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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) Kyla Bennett ( 508) 230-9933; Kirsten Stade (202) 265-7337 |
Cape Wind Monitoring Plan Is for the Birds
Bird and Bat Studies Not Designed to Pick Up Meaningful Data
BOSTON - March 9 - The plan for monitoring impacts on birds and bats from the Cape Wind turbine farm slated for Nantucket Sound has gaping holes that may render it useless, according to formal comments filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The deficiencies mean that there will be no reliable method for gauging the true effects of the massive offshore project on bird and bat populations, especially federally protected species.
Currently, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) is conducting an environmental assessment of the Construction and Operations Plan including the “Cape Wind Avian And Bat Monitoring Plan” submitted by the project sponsor Cape Wind Associates. BOEM must approve the plan in order to issue permits for the project’s final development.
The proposed 130-turbine complex straddles the migratory routes of many species, including the endangered piping plover and roseate tern. The monitoring plan, however, suffers from –
- Not knowing the flight patterns of the piping plover and roseate tern, thus making it impossible to determine risk from the rotor blades. The plan proposes to use surrogate species, again, without knowing whether these substitute birds behave as the federally protected ones do;
- Reliance on a bat detection system designed for “cool dry conditions” that will instead be deployed in the ocean. Moreover, the manufacturer warns that some bat species will not be detected if they are flying more than one meter away from the detector and cautions that “detection distances will vary enormously”; and
- Such narrow use of acoustic monitoring and other sampling that it is unclear whether any data produced will be statistically meaningful.
“This plan is designed to create the illusion of effective monitoring,” stated New England PEER Director Kyla Bennett, a former federal scientist and attorney. “In that sense, this is worse than nothing at all because it blocks constructive efforts to measure true impacts.”
PEER is leading a coalition of plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the project for violations of the Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treat Act, and National Environmental Policy Act. In addition, PEER disclosed a trove of agency e-mails documenting that scientists did not have the data to make required assessments of the mega-project.
“By the time the actual effects of this project become apparent, it may be too late for the populations of concern,” Bennett added. “The Obama administration has repeatedly promised science-based decision-making. This would be the ideal moment to start following through on that pledge.”
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Show AllThank you, PEER. MMS/BOERME is advancing Cape Wind that should be reasonably anticipated to cause immitigable harm to federally protected wildlife. There is also a glaring appearance of conflict of financial interest in the outcome of this NEPA review process on the part of an MMS identified "Key Partner" that has "upstaged" U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in their Section 7 review process.
December 10, 2010
Michael Moriarty USFWS Regional Director
Maureen Bornholdt BOEME Program Manager
RE: Cape Wind Mass Audubon
Dear Mr. Moriarty and Ms. Bornholdt:
Thank you each for taking the time to speak with me yesterday at the forum held in Boston, MA, for ocean stakeholders in New England on President Obama's new National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, our Coasts, and the Great Lakes.
I do not, as Ms. Bornholdt suggests, consider that it should be my role to police a compromised ESA Section 7 federal process, by contacting Jack Clarke and Jim Gordon.
As I expressed during the Q&A following your presentations, Mass Audubon has participated in the collection of data, analyzed the same, and they have commented on the Cape Wind project as a Minerals Management Service identified "Key Partner" during the Cape Wind project NEPA environmental and permit review. NEPA environmental analysis should avoid taking on a project advocacy position; or demonstrate "bias" in favor or against a project as you understand.
By their own evidence, ongoing, Mass Audubon generally, and Jack Clarke and Taber Allison specifically, have exhibited "bias" in the Cape Wind permit review by offering Mass Audubon's conditional "support" for Cape Wind, ("Challenge" 2006 below), during the NEPA review in which they have been involved. By their own evidence, Mass Audubon states they intend to implement adaptive management adaptive management for the Cape Wind project, (June 25, 2010 press release), "funded by Cape Wind". Mass Audubon expresses conflict of financial interest in the outcome of the Cape Wind NEPA environmental review of the Cape Wind offshore wind energy project.
Conservation Law Foundation has an arm, CLF Ventures. I suspect that the NGO Mass Audubon has a similar business model as an extension to their NGO that would allow this for profit arrangement.
I respectfully request that USFWS and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Enforcement take action to intercede and prevent Mass Audubon from profiting by up to 6,600 violations of the MBTA per year by Cape Wind they assist. It is critical that Best Science is safeguarded where the roseate tern is at the brink of extinction and elsewhere.
If you will please note, Mass Audubon expresses intent to conduct AM for all U.S. offshore wind energy projects, (see evidence provided in the last link below).
Most Respectfully,
Barbara Durkin
Northboro, MA 01532
Telephone: XXX
Supporting evidence:
Mass Audubon's comments on the Cape Wind DEIS on February 23, 2005 to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District -- Reference File No. NAE-2004-338-1, EOEA No. 12643:
"By utilizing other bird mortality data provided in the DEIS, Mass Audubon staff scientists arrived at avian mortalities that ranged from 2,300 to 6,600 collision deaths per year."
http://www.massaudubon.org/PDF/CapeWindDEIS.pdf
‘Minerals Management Service FY 2006 Cooperative Conservation Project’
“Project Title:
Cape Wind Energy Project
Examples of Key Partners
Cape Wind LLC, State of Massachusetts, Cape Cod Commission, Massachusetts Audubon Society, Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Corps of Engineers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Aviation Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, and the U.S. Minerals Management Service.”
http://www.mms.gov/offshore/PDFs/CooperativeConservationReport2006.pdf
Published: March 28, 2006
A Cape Wind Challenge To Get It Right
by Taber Allison and Jack Clarke
"MASS AUDUBON CHALLENGES the developer of Cape Wind and its permitting agencies to accept comprehensive and rigorous monitoring and mitigation conditions that will reduce the risk to birds and other wildlife. If these conditions are adopted, and remaining data gaps are addressed, Mass Audubon will support Cape Wind, the largest, clean, renewable-energy project in the Northeast..."
"...Monitoring and mitigation should be funded by Cape Wind with contributions from independent institutions and government agencies as appropriate."
http://www.massaudubon.org/news/index.php?id=320&type=editorial
MA Audubon Announces their intent to implement Adaptive Management for the Cape Wind Project "funded by Cape Wind".
Mass Audubon "What's New? June 25, 2010 press release, excerpt:
"Next Steps for Mass Audubon participation
Mass Audubon will continue to analyze and report on Cape Wind through:
1. MMS’ OCS lease arrangement;
2. ACOE Section 10 permit issued under the US Rivers and Harbors Act;
3. EMS adaptive management plan; and
4. Avian monitoring and mitigation plan implementation during the construction and three year post-construction phases of the project."
http://www.massaudubon.org/news/index.php?id=1482&type=press
Additional Evidence:
http://bjdurk.newsvine.com/_news/2010/03/21/4046167-mass-audubon-condition-of-support-for-cape-wind-spells-bias
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