Abstract
The general concept is to install and maintain one (1) meteorological and oceanographic buoy, hereafter referred to as metocean buoy, within the Massachusetts Wind Energy Area (WEA) of the Atlantic Ocean, as designated by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and leased to Mayflower Wind LLC (Mayflower Wind).
The device to be deployed is a floating Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) buoy, which will float on the surface and be moored to the seafloor. The proposed location for the metocean buoy is shown in Figure 1.2.1 Location Plat; coordinates and water depth are:
E: 386938.58
N: 4517685.79
Latitude: 40° 48’ 08.627’’ N
Longitude: 70° 20’ 25.192’ W
NAD83, UTN 19N [EPSG 26919]
Depth: 46.6 meters (153 feet, 25.5 fathoms)
Anchor sediment penetration depth: 1 meter
Mooring chain sweep: 131ft. (40 meters)
Anchor sweep: N/A
The information collected from the metocean buoy will be used during the pre-installation, installation, construction and operations to supplement existing metocean measurement data available in Massachusetts WEA and Northeast Atlantic.
Installation of the metocean buoy is planned for late October 2019. The installation process is expected to take less than one week, from arrival of the work platform in the port of operations to the time the buoy enters the water and mooring weight is placed on the seafloor. The total duration of the metocean buoy deployment for data collection is anticipated to be approximately one (1) year.
The buoy is considered a non-complex ocean buoy as it is a proven and widely used technology and many similar systems are deployed on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Mayflower sponsor, Shell, deploys similar metocean buoys in the Gulf of Mexico in waters deeper (up to 2900 meters). This buoy uses industry standard materials and anchors and has a minimal seabed footprint (~3 meters diameter) and very small penetration depth into the seafloor (1 meter or less). The installation, operation, and decommissioning of the metocean buoy will have negligible or less than negligible impacts on the affected environment.