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Up to 1000 wind power towers may be on our horizon off E. Mass.
Hearings & comment due dates start April 7-May 16, 2003
Up to one thousand wind towers are proposed for the waters off Crane's Beach, Cape Ann, Quissett (Falmouth), Highland Light (Truro), Nantucket Sound and south of Nantucket. One island birder says:
"The windmill thing is out of control and like a
goldrush for developers with massive tax breaks,
credits, incentives and free 'land' if you will.
Impacts on wildlife, especially birds, not really
identifiable until they are built and it is too late!
Depressing all around."
One official told me, "Pretty soon there won't be any air or water safe for birds offshore of southeastern Massachusetts." Some private environmentalists have held back opposing offshore wind because of PR-induced guilt about appearing extreme. Well, with industry proposing up to a thousand towers off our shore, who's being extremist now? Isn't the rational position to OPPOSE these towers until they can be proven safe to wildlife? I attach my comments to MEPA and the Corps of Engineers on the comprehensive environmental reviews that should be required. [dated May 16, 2003].
People should insist (address below) that a full, coordinated environmental review (an EIR/EIS) be done examining cumulative impacts of many towers and many projects. The public agency should do the NEPA review and address issues such as alternatives (sites and scales); public trust [sec.102(2)e of NEPA requires agencies to address conflicting uses of resources]; endangered species; birds; fish; and navigation. As of now neither the Corps nor MEPA has required a full NEPA/MEPA Environmental Impact Review-Statement on the Winergy projects, and the Bush Administration is pushing to waive environmental controls over wind farms. With proposals on the table of this size, the rule should be "Don't build without environmental data in hand."
I know there are other proposals out there needing attention. For example, opponents of Cape Wind have an excellent site at <http://www.saveoursound.org/>; also, a March 2003 Harvard honors thesis looks at Cape Winds' impacts on birds <http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~mtingley/>. Trying to keep the process unscrambled and the issues clear is very confusing for the public.
Winergy projects in E. Mass.
These are some of the up to 1000 wind towers being proposed off Massachusetts as of April 2003. |
Wind turbine towers
Each tower would rise 214 feet above the water surface (MSL), each with three blades 130 feet long. Thus the maximum height (tip of blade) would be 344 feet with a blade spin diameter of 260 feet.
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Winergy's Ipswich
10 towers in Ipswich Bay off Cape Ann and Crane's Beach.
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Winergy's Falmouth
10 towers off Quissett.
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Winergy's Truro
10 towers off Truro
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Overview: All the Nantucket Projects
Three companies propose up to a thousand towers. The biggest are Cape Wind's in Nantucket Sound (130 towers), and Winergy's SE of Nantucket. One company hasn't revealed its plans yet. |
Winergy's Nantucket
Winergy's proposed configurations totalling 600-820 towers SE of Nantucket. Since its application, Winergy has apparently said that it does not want at this time all the sites for which they have sought a permit, but one has to assume that their application or something similar shows their ultimate 'build-out' goal. Their current application for 850 towers states "Development of the sites can be staged such that the number of wind turbine generators (WTG) proposed for installation can be achieved by installing some number less in any given year of operation. The attributes of each site is described in Table 1 below." |
My comments to MEPA and the Corps of Engineers on the comprehensive environmental reviews that should be required. [dated May 16, 2003].
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Winergy's proposal (from permit application):
Extracts from above links: