State tightens rules for wind farm developers

Higher standards must be met to bring power cables on shore.

By
STAFF WRITER
Reflecting increased concern over development pressures in ocean waters, the state's environmental agency has tightened regulations affecting off-shore wind farms.

In a recent decision involving the Winergy LLC wind projects in state waters, the Department of Environmental Protection reversed an earlier decision involving the Cape Wind Associates project in Nantucket Sound.

As a result, all the off-shore wind farm projects must meet a higher review standard to get approval to bring undersea cables from the wind farms on shore and from there to land-based transmission facilities.

Ed Coletta, a spokesman for the state DEP, said the change "puts the bar a little higher for them. It does not make it prohibitively more difficult. They have to show where the public good is."

He also said the more rigorous standard reflects Romney administration concerns on the need for better regulation of ocean development proposals.

"The governor wants the ocean management task force review, and this shows how important it is to study these issues, about what can be done in the state's ocean areas," he said.

The task force may be named within the next two weeks.

Cape Wind officials said they're already providing such information to regulators.

"As far as I've seen, everything they'd be interested in is already in the scope of work in the (environmental impact statement)," said Dennis Duffy, Cape Wind's vice president for regulatory affairs.

In the Cape Wind application submitted last year, the developer was designated as a "water dependent" use.

But in Winergy's application for the same sort of cable landfall, Winergy said its use was non-water dependent.

That prompted state officials to review the matter, and they concurred with Winergy, and told Cape Wind it must now get a variance.

Basically, under stateregulations, projects such as a dock which involved tidal areas or wetlands can be considered "water dependent."

Or, if the structure doesn't meet that test, it is considered to be "non-water dependent," such as the cable landfall from the off-shore wind farm.

In its review, DEP officials said that since the regulation prohibits new non-water dependent structures over tidelands , a variance will be required.

(Published: May 30, 2003)