July 29, 2003

Colonel Thomas L. Koning
District Engineer
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
New England District
696 Virginia Road
Concord, MA 01742-2751

Re:      Cape Wind Energy Project
U.S. Army Corps File No. 200102913

Dear Colonel Koning:

We were pleased to learn that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to delay its decision on the Cape Wind Associates proposal to construct 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound. We believe that a thorough assessment of alternatives is crucial to a proper environmental review, and while we remain convinced that offshore wind farm proposals should be subject to a programmatic environmental impact statement to review their potential cumulative effects, we are happy that the Corps has decided to evaluate Boston and New Bedford harbors as alternative locations for this particular proposal.

On March 19, 2003, our organizations wrote to you to request that the Corps require the applicant to comply with the avian study components recommended by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (DFW), and endorsed by a host of environmental and wildlife organizations. Given our current understanding of the permit timeline, we would like to reiterate this request and specifically ask that the Corps require the applicant comply with FWS’s recommendation that radar and/or acoustic monitoring devices be affixed to its test tower to study avian movements in the area.

We concur with FWS’s finding in their letter to you on May 8, 2002 that the protocol proposed by Cape Wind’s consultant, Environmental Science Services (ESS), is insufficient to “adequately characterize the spatial and temporal uses of avian and other resources at the alternative sites in Nantucket Sound and hence, to make siting decisions on a macro or micro scale.”

 

The avian study protocol should follow FWS’s recommendation of three years of field studies including horizontal and vertical radar studies, acoustic observation, direct field sampling, and visual observation from boat, barge, and aircraft. Additionally, it is necessary to utilize extensive radar and acoustic remote sensing technology to study avian use of this area, and we again endorse the recommendation that acoustic remote sensing techniques be operated continuously 365 days a year using a combination of land-based and water-based facilities.

 

These recommendations have been supported by comments from DFW, the Cape Cod Commission, the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, our organizations, and expert ornithologists Ian Nisbet, Michael Morrison, and Bill Evans.

 

Despite this strong consensus, we are only aware of one revision to ESS’s original protocol of April 15, 2002. On April 18, 2003, ESS proposed eliminating future boat surveys intended to count seaducks, terns, and songbirds, because “seaducks spend the majority of their time ‘on the water’ and the disturbance from the boat causes them to fly up from the water.”  This change does not address the FWS recommendations; it simply calls into question the limited data gathered by ESS in the two boat surveys of 2002. By conducting avian research consistent with the FWS recommendations, the validity of the applicant’s findings would be far less vulnerable to challenge by knowledgeable avian biologists.

 

We would appreciate your reassurance that you will require the applicant to follow the recommendations of the cooperating agencies with expertise in satisfying the requirements of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.  Please direct all correspondence to our organizations related to this topic to Jessica Almy, Cape Wildlife Center, 185 Meadow Lane, West Barnstable, MA 02668.

 

Thank you for your consideration of our comments.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Sharon Young                                                                        

Marine Issues Field Director                                      

The Humane Society of the United States   

 

Erin Heskett

Deputy Director

The International Fund for Animal Welfare   

 

Daniel J. Morast                                                                     

President                                                                                

The International Wildlife Coalition                                         

 

Lindsey Counsell

Executive Director

Three Bays Preservation

 

 

To read the press release announcing this letter, please click here.

 

Want answers to your questions about whether wind farms kill birds? Click here.