Deepwater Wind Submits Changes

Public Hearing to Follow
BY TRACEY C. O’Neill

Providence – The Department of Environmental Management (DEM) posted a required 45- day notice for public hearing on the Deepwater Wind Offshore Energy and Transmission project.

The hearing, scheduled for December 11, at Narragansett Town Hall will allow for public comment on proposed modifications to a State of Rhode Island Dredge Permit and Water Quality Certificate Application previously filed by Deepwater Wind (DWW) in anticipation of its plan to land a transmission cable at Narragansett Town Beach.

Modifications include withdrawal of the company’s export cable landing at Crescent Beach, New Shoreham, as well as the submarine cable and landfall station at Narragansett Town Beach, terrestrial cable and substation in Narragansett, and accompanying environmental studies.

In lieu of the Block Island to Narragansett Town Beach configuration, modifications for the alternate landing site at Scarborough State Beach were added.

Dubbed the Scarborough Beach Alternative, changes to the plan route the proposed transmission cable through state-controlled property.

“The Scarborough Beach Alternative does not change the BITS terrestrial cable route on Block Island or the proposed submarine cable route corridor through state and federal waters up to a point approximately 1 7.4 miles from the manhole on Block Island. 

At this point, the proposed Scarborough Beach alternative cable corridor diverges to the west from the route as originally proposed for a distance of approximately 2.4 miles traversing state submerged lands to make landfall at Scarborough State Beach at a manhole in the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management parking lot,” said the DEM notice.

The cable then transitions to a buried cable running up Burnside Avenue in Narragansett and connecting with a switchyard on Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) property,  transitioning again, sub-terrestrially along Kingstown Road and connecting with the Wakefield Substation in South Kingstown.

Anyone wishing to express opposition to the project is asked to appear at the December 11 hearing and give sworn testimony, with the written public comment period closing on December 23, 2013.

The DEM notice can be found here and supporting documents can be viewed locally at the Maury Loontjens Memorial Library, 35 Kingstown Road, Narragansett.