PENELOPE, Texas — Johnny Hanzlicek and his spouse stay on the household farm in Penelope.
“My grandparents have been farmers, my father was a farmer, I’ve many uncles,” he mentioned. 25 Information. “Now they’re all useless, however I grew up with a farmer’s background as you possibly can see.”
Persevering with the household legacy, the Hanzliceks nonetheless develop cotton, corn and wheat.
“Hill County has been a significant farming group for many years and a long time,” he mentioned.
Hanzlicek mentioned he’s now watching the group slowly disappear as extra farms are misplaced to get replaced by acres and acres of photo voltaic panels.
Ash Creek Photo voltaic just lately began building about two miles from Hanzlicek’s farm and now they’re trying to get even nearer.
“It will be a waste to see our treasured farmland go to photo voltaic panels,” he mentioned of the venture. “The largest situation is the lead and all the opposite toxins which might be in it, the rain water that leaches it into our soil and it turns into poisonous over time.”
Based on a paper by the Stuttgart Institute in Germany, “contaminants equivalent to lead or carcinogenic cadmium will be nearly fully washed away inside a number of months by rainwater.”
They went on to say that the chemical substances might “dissolve into the water and soil” round them.
An announcement from the corporate behind the Ash Creek venture, Primergy, argued that the photo voltaic panels “won’t leach chemical substances or pollute groundwater.”
The corporate declined an interview, however of their assertion mentioned they’re “dedicated to creating tasks that shield the surroundings and don’t pose further dangers to the surroundings whereas offering low cost, carbon-free, clear, renewable or power.”
With the panels probably coming inside two-tenths of a mile of his property, Hanzlicek mentioned he is actually nervous.
“That will have an effect on my crops if I used to be surrounded by all these panels,” he mentioned.
The lack of farmland might imply the lack of native crops that many depend on.
“If all of those tasks go forward, it might lose as much as 20,000 acres of farmland in Hill County alone,” Hanzlicek mentioned. “In the event that they put in photo voltaic panels, there is no method they will rebuild the terraces over time. They must be rebuilt each three to 4 years.”
Hanzlicek is just not alone in his considerations, greater than 200 residents of Penelope have signed a petition to forestall extra photo voltaic panels from getting into.
Whereas the harm could have been accomplished, farmers say the battle is much from over.
