Abstract
Park City Wind, LLC (applicant) proposes to construct, operate, and eventually decommission the New England Wind Project (proposed Project), which would consist of wind energy facilities generating at least 2,036 megawatts and up to 2,600 megawatts within Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Renewable Energy Lease Area (Lease Area) OCS-A 0534 and a portion of Lease Area OCS-A 0501. The proposed Project would be offshore Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts, and would be developed in two phases. Together, the two phases would include a maximum of 130 wind turbine generators (WTG) and electrical service platform (ESP) positions on foundation support structures. Five offshore export cables―two cables for Phase 1 and three cables for Phase 2―would transmit electricity from the WTGs and ESPs to shore.
The portion of the lease areas developed by the applicant, referred to as the Southern Wind Development Area, would occupy 101,590 to 111,939 acres, depending on whether unused WTG and ESP positions in Lease Area OCS-A 0501—currently assigned to the Vineyard Wind 1 Project (Vineyard Wind 1)—are reassigned to the proposed Project. As defined in the proposed Project design envelope for the proposed Project (Appendix C, Project Design Envelope and Maximum-Case Scenario, of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement [EIS] for the proposed Project; BOEM 2022), Phase 1, which would be constructed immediately adjacent to Vineyard Wind 1, would include 41 to 62 WTGs and 1 or 2 ESPs. As defined in the proposed Project design envelope, Phase 2 would be constructed immediately south of Phase 1 and could include up to 88 foundations supporting WTGs and up to 3 ESPs. The Southern Wind Development Area and other lease areas offshore of Rhode Island and Massachusetts (RI/MA Lease Areas) are depicted on Figure 1-1. Figure 1-2 shows the maximum dimensions of the WTGs constructed in both phases of the proposed Project.
This Cumulative Historic Resources Visual Effects Assessment (assessment) for the proposed Project is intended to assist BOEM and the Massachusetts Historical Commission (in its role as State Historic Preservation Office) in their responsibilities to review the proposed Project under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. This assessment considers the visual effects of the proposed Project in combination with the visual effects of other offshore wind projects in the RI/MA Lease Areas on historic properties.
BOEM conducted a thorough process to identify the possible extent of future offshore wind development on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf to determine what is likely or reasonably foreseeable for the purpose of assessing cumulative effects (BOEM 2019). In evaluating impacts on cultural resources, the planned activities scenario included in the Draft EIS for the proposed Project (Appendix E of the Draft EIS) considers all nine offshore wind projects in the RI/MA Lease Areas (Figure 1-1). Based on construction and operations plans (COP) submitted by project applicants, as well as announced electrical power offtake contracts, BOEM determined that 1,033 WTGs built within the RI/MA Lease Areas would represent the maximum-case scenario for potential impacts on visual resources. For the purpose of analyzing effects on cultural resources, the Draft EIS and this assessment assume that the proposed Project (upon completion of both phases) would consist of a maximum of 129 WTGs, each of which would measure up to 725 feet above mean lower low water (MLLW) to the top of the nacelle (the structure housing the WTG gearbox)—where required aviation lighting is mounted—and maximum vertical blade tip extension of up to 1,171 feet MLLW (Figure 1-2). Developers of the projects in the RI/MA Lease Areas have agreed to install WTGs and ESPs in an east-to-west, north-to-south grid pattern with 1.0 nautical mile (1.9 kilometers, 1.15 miles) × 1.0 nautical mile (1.9 kilometers, 1.15 miles) spacing between positions. These assumptions form the basis for analyzing potential resource-specific effects. Section 2.1.1 includes additional assumptions about WTG characteristics.
The applicant prepared a Historic Properties Visual Impact Assessment (HPVIA) (COP Appendix III-H.b; Epsilon 2022), which determined that the proposed Project would adversely affect five historic properties on Martha’s Vineyard: the Gay Head Lighthouse, Edwin Vanderhoop Homestead, Gay Head – Aquinnah Shops Area, the Vineyard Sound and Moshup’s Bridge traditional cultural property (TCP), and the Chappaquiddick Island TCP. The proposed Project would not affect properties on mainland Cape Cod or adjacent islands due to the introduction of new, modern, and intrusive visual elements. The HPVIA also determined that the scale, extent, and intensity of visual effects would be partially mitigated by environmental and atmospheric factors, as well as the applicant’s voluntary actions to reduce the extent, scale, and magnitude of visual effects. BOEM determined that, in addition to the five resources listed above, the proposed Project would also adversely affect the Nantucket Sound TCP on Martha’s Vineyard, as well as the Nantucket Historic District National Historic Landmark (NHL). These properties all fall within the area of “intervisibility,” defined as the geographic intersection of the viewshed from which structures from the proposed Project and other offshore wind projects in the RI/MA Lease Areas would be theoretically visible.
Due to the limited number of historic properties affected and environmental and geographic mitigating factors, overall visual effects on historic properties from the proposed Project and other offshore wind projects in the RI/MA Lease Areas would be geographically limited and low intensity, although effects on individual cultural resources would vary. Historic properties for which a sea view to the horizon is a contributing element to the property’s National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility would be affected more than resources for which a sea view is not a contributing element. The applicant’s HPVIA recommended that the sea view to the horizon and maritime setting are contributing elements to the NRHP eligibility of the Gay Head Lighthouse, the Chappaquiddick Island TCP, and the Nantucket Historic District NHL. In addition, BOEM finds that the sea view is also a contributing element of NRHP eligibility for the Aquinnah Cultural Center, the Aquinnah Shops Area, Vineyard Sound and Moshup’s Bridge TCP, and Nantucket Sound TCP because these resources encompass areas of open water and adjacent shorelines (and/or views of open water and shorelines). As a result, construction of the proposed Project and other offshore wind projects would introduce new, modern visual elements out of character with the historic setting, which would have adverse effects on these seven cultural resources within the proposed Project’s viewshed area of potential effects (APE).
This assessment presents an analysis of the combined visual effects of the proposed Project and other offshore wind projects in the RI/MA Lease Areas on the above-listed historic properties. Thus, by definition, this assessment is limited to analyzing cumulative effects on the historic properties that would be adversely affected by the proposed Project: the Gay Head Lighthouse, the Aquinnah Cultural Center, the Aquinnah Shops Area, the Chappaquiddick Island TCP, Nantucket Historic District NHL, the Vineyard Sound and Moshup’s Bridge TCP, and the Nantucket Sound TCP.