Nantucket urges public action to determine outcome of wind project 

The Town of Nantucket calls on you to help safeguard one of the nation’s most treasured National Historic Landmarks. We ask that you contact the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) and the Massachusetts State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) to urge them to decline signing the Section 106 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for SouthCoast Wind. Section 106 requires federal agencies to consider the effects on historic properties of projects they carry out, assist, fund, permit, license, or approve throughout the country, and to find ways to avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse effects on those properties.

BOEM has failed to address critical deficiencies in the Section 106 process, including:

• Inadequate mitigation for the adverse visual effects on Nantucket Historic District National Historic Landmark (NHL).

• No legitimate plan to address future turbine failures, which could harm our beaches and environment.

• Insufficient decommissioning funding to ensure timely removal of turbines at the end of their useful life.

Despite these serious concerns, BOEM has only proposed $150,000 for historic property and archaeological surveys that the Town has not requested. This is an inadequate response that fails to meet the standards of meaningful mitigation under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).

Please send an email to the ACHP and SHPO today, urging them to refuse to sign the SouthCoast Wind MOA unless BOEM commits to working with the Town to develop mitigation proposals that meaningfully address the harm caused by this project. Or click here to view a customizable email template.

Overview

Since 2009, Massachusetts has been leading an intensive effort with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to advance offshore wind in leasing areas 14 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. This effort has involved extensive collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders and resulted in accommodations to avoid important marine habitat, fishing grounds, and marine commerce routes, and most notably the reduction of the original offshore wind energy area by 60%. Multiple offshore wind developers have lease agreements to build projects in the federal waters south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts. (Source: MassCEC)

Clean energy goals and the preservation of Nantucket’s unique historic character are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, the historic preservation movement has been a leader in finding creative ways to address climate change and sea level rise. Communities like Nantucket with significant inventories of historic properties connected to historic ocean viewsheds have legal rights under the National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act that too often get overlooked. Under these federal statutes, and related state laws, federal agencies have a duty to assess adverse effects on historic and cultural resources and find ways through consultation to avoid, minimize, or mitigate harm. Adverse effects of offshore wind farms include, but are not limited to visual impacts, lighting impacts, and harm to local economies that depend on the preservation and protection of historic ocean landscapes.

Communities and offshore wind developers can and should forge long-term partnerships. Establishing trust, engaging in consultation, and developing creative solutions make it possible to achieve clean energy goals while ensuring that Nantucket has ways to offset the development’s harms to heritage tourism, property values, and historic context.

Federal Regulatory Framework

In reviewing permit applications for offshore wind projects, the Bureau of Ocean Energy management (BOEM) is required under federal law to consider the impacts to resources in the Project Area. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is designed to ensure that the public and decision-makers are provided with the information they need to make a considered decision about the best path forward. The statute is also designed to ensure that the agency has carefully and fully contemplated the environmental effects of its proposed action, requiring federal agencies to take a “hard look” at the environmental consequences of a proposed action. In addition to considering impacts on the natural environment, NEPA requires federal agencies to consider impacts on historic and cultural resources.

Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) requires BOEM to address impacts to historic properties. As part of the federal government’s policy of protecting the nation’s historic heritage and sense of orientation as an American people, Section 106 requires federal agencies to consider the effects on historic properties of projects they carry out, assist, fund, permit, license, or approve throughout the country.

If a federal or federally-assisted project has the potential to affect historic properties listed or determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, a Section 106 review is required. During Section 106 review, once historic properties have been identified in coordination with the applicable State Historic Preservation Officer, the federal agency charged with permitting the proposed project must find ways to avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse effects to those properties in consultation with parties who have a demonstrated interest in the undertaking. If a community like Nantucket has National Historic Landmarks—such as the Nantucket Historic District—that have a potential to experience adverse effects, Section 110(f) of the NHPA requires BOEM to use all possible planning to minimize harm, a heightened legal duty that BOEM often overlooks.

To learn more about NEPA and the NHPA, additional information is available here and here.