Environmental secretary close to ruling on Cape Wind
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
On March 29, the public comment frenzy will begin anew for the wind farm proposed for Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound as Massachusetts Secretary of Environmental Affairs Ian A. Bowles issues the Final Environmental Impact Statement from the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act office.

This statement is the lead state environmental agency's definitive opinion on the 130 wind turbines that Cape Wind Associates says will generate up to 420 megawatts of electricity and provide an estimated three quarters of the power needs for the Cape and Islands.

The MEPA report will also signal the start of reviews of the project by five other state agencies, including the Department of Environmental Protection's Chapter 91 Waterways Program, the State Historic Preservation Office, the Massachusetts Ocean Sanctuaries Act Department of Environmental Management, Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management and the Massachusetts Highway Department.

"This is not a license, it is not a permit," said Cape Wind Communications Director Mark Rodgers. "It allows other state agencies to begin their review. It's a necessary precondition to allow other reviews to start."

Bowles' statement will be based on his review of Cape Wind's Final Environmental Impact Report that was submitted on Feb. 15. His statement-writing period, and the time in which the public has to comment on the document, ends March 22. A week later, Bowles must issue his statement.

The FEIR is Cape Wind's reaction to conditions that the state's Executive Office of Environmental Affairs put on Cape Wind's first filing with the state - its Draft Environmental Impact Report - filed in November of 2004. What Bowles is working on right now is MEPA's last say in Cape Wind's proposal, and its release essentially sets the state review process in motion.

Rodgers said Cape Wind's FEIR lists minimal environmental impacts and provides mitigation strategies for each.

"There's a lot of information on birds," said

Rodgers. "We did another whole season of having

an avian [observation] barge on Horseshoe Shoal. We think that a lot of the environmental information has to do with locating an offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound."

"Though the FEIR is supposed to focus solely on the installation impacts of the submarine power cable running from the wind turbines to the transformer platform and then on to the mainland," Rodgers said, "Cape Wind chose to furnish MEPA with all possible wind farm installation impacts.

"It at least briefly touches on everything from surface conditions to the effects on the benthic [ocean bottom] community, to fish, birds, marine mammals, to impacts on pollution and socioeconomic issues," said Rodgers.

Among the minimal impacts Cape Wind expects during the construction and decommissioning of its wind farm are:

+ .67 of an acre of bottom lost to installation of monopoles and concrete bases,

+ Destruction of eelgrass northwest of Egg Island in Lewis Bay,

+ Temporary disturbance of marine mammal movement patterns by wind turbine construction vessels between the site and Quonset, R.I., and New Bedford and Falmouth, Mass,

+ $15,599 loss of revenues for commercial fishermen in the first year, $182,803 for 25 years of the project,

+ Greenhouse gas emission from fossil fuels from boat, crane and vehicles engines during construction,

+ Some destruction and displacement of bottomdwelling finfish and shellfish,

+ Sound levels up to 41 decibels during construction when winds are blowing onshore at Point Gammon in Yarmouth.

Between the two EIRs, some physical specifications of the wind farm were revised and they include:

+ Overall turbine height increasing from 417 to 440 feet;

+ Rotor diameter increasing from 341 to 364 feet; + Megawatt hours per year increasing from 1,489,200 to 1,594,207;

+ The project area increasing from 24 to 25 square miles;

+ Wind farm emergency backup system changing from diesel generators to a system of batteries;

+ Wind turbine color changing from blue grey to off-white;

+ Lighting changing from incandescent to lightemitting diode.

Given positive rulings from MEPA, the Federal Minerals Management Service and the 18 other local, state and federal permitting agencies, Cape Wind hopes to start construction during the winter of 2008/2009 and

complete the project by 2010, according to the FEIR. I