Memo may hold hints of project review findings

by JOHN LEANING
STAFF WRITER
BOSTON - A confidential memo accidentally sent to the media yesterday from a prominent environmental group may provide possible clues into what the long-awaited draft environmental impact statement for the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm will contain.

The document touches on issues ranging from the visual aesthetics of the turbines to how the project might affect birds and sea life.

According to the memo, it appears the federal government's overall perception of the project could be favorable, although there were still problems in the areas of ocean views - especially with the turbines lit at night - birds and navigation.

The one-page memo was e-mailed by the Conservation Law Foundation, and was titled, "Confidential This is an internal report for CLF staff only."

A copy was e-mailed to the Times and other regional media.

Julia Bovey, communications director for the foundation, said yesterday the memo was inadvertently sent out by e-mail and was not a "formal report of the CLF."

"If you (print) this, I think you're really going out on a limb, because no one at CLF has seen the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS)," she cautioned.

However, the phrase "the DEIS says" appears no less than four times in the memo, and "DEIS claims" appears once.

Particularly specific is a paragraph about the visual impact to the towering turbines.

"The DEIS includes lots of simulated photos showing the wind park from all angles, from land and sea, in 'the worst case scenarios' meaning clearest day, most direct sun, etc. The photos portray the turbines as very visible. The most disturbing images are at night."

The section goes on to say that the Federal Aviation Administration requires lights on the turbines, which could require "every turbine having two lights, in case one should be blocked by a rotor and [sic] any given second. The interior turbines will have 'low intensity' lights, still quite visible. Every-other exterior turbine will have a 'medium' intensity light - apparently quite a change from a completely dark night sky over the ocean."

Bovey tried to distance her organization from the memo, and its contents.

She refused to answer questions about the source or sources for the information in the memo, and whether anyone on the foundation's staff prepared the memo.

"What I want to stress is that everyone is anxious to know what's in the document (the draft impact statement), but we will all have to wait until it comes out," she said.

Cape Wind Associates, of Boston and Yarmouthport, hopes to build 130 turbines in a 24-square mile area over Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound. The project would be in federal waters, and if approved would be the country's first offshore wind energy project.

The Army Corps of Engineers is the lead federal agency of 17 state, federal and regional agencies reviewing the project and preparing the draft environmental impact statement, which is required for major projects under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Tim Dugan, a spokesman at the Army Corps of Engineers, said that the draft report, which is expected to be several thousand pages long, is still incomplete and has not been released.

He declined to comment on any of the specifics included in the confidential foundation memo.

He said there are still some outstanding issues, one involving bird studies under review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as oil-spill response plans being reviewed by the Minerals Management Service. Both are part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The foundation memo states, while there are "enormous" numbers of birds in the area, protected species will not be affected.

The Corps' draft document is scheduled for release "in September at the earliest, but not likely before Labor Day," Dugan said yesterday.

If the foundation's memo accurately reflects the findings in the draft impact statement, it would appear the project has a good chance of getting a permit from the Corps, something that will not happen until sometime next year at the earliest, if at all.

Besides the appearance of the turbines on the horizon, there were few other findings reflected in the confidential memo:

During construction there would be "localized and temporary" effects on marine life, mostly from pile driving, although underwater noise levels will be below "danger" standards.

Fishing: No significant impact on fishery or fishing, but some restrictions on boating during installation.

Tourism: No harm and may increase tourism "very slightly."

Navigation: No problem for surface navigation, although some residents and mariners remain unconvinced.

Waterfront property values: No effect on real estate.

Economics: While the 9-cents per kilowatt hour cost of wind power is twice that of older, dirty coal plants, the price "is about the same" as the cost from modern plants being built today, "especially when the cost of gas (presumably natural gas) is high."

Jim Gordon, president of Cape Wind, declined to comment after he read a copy of the memo that was faxed to him.

"I can tell you unequivocally that the CLF has not seen the draft and we have not seen the draft," Gordon said yesterday from Provincetown, where he is vacationing with his family.

"I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what the genesis (of the memo) is. I haven't seen the draft, but I hope it comes out soon. It looks like someone was taking some notes, but I'm not going to comment on a one-page scribble of notes," he said.

Susan Nickerson, executive director of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, a major foe of the wind farm proposal said, "We don't have any comment on the substance of this memo because it has no basis. We don't know where it came from, who it is directed to, and what it's purpose is.

"What is of significant concern to us is how can anyone be in a position to comment on the draft impact statement before it becomes public?"

Cape Cod Times
(Published: September 1, 2004)