CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Conservation and animal protection groups filed a federal lawsuit Thursday to halt the ongoing construction of a Greenbrier County wind farm, saying the project will kill the endangered Indiana bat.

The Animal Welfare Project and Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy believe they are the first organizations in the nation to challenge a wind energy project on environmental grounds in federal court.

The lawsuit, brought under the Endangered Species Act, and filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland, alleges the 124-turbine project will injure and kill scores of Indiana bats that live in caves near the wind farm. 

"Wind power may be part of the solution for climate change, but locations such as the Beech Ridge project site are entirely inappropriate for industrial wind facilities," said D.J. Schubert, wildlife biologist with the Washington-based Animal Welfare Institute. "We cannot allow a new ecological crisis to be created in the name of solving an existing one."

Dave Groberg, the wind project's manager, declined to discuss the lawsuit Thursday, referring questions to a company lawyer.

"While we do not comment on the specifics of pending litigation, we believe, as with previous attempts to delay the Beech Ridge project by way of lawsuits, that the claim filed is without merit," said Joe Condo, vice president and general counsel at Invenergy, Beech Ridge's parent company. "Beech Ridge Energy has cooperated for years with all the relevant governmental entities and has received all required permits necessary to build the wind farm, which will help West Virginia and the country reach its clean energy goals."

Last month, Invenergy started clearing brush, grading land and building a gravel road that will allow trucks to haul wind turbine parts up mountain ridges. Construction started just days after the state Public Service Commission gave the final go-ahead for the $350 million project, which has been scrutinized for more than four years.

The first set of 67 turbines is expected to be assembled and erected by August or September. An additional 57 turbines will go up next year.

Invenergy conducted two "mist net" studies to count bats in the area, but project opponents say the surveys were inadequate to detect Indiana bats, according to the lawsuit.

The groups allege Invenergy "patently" violated the Endangered Species Act because the company failed to obtain a federal "incidental take permit." Such permits are required if projects will harm threatened or endangered wildlife.

"We were hoping to avoid a federal lawsuit," said John Stroud, spokesman for Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy, a Greenbrier County group that opposed the wind farm. "However, Beech Ridge Energy is currently moving forward with construction despite repeated requests to first bring the project in compliance with the Endangered Species Act to ensure that the Indiana bat is afforded the full protections of the law."

The wind turbines will be scattered over 23 miles of mountain ridges in Greenbrier County.

According to the lawsuit, a local cave expert has identified 27 caves within five miles of the project site. Another 113 caves are five to 10 miles from where the wind turbines will stand.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Conservation and animal protection groups filed a federal lawsuit Thursday to halt the ongoing construction of a Greenbrier County wind farm, saying the project will kill the endangered Indiana bat.

The Animal Welfare Project and Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy believe they are the first organizations in the nation to challenge a wind energy project on environmental grounds in federal court.

The lawsuit, brought under the Endangered Species Act, and filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland, alleges the 124-turbine project will injure and kill scores of Indiana bats that live in caves near the wind farm. 

"Wind power may be part of the solution for climate change, but locations such as the Beech Ridge project site are entirely inappropriate for industrial wind facilities," said D.J. Schubert, wildlife biologist with the Washington-based Animal Welfare Institute. "We cannot allow a new ecological crisis to be created in the name of solving an existing one."

Dave Groberg, the wind project's manager, declined to discuss the lawsuit Thursday, referring questions to a company lawyer.

"While we do not comment on the specifics of pending litigation, we believe, as with previous attempts to delay the Beech Ridge project by way of lawsuits, that the claim filed is without merit," said Joe Condo, vice president and general counsel at Invenergy, Beech Ridge's parent company. "Beech Ridge Energy has cooperated for years with all the relevant governmental entities and has received all required permits necessary to build the wind farm, which will help West Virginia and the country reach its clean energy goals."

Last month, Invenergy started clearing brush, grading land and building a gravel road that will allow trucks to haul wind turbine parts up mountain ridges. Construction started just days after the state Public Service Commission gave the final go-ahead for the $350 million project, which has been scrutinized for more than four years.

The first set of 67 turbines is expected to be assembled and erected by August or September. An additional 57 turbines will go up next year.

Invenergy conducted two "mist net" studies to count bats in the area, but project opponents say the surveys were inadequate to detect Indiana bats, according to the lawsuit.

The groups allege Invenergy "patently" violated the Endangered Species Act because the company failed to obtain a federal "incidental take permit." Such permits are required if projects will harm threatened or endangered wildlife.

"We were hoping to avoid a federal lawsuit," said John Stroud, spokesman for Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy, a Greenbrier County group that opposed the wind farm. "However, Beech Ridge Energy is currently moving forward with construction despite repeated requests to first bring the project in compliance with the Endangered Species Act to ensure that the Indiana bat is afforded the full protections of the law."

The wind turbines will be scattered over 23 miles of mountain ridges in Greenbrier County.

According to the lawsuit, a local cave expert has identified 27 caves within five miles of the project site. Another 113 caves are five to 10 miles from where the wind turbines will stand.

Indiana bats -- one of the most endangered land mammals in the world -- hibernate in the caves, the lawsuit says.

Removing Indiana bats, which eat insects and other pests, from the area "would likely result in the collapse or other severe damage to the local ecosystem," according to the lawsuit.

Also, wind power projects pose a "grave threat" to Indiana bats, leading to collisions and "barotrauma," a fatal condition caused by low-pressure zones near turbines that cause the lungs of bats to hemorrhage, killing them almost instantly, the lawsuit states.

The Animal Welfare Institute said some of its members explore caves near the wind project site and help to re-create habitat for Indiana bats.

"These individuals derive educational, scientific, ecological, spiritual, aesthetic and recreational enjoyment from the Indiana bat and the region inhabited by the species," the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit notes that Indiana bats and other bat species are already at risk because of white nose syndrome -- a disease that has killed bats in the eastern U.S. at an alarming rate. 

Invenergy plans to operate the wind turbines for at least 20 years.

Reach Eric Eyre at erice...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-4869.