To the Editor:

I attended the Great Bend City Council meeting on 7/15/2024. I am dumbfounded and acutely suspicious of one item of business. The council nonchalantly passed a bill to allow a company that stores solar panels and windmill blades to lease 9.6 acres right by the airport and county fairgrounds and Fuller Brush. They are leasing it for 300+ dollars per acre. For that small amount of money, they are exposing the airport, Fuller Brush, and the city and citizens and their children of Great Bend to some very toxic stuff.

I knew they were storing turbine blades, but I didn’t know solar panels were being stored there. That changes the game. You CANNOT dig a pit and bury damaged solar panels or windmill blades on your own land. The landfill WILL NOT accept any of that material. In the event of a tornado, large hail, or big wind – that toxic debris will be spread in our city, schools, businesses, and land. It would probably shut down the airport.

Does the city require an environmental impact study and hazmat approval before accepting this risk? We common citizens depend on the wisdom and diligence of our city council to protect us from this type of exposure. Our school children should not be exposed to this level of toxic material without precise testing and monitoring of toxic levels-especially if we have a weather event that spreads this debris.

Does the county, city or the companies putting us at this risk have a plan in place to deal with fragmented and widely dispersed solar panel debris? I have never seen one, and this issue has been swept under the rug.  Someone step up with a plan that protects our citizens.

If the city wants us to accept this risk, I would recommend that they charge at least $10,000.00 per acre per month and keep it in escrow to deal quickly with any exposure to our children or citizens.

Please don’t let us down.

Dr. Dan Witt

Hoisington