Those fighting to preserve a Terra Ceia school and its surrounding farmland turned out in force to Monday’s meeting to ask commissioners to intervene in the construction of a solar farm.

Teachers, students and board members of Terra Ceia Christian School, along with neighbors and other concerned residents, used the public comment period of the meeting to beseech the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners to enact a nine-month moratorium, halting a plan already in motion between Wilkinson Solar, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Invenergy, and the property owner who has leased land surrounding Terra Ceia Christian School to the company.

“Our children and our heritage have a right to your protection,” said Jeanne VanStaalduinen, a teacher at the school.

Herb May questioned the “economics of using prime farmland for a solar facility” and asked commissioners to weigh the potential loss of 25 jobs should the school close against the one to three people who would be employed by the facility.

“I don’t see where the county benefits from this at all,” May said. “I’m not against solar energy. I am opposed to this location.”

Patricia Garrison told commissioners that the batteries of solar farms have the potential to leak toxic chemicals into the groundwater. As they are only good for 20 years, the landowner, or even the county, could be responsible for the cleanup, she said.

With nearly 300,000 solar panels covering 600 acres next to the school, the Wilkinson Solar Farm would be the largest solar array in the state. Those requesting the moratorium said they needed time to find out more about the potential dangers of such a facility.

David Butcher, who lives next to the proposed facility, and Alan Meijer, a TCCS board member and father of three children attending the school, presented their concerns to the board later in the meeting. Butcher pointed out that if drainage of the land is changed during construction of the facility, the land could be possibly reclassified as wetlands by the Army Corps of Engineers, which would prevent it from ever being used as farmland again. He also pointed out that the highly organic soils in the area could pose another problem.

“I think we should prevent a solar factory from developing on areas that will support a ground fire,” Butcher said.

Meijer spoke on behalf of the school: “Having a solar farm around this school will suffocate it,” echoing the comments of Josh Allen, another TCCS parent, earlier in the meeting.

“It’s going to kill enrollment. That’s just reality,” Allen said.

The response from commissioners was positive to the Terra Ceia group’s plight, but the general consensus was that the board had no power to stop the process already in motion — the North Carolina Utilities Commission is expected to approve the project.

County attorney David Francisco said a moratorium would not affect the project, but residents do have an opportunity for action through court-ordered injunctions or temporary restraining orders.

What commissioners can do, however, is strengthen the county ordinance that currently “reads like it was written by Invenergy itself,” according to Meijer.

“Prior to right now, everything that I had learned (about this project) was this ship had pretty much sailed as far as we are concerned,” said Commissioner Jerry Langley. “Future events — there is something we can do, and I certainly don’t have a problem with that.”

Commissioners encouraged concerned parties to continue talks with Wilkinson representatives to find solutions to potential problems such as setbacks from the school. If discussion breaks down, the county should reconsider its possible actions, according to Commissioner Hood Richardson.