Ocean Wind Project Fails To Protect Fishing Industry NOAA

In Martha's Vineyard last month the fishing industry made their concerns know at the Edgartown Conservation Commission which denied the MassDEP permit SE-1529 to construct two 200,000 volt electric cables through Muskeget Channel.

The buried electric cables would have traveled through Muskeget Channel, located between Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, is a deeply scoured channel with strong tidal currents.

The Block Island, Rhode Island, ocean wind turbines, the first offshore wind farm in the United States faces major problems with their exposed buried electric cable and may not be repaired for at least another five years. The poor installation set an example to the public that safety is not always the first concern.

Massachusetts Governor Charles D. Baker Jr. was taken to task regarding the Falmouth land wind turbines at a hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday, February 6, 2019.

Falmouth and twenty-one other communities had major problems with two types of noise from the turbines ultimately shutting down the land-based wind projects in Massachusetts. Governor Baker acknowledged, in turn, the Falmouth wind turbine project did not go as planned later the Wall Street Journal published an editorial on the experience of Falmouth, Massachusetts, which spent $10 million on wind turbines, said it’s a disaster.

In an April 16, 2019 letter to BOEM regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries’ Greater Atlantic office could not support the environmental permit for the ocean wind project because the project failed to fully address the concerns of the fishing industry.

As Massachusetts residents living around land-based wind turbines suffer from noise Marine life also has an acute sensitivity to extremely low–frequency linear acceleration, or infra-sound, even down to below 1 Hertz.

Massachusetts state officials appear to be throwing the local fishing industry under the bus for a foreign ocean wind turbine company. Massachusetts taxpayers could suffer the loss of the fishing industry if it ends up like the failed political experiment with the Falmouth, Massachusetts wind turbines.

The ocean wind company is seeking a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District to conduct work in waters of the U.S. in conjunction with the construction up to:

One hundred offshore wind turbine generators and the placement of cables off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and within Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts.

Two massive electrical service platforms (ESPs).

Multiple inter-array electric cables connecting the wind turbines to the massive electric service platforms in the ocean.

Two offshore export 200,000 volt cables capable of carrying 400 megawatts of power within a single 23.3-mile route.

The cable route will begin at the lease site OCS-A 0501 through Muskeget Channel.

Muskeget Channel, located between Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, is a deeply scoured channel with strong tidal currents.

The Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) is the lead federal agency for this proposed project.

The project is identified as Docket No. BOEM-20 18-0069.

The development of the offshore wind farm will cause some immediate negative impacts from physical disturbance of the local habitat as well as noise pollution both above and below the surface of the water.

Save the fishing industry