State unveils offshore management plan
Credit: By Patrick Cassidy, STAFF WRITER, Cape Cod Times, www.capecodonline.com 4 January 2010
Massachusetts officials unveiled a first-of-its-kind plan today for wind energy projects and other uses of state ocean waters.
Although the Ocean Management Plan retains many components from a draft released in July, other aspects of the five-year blueprint were changed after concerns over the plan’s potential impacts, including on Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod.
The plan covers waters from about 1,500 feet offshore out to three miles. It does not affect the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm, which would be located in federal waters.
The Cape Cod Ocean Sanctuary off the coast of the Cape Cod National Seashore is protected from most activities, according to the plan.
“I’m very proud,” state Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles, said today. “I think if you look at the statements from the Obama administration about their intent to develop a federal ocean plan, they are all looking at the Massachusetts management plan as a model for that.”
Under the management plan, two areas southwest of Martha’s Vineyard are open to commercial wind energy projects of up to 150 wind turbines. The draft plan allowed for up to 166 turbines in the same areas.
In response to concerns from Vineyard officials and residents, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission has been given authority in the final plan to define what is appropriate for one of the two areas southwest of Nomans Land, an island that was formerly used as a Navy bombing range.
An arbitrary limit of 10 “community sponsored” turbines in the draft version of the plan was adjusted to reflect a more methodical allocation of turbines within the jurisdictions of each of the state’s seven regional planning agencies.
In the waters around the Cape 24 turbines are now allowed if adjacent communities and the Cape Cod Commission agree to the size and location of the turbines. An additional 17 turbines are possible off the Vineyard with the approval of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission. The waters around Nantucket are open to up to 11 turbines with community approval, according to the plan.
The final plan also goes farther than the draft to protect environmentally sensitive areas, Bowles said.
“The plan increased the regulatory standards for environmental protection,” he said.
The Martha’s Vineyard Commission and the Cape Cod Commission are in the process of establishing rules to further protect environmentally sensitive offshore areas from unwanted development. The Cape’s planning and regulatory agency has scheduled a public hearing Jan. 21 on the proposed designation of a “district of critical planning concern” for 900 square miles of water under its jurisdiction.
After the release of the draft plan the Cape and Vineyard planning agencies pushed for more control over projects in waters in their jurisdiction. Bowles agreed to give planning agencies with regulatory authority the right to define the scale of projects in waters off their coasts.
The new plan also includes a commitment from the Massachusetts Ocean Partnership for a $2.5 million research project for coastal waters.
- Read more on this story in tomorrow’s Cape Cod Times
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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