The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold public meetings in early November to help inform the environmental review of Deepwater Wind’s 90MW South Fork offshore wind farm project.
BOEM will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) submitted by Deepwater Wind that would allow it to construct and operate up to 15 turbines, an electric service platform offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts and an export cable to East Hampton, New York. The project area is approximately 19 miles southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island and 35 miles east of Montauk Point, New York.
BOEM’s scoping process is intended to identify any important issues and potential alternatives for consideration in the Deepwater Wind COP EIS. Throughout the scoping process, there will be multiple opportunities to help BOEM determine significant resources (e.g. avian, marine mammals) and issues, impact-producing factors, reasonable alternatives, and potential mitigating measures to be analyzed in the EIS.
During the public comment period, BOEM will hold three public scoping meetings to help inform BOEM’s environmental review. The meetings will be held in Amagansett, New York on 5 November; New Bedford, Massachusetts on 7 November; and Narragansett, Rhode Island on 8 November.
Comments on the EIS COP may be submitted by 19 November.