The draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on New Jersey’s first offshore wind project, Ocean Wind 1, drew more than 50 speakers at two hearings this month, offering no consensus on the report’s merits but underscoring the deep division between project supporters and opponents.

The bulk of the speakers at the online forums held on July 14 and 21 cited few specifics from BOEM’s 1,408-page report, instead offering often vigorous perspectives on whether the 1,100-MW, 98-turbine wind farm planned for a site 15 miles off Atlantic City should go ahead.

The DEIS, which BOEM released on June 17, found that Ocean Wind 1 would likely not have a major impact on most of the 19 environmental and related categories scrutinized. But the report also found that the construction and installation, operations and maintenance, and eventual decommissioning of the project could have a major impact on marine navigation and vessel traffic. (See BOEM Draft EIS Finds Potential Major Impacts from 1st NJ OSW Project.) About 140 people attended the forum Wednesday.

Clean Ocean Action, a nonprofit environmental organization that protects marine life, urged the federal agency to extend its public input period by 60 days to allow a more thorough analysis of the report. It also urged BOEM to approve only a pilot offshore wind project to allow the impact to be evaluated before committing to the portfolio of projects under development.

“Clean Ocean Action is not opposed to offshore wind, but the ocean deserves protection,” Cindy Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action, told the bureau July 14. “We are very concerned, and we have many questions.”

Among them, she said, are: What will be the impact on the ocean from its “massive industrialization” by wind projects? How would it “undermine the ocean’s ability to buffer climate change”? Will the area lose local seafood resources? And what are the “long-term consequences” of the projects?

“Do we really understand and know what we’re doing?” asked Zipf, one of four Clean Ocean Action speakers at the hearing. “The answer, we believe, is ‘no.’”

Property owners from Jersey Shore towns that face the planned wind farm site also spoke vigorously against the plan, fearing it would ruin the view and the atmosphere of the shore communities.

Joan-Marie Ebert, who said she owns a second home with her husband in Ocean City on the Jersey Shore, said they only recently learned about the wind project, which was approved in 2019, by accident. She said most Ocean City homeowners are also not well aware of the project because their properties are second homes, and they live out of state.

“Nobody knows about Ocean Wind. It is alarming to me that a project of this scale and scope and size with impact to our coastal communities is being pushed through so aggressively,” said Ebert, who spoke at both hearings. “My husband and I are not opposed to wind energy. However, 900-foot turbines, 98 of them with Ocean Wind 1, placed 15 miles off the coast, and three substations, will produce a dominant impact on the beach view.”

Supporters

Project opponents, however, were heavily outnumbered by environmental and business groups and other project supporters, who cited the need to move quickly to combat the growing threat of climate change, and the economic benefits and job creation that would come from the projects.

“I understand the fear of the unknown or uncertain,” James Lavor Thompson, campaigns director for the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, said at Wednesday’s hearing. “But the consequences of opposition to this project will have an effect on our marine life, water quality and air quality. … We have already seen these impacts in a very real way along the Jersey coast: rising sea levels, stronger storms, impact to marine life and coastal erosion. And the crisis is only getting worse.”

Supporters of the project said that offshore wind projects had been operating in Europe for years without problems. And they said the first U.S. offshore wind project, the 30-MW Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island that became operational in 2016, had shown that offshore wind works without causing problems.

“We already have a pilot project in Block Island,” said Drew Tompkins, director of advocacy and policy at the New Jersey Work Environment Council.

Several union representatives — among them representatives of the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, Easter Millwright Regional Council and the Laborers’ International Union of North America — shared their commitment to the project. So did Hilary Chebra, manager of government affairs for the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey.

“The draft environmental impact statement noted that there will be notable and measurable benefits as a result of offshore wind development,” said Chebra. “The jobs and economic benefits of Ocean Wind 1 are vital to the South Jersey region, to help diversify our economy that has been historically dependent on hospitality and gaming industries.”

Focusing more on the impact of Ocean Wind 1 on human beings, three medical professional urged BOEM to advance the project.

“Climate change poses threats to human health, safety and security,” Aviva Gans, a pediatric physical therapist, told the agency. “And children are uniquely vulnerable to these threats.”

Inga Robbins, a cardiologist and a member of Clinicians for Climate Action New Jersey, said she backed the wind projects in part because they would help combat the damage, particularly heart ailments, that are caused by pollution from fossil fuel-fired plants.

“I can’t bear to see the patients I care for every day, already struggling with a disparate burden of cardiovascular disease, find themselves in a hotter city with more flooding events,” she said.

Next Steps

BOEM will hold a final hearing this Tuesday, and the 45-day public comment period ends on Aug. 8, after which the agency will release its final environmental impact statement.

Ocean Wind 1, which is planned for a site about 15 miles from the Jersey Shore around Atlantic City, is one of three offshore wind projects so far approved in two solicitations by the New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU). The agency expects to hold three solicitations to bring the total capacity of the state’s offshore wind sector to 7,500 MW by 2035. (See NJ Awards Two Offshore Wind Projects.)

BOEM said the hearings are designed to solicit public input and new information that would shed new light on the report, such as issues over its accuracy; the adequacy of the methodology and the assumptions; questions seeking to clarify issues in the report; and alternative information sources not used.

The DEIS outlines the impact of several scenarios, including the project not going ahead, advancing as planned and advancing with modifications. These include scenarios that would remove between nine and 19 turbines that are closest to coastal communities, and a proposal to relocate eight turbines so that there is a space between Ocean Wind 1 and the Atlantic Shores project, which is planned for a nearby area.

In most cases, the DEIS concluded that the alternative scenarios would provide only minor to moderate benefits.

Requests and Questions

Kristen O’Rourke, quality of life director for the borough of Point Pleasant Beach, urged BOEM to extend the public comment period on the DEIS, in large part because the municipality’s small staff doesn’t have the time to fully digest the lengthy report at the height of the busy summer season.

An extension is needed “to give people like us — small people, small towns — a fighting chance to review the potential impacts to our environment,” she said.

BOEM officials said they will evaluate all suggestions, including the request to extend the public comment period. And the agency responded to some questions submitted at the hearing, some of which touched on concerns that have surfaced repeatedly at forums on the offshore wind projects.

Among them was why the Ocean Wind 1 proposal places turbines only 15 miles from the shore, when proposed projects in New York are twice that distance to minimize the visual impact.

Will Waskes, project coordinator for BOEM’s New Jersey office, said the state determined the location of wind projects to be built off the state’s coast around 2010. The decision was “intended to protect ecologically sensitive areas and minimize use conflicts,” among them those with vessel traffic and the activities of the Department of Defense, and also crafting a map of “areas that would be of sufficient size to hold a commercial-scale development.” Those decisions also were based on the technologies available at the time, he said, apparently referring to smaller turbines that were the norm then.

BOEM also addressed a concern often raised at hearings about the potential health risks from electromagnetic fields (EMF) emanating from high-voltage transmission lines that will run undersea and onshore through communities. Srinivas Vishnubhotla, a civil engineer for BOEM, said the agency studied the issue in 2019, and EMF levels associated with offshore wind projects were “found to be well below the recommended limits for human exposure.”

“The recommended limits for human exposure are 12 to 100 times higher than the EMF levels from cables measured at the seafloor,” he said. “Onshore export cables would be buried and housed within a single duct bank buried along the onshore export cable route.”

Vishnubhotla also addressed a speaker’s question on the ability of turbines to withstand a hurricane, and how the agency could “guarantee the workmanship and integrity on such a huge project.” He noted that a small land-based wind farm near the sea in Atlantic City “survived Hurricane Sandy and was back to full operations shortly after the storm passed.” Construction integrity is ensured by having a neutral third party certified verification agent (CVA) oversee the “design, the fabrication and the installation of any approved projects” and to verify compliance with BOEM requirements.

Ric Bertsch, a resident of Ocean City, said his reading of the report suggested that some mammals could suffer hearing loss from construction of the projects.

“Marine mammals, in particular in North Atlantic right whale, are at increased risk of greater mortality,” he said.

Greg Fulling, a marine biologist for BOEM, said the impact to marine mammals, sea turtles and fish depends on the distance from the noise source. “BOEM has worked directly with the National Marine Fisheries Service in evaluating and reducing these potential impacts,” he said.