Worthington Planning Board Continues Ridge Road Solar Hearing to March

WORTHINGTON -- February 11, 2026, Worthington's Planning Board continued its contentious public hearing on a proposed industrial-scale solar and battery storage facility at 190 Ridge Road, voting unanimously to push the next session to March 26, 2026. Blue Wave project director Mike Zee confirmed the array would use an eight-foot fixed-knot fence with wooden posts, said the company is drafting a hazard mitigation analysis and emergency response plan, and presented an illustrative spec sheet for a battery energy storage system of between one and three megawatts. A coordinated resident group argued the site, located within the town's drinking water protection district, atop fractured bedrock serving 168 connections, presents unacceptable contamination risk, citing a Blue Wave enforcement action in Douglas, Massachusetts, where stormwater controls failed and testing found six PFAS compounds near a Manchaug Pond. Licensed public adjuster Ramona Gallagher told the board the applicant has provided only a proof of insurance showing a $1 million per-occurrence policy, with no pollution liability endorsement. The board's peer engineering reviewer, Pear Corporation, had not yet delivered its technical report as of the meeting.