NLWC News
Vineyard Wind – NLWC Position
Anna Day • September 3, 2024
The Nantucket Land & Water Council supports alternative energy and recognizes the potential benefits of offshore wind projects to mitigate our carbon footprint as well as the effects of climate change. However, it is our role as an environmental advocate and member of the Waterkeeper Alliance, to ensure that this industry is held accountable, specifically as it relates to the health of the environment. While this industry brings many opportunities, it still has impacts, like any industry, that must be avoided, minimized, or mitigated.
It is clear that none of the patchwork of local, state, and federal Vineyard Wind permits, which govern a great variety of environmental interests, contemplated the potential for the catastrophic collapse of a turbine blade on July 13th and the massive debris field that resulted in the surrounding waters and along our coastline. Our community was unprepared to deal with an event of this magnitude, and the delayed communications of Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova made matters much worse. The Town and community have been advocating for an appropriate response ever since.
Following the Bureau for Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE)’s revised suspension order allowing for continued construction of towers and nacelles, and confirmation last week of a 3rd GE Vernova Haliade-X turbine blade failure (including the one that washed up on our shores and two from the Dogger Bank installation off of the United Kingdom) in about 3 months’ time,
we are very concerned about appropriate resolution and remediation prior to power generation or the resumption of any further activity at the Vineyard Wind 1 site.
The NLWC will continue advocating for, among other items, the following:
- The turbines in the Vineyard Wind leased area should remain inactive until all existing blades have been fully tested to ensure the manufacturing defect that caused the blade failure on AW- 38 last month cannot happen again.
- Future blade installations should be required to be tested at a facility on land, not over the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean, as occurred in this case.
- Debris that has been collected should be tested for toxic and hazardous substances and a water quality sampling and monitoring program should be implemented, to ensure Nantucket’s waters remain clean, fishable and swimmable.
- The Arcadis CSM mapping of the debris field should be used to develop a protocol for future debris incidents involving Vineyard Wind’s offshore wind projects. This protocol must be scalable in the event of multiple or large-scale failures.
- The Initial Environmental Analysis report prepared by Arcadis must be validated by a third party to ensure concurrence with its conclusions.
- Existing permits and state and federal approvals, as appropriate, should be amended to incorporate best practice contingencies for future marine debris incidents associated with offshore wind development.
- Existing permits should also be amended to include communications plans requiring immediate public notification of future incidents to allow coastal communities to prepare for the various environmental impacts of such an event.
We will continue to speak with our congressional leaders and state representatives and petition the appropriate agencies to ensure the above matters are addressed. It is essential that project partners and the industry are held accountable for these missteps and major problems immediately before they risk being repeated here or elsewhere.
New partnership will transition conventional moorings in Monomoy to protect and restore Nantucket Harbor habitat The Nantucket Land & Water Council (NLWC) has received a generous grant from the Great Harbor Yacht Club Foundation to support the installation of eelgrass-friendly moorings in Nantucket Harbor, a major step forward in protecting one of the island’s most important marine habitats. Healthy eelgrass is essential to the vitality of Nantucket Harbor. Eelgrass meadows provide critical habitat for wild bay scallops and juvenile fish, improve water quality by filtering polluted runoff, absorb excess nutrients, store carbon, and stabilize shorelines against erosion and storm surge. Yet eelgrass in Nantucket Harbor has declined significantly in recent decades due to nutrient pollution, warming waters, and physical disturbance — including abrasion from traditional boat moorings. Since 2018, NLWC has worked with Harbormaster Sheila Lucey and her team, the Town of Nantucket and island partners on eelgrass restoration initiatives aimed at reversing this decline. One of the most practical and immediate solutions is transitioning conventional chain moorings to eelgrass-friendly systems — a key recommendation of the newly adopted Nantucket Eelgrass Management Plan. In 2022, NLWC partnered with Nantucket Harbormaster Sheila Lucey and Anderson Stillwater Moorings to design and implement an environmentally-sensitive mooring system adapted for Nantucket’s unique needs. The design uses a 300-pound pyramid anchor and an eco-rode that keeps gear suspended above the seabed, preventing the heavy chain “scouring” that destroys eelgrass beds around traditional moorings. The NLWC Waterkeeper vessel has been successfully secured using this mooring system for three consecutive seasons. Thanks to generous funding from the Great Harbor Yacht Club Foundation, NLWC and the Harbormaster’s Office will now launch a pilot program this spring, in partnership with local mooring companies, to transition up to 25 conventional moorings to eelgrass-friendly systems. Ed Orenstein, GHYC Foundation President, states: “The Foundation prioritizes projects that deliver both immediate and long-term benefits to Nantucket Harbor’s ecosystem and our community at large. These new eelgrass-friendly moorings accomplish both. We couldn’t be happier to team with NLWC on this impactful initiative and applaud Emily Molden’s leadership." NLWC will monitor the pilot sites to measure eelgrass recovery and seabed stability, with the goal of informing future harbor management decisions and expanding the program if successful. “Eelgrass is the foundation of our harbor ecosystem — without it, we lose scallops, water quality, and coastal resilience. The beauty of eelgrass-friendly moorings is that they solve a problem without restricting boating. This project shows conservation and harbor use can work together for the betterment of our environment and to the benefit of our community, and we hope it becomes a model for broader adoption.” – RJ Turcotte, Nantucket Waterkeeper The Nantucket Land & Water Council extends its sincere appreciation to the Great Harbor Yacht Club Foundation for their foresight, vision, and generous support for innovative solutions that protect the island’s land and water through science, advocacy, and community engagement.
If you feel aligned with our mission and would like to support our work through advocacy, there are many meaningful ways to get involved. You can attend local regulatory meetings, participate in and speak at Annual Town Meetings, serve as an informed environmental ambassador among friends and neighbors, rally support for articles that protect Nantucket’s natural resources, and oppose those that pose risks to their long-term health. You can also lend your voice by drafting or signing Letters to the Editor. If you’re interested in participating in our advocacy efforts as a Community Advocate, please click H ERE.
As the end of the Fall season approaches, we would like to take some time to reflect on Nantucket’s recent Special Town Meeting, held on November 4th. The Nantucket Land & Water Council has been engaged in Nantucket’s discussion about short-term rental (STR) policy and regulation for many years. As an organization, we have, at times, faced questions from residents about the relevance of STRs to the NLWC’s mission . The NLWC’s mission is to help preserve the long-term health of Nantucket’s environment and community through the protection of our land and water resources. Development impacts the environment. This simple fact should come as no surprise. Our actions on the land have a direct impact on the health of our waters. Nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus from septic systems and fertilizers, along with other contaminants such as those found in stormwater runoff, don’t just disappear. They travel through the soil and into our ponds, harbors, and drinking water. The accelerated development, repurposing of properties, and intensity of use associated with short-term rentals (STRs) as a business put increasing pressure on the island’s infrastructure, reduce habitat and biodiversity, and endanger our water quality. Of course, a community needs to change and develop and grow, but the health of our environment and the ability of a place to naturally support the people who live there are directly related to the intensity and type of development and growth that we, as a community, choose to allow and encourage. The NLWC has always made it clear that we are not opposed to all short-term rentals. We support the ability of island residents to short-term rent with reasonable restrictions. We have, first and foremost, sought to reduce the impact from investor-owned STRs, and reduce the intensity of use and development from properties that are maximized solely for the use of short-term rentals because of the cumulative environmental impacts that this type of use and development creates. We were very disappointed by the November STM vote, which resulted in the full codification of short-term rentals across all residential zoning districts of the island. It is clear that much of the community was incredibly alarmed by the simple messaging provided by Article 1 proponents that asserted this was a matter of maintaining an important property right or losing that right. Alternatively, we, as proponents of Article 2, attempted to communicate a more nuanced message that memorializing this right with reasonable restrictions would actually allow most residents to continue short-term renting in a meaningful way while helping to protect the future of our environment and community. As the dust settles, and our media expresses the reality of the inadequacy of our existing regulations ( https://nantucketcurrent.com/news/nantucket-banned-corporate-owned-short-term-rentals-a-loophole-is-allowing-them-to-continue ) , there is clearly more that needs to be done. All of our policies and practices relative to growth, development, and land and resource management , including STR regulations, must be scrutinized for their impact on our shared natural resources and adjusted where needed to protect the health of our environment and community. It is easy to make the claim that STRs as an issue is not “in our lane” and to suggest that how we use and develop our properties are somehow separate from: PFAS issues, contamination of our public water supply, nutrient pollution, and water conservation , but these are the exact concerns that compel the NLWC to engage in community conversations about growth, development, land use, and STRs. We are the voice for Nantucket’s environment, working to safeguard the present health and future sustainability of the island. This is our lane. We thank all of our members and friends for your support , regardless of your position or vote at STM. We know that, despite differences in opinion, we all share a deep care for this special place and a desire to protect what makes it unique. Together, we can shape policies that reflect both the needs of our community and the limits of our fragile island environment. Your willingness to stay engaged—ask questions, share concerns, and offer ideas—continues to strengthen our efforts. There is more work to do, and we look forward to doing that work with you.
