides raw materials for goods that you purchase at the store driving up the prices more when the supply isn’t available.