Redraft Environmental Impact Study For LBI Offshore Wind Farm, Opponents Ask

LONG BEACH ISLAND, NJ — A local conservation group is asking the Bureau of Ocean Management (BOEM) to rewrite their draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a proposed wind project off the coast of Long Beach Island.

Save LBI, an opponent of the proposed Atlantic Shores South Project led by Beach Haven resident Bob Stern (a former engineer for the U.S. Department of Energy), called for a redraft of the project's EIS in a news release shared the same day that BOEM approved Ocean Wind 1, another offshore wind farm in Ocean City. Read more: Feds Approve Wind Farm Project Off Coast Of Ocean City

During the comment period for the EIS, which ended July 3, Save LBI submitted 208 pages of comment.

"Those comments cited 23 subject areas where potentially significant impacts were not disclosed

or casually dismissed without evidence, and 7 other subjects where impacts were not fully
disclosed-the legal standard for an EIS," Save LBI said.

This includes the impact of turbine noise on the North Atlantic right whale, the risk to vessel navigation and "the synergistic impact of the most visible modern wind complex in the world, the effect of rotating blades, audible noise from turbine operation, reduced breeze and wave and

higher temperature and humidity, on the shore experience and upon the persons and
businesses that rely on that experience for their economic well-being," Save LBI said.

Save LBI also cited a "lack of a cumulative impact assessment of all the projects in the NJ and NY Bight areas" and no true alternatives offered for the public to weigh in on, "such as the turbine area, number, power, or gear type."

"Compounding all this was a 2000-page EIS often referencing a 4,000-page Construction and Operations Plan, and selectively citing 1,220 technical references, making it impossible to fully read, evaluate actual impact, and prepare comments in the limited time period allowed," Save LBI said.

Save LBI is asking the federal agency to "go back to the drawing board" and add in what they asked under the new EIS page limit of 150 from the Debt Reduction Act.

"This is not what the National Environmental Policy Act is about," Save LBI said.

For more information about Save LBI, visit their website.