News

Outraged over state agency's shun

State coastline agency didn't know there are boaters off coast

By Angeljean Chiaramida
Staff writer
Published: November 23, 2009

SALISBURY — The state may be rethinking a plan to allow a wind turbine farm off Salisbury Beach after "additional data" revealed something that state coastline experts apparently didn't know — that there are lots of recreational boaters, and even a few lobstermen, who cruise off the coast.

Salisbury officials were shocked to discover last week that a draft plan for siting wind turbines identified a zone 500 yards off the popular beach, where fishing and pleasure boats are a frequent sight, particularly on summer weekends. The state identified three so-called "provisional" locations for the turbines off the Massachusetts coast, but the one off Salisbury Beach was the only one close to the shoreline.

Robert Straubel, Salisbury's representative to the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission, said at a commission meeting last week that Deerin Babb-Brott, the assistant secretary for the state Oceans and Coastal Zone Management agency, gave an hour-long presentation for the draft Ocean Management Plan. By the time it ended, Straubel got the impression Babb-Brott believed there might be a need for further review of siting a wind farm so close to Salisbury's shoreline.

"I think after hearing our comments they will be reviewing it," Straubel said. "(Babb-Brott) said they've received some additional data that the area has considerable recreational boating and that there's lobstering there."

Meanwhile, some Salisbury officials were furious at Babb-Brott's agency for failing to let them know about the plan. Salisbury officials learned about it last week, when a Newburyport city official informed Salisbury Selectman Jerry Klima.

"This isn't about windmills," said Town Manager Neil Harrington. "The issue is: You have a state agency writing a major plan that could tentatively affect this town and not telling us anything about it."

Although Straubel said CZM posted the plan — a huge document — on the Web, Harrington said that isn't enough, especially if no one told town officials there was a potential Salisbury involvement in the plan. The town should have been alerted months ago while the plan was being constructed, he said. Further, Harrington was never informed of the plan's September public hearings.

"People have been calling my office for two days concerned about this, and I had to tell them I don't know anything," Harrington said. "It's an embarrassment for the town to have a state agency behave in this manner. It's rare and striking, actually, that a state agency would act this way."

Harrington gave the example of the much improved relationship Salisbury has with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, which owns Salisbury Beach.

"When DCR wrote its Beach Management Plan, they kept the town involved every step of the way," he said, "presenting it to the Conservation Commission, taking comments, making changes. The result is a really great Beach Management Plan."

CZM officials had a "listening session" in Salisbury in October 2008 to discuss the state's first Ocean Management Plan, but did not present any specifics. It had to write the plan as part of the Legislature's passage of the Oceans Act of 2008. The act's motivation is to provide new energy opportunities for the state, such as off-shore drilling, wind and tidal turbines, pushed by Gov. Duval Patrick's administration.

Babb-Brott didn't return phone calls from The Daily News. Babb-Brott, whose salary is $110,000 a year, works as assistant secretary of Ocean and Coastal Zone Management under the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Straubel said he didn't find it surprising that officials at CZM had only recently realized the waters off one of the busiest of the state-owned beaches — the Salisbury Beach State Reservation — had significant recreational boating and lobstering.

Straubel said there could be some misunderstanding about the nature of the "provisional" wind farm siting in Salisbury waters. A provisional site means the area didn't meet the criteria for being completely excluded as an alternative energy site, and current technology makes it unlikely it would be commercially developed, Straubel said.

The wind quality off Salisbury Beach didn't seem sufficient to make wind energy generation commercially viable right now, he said. Should technology improve, the Ocean Management Plan would have to be amended to allow development of provisional areas, Straubel added.

In light of the provisional nature of the location, Straubel felt the degree of concern expressed in town earlier last week could be "a tempest in a teapot."