East Hampton Star - Letter to the Editor
Sag Harbor
July 8, 2019
Dear David,
As an environmental professional actively engaged in the public review process of the Deepwater Wind proposal, I’m moved to address a technical element that has generated a great deal of controversy and misinformation. Specifically, sea-floor burial and terrestrial landing of the transmission cable.
My academic training and professional experience in the biological sciences, coastal processes, and marine-construction permitting enables me to speak with some authority on the matter.
Installation of the 60-mile-long submarine cable extending from turbines to the near shore is accomplished by jet plowing. Jet plowing or hydro-jetting is a common technique used to bury transmission lines. This technique fluidizes bottom sediments in advance of a cutter blade trenching the sea floor.
Although hydro-jetting has its environmental impacts, namely increased turbidity and disturbance/burial of benthic life, the impacts are generally limited and short term. Sediments resettle, the trench fills in, and the benthic community re-establishes itself.
The cable landing is the aspect of the project that has caused much anxiety for the Wainscott community, and the focus of misinformation put forth by opponents of the project. Specifically, conflating the technical mistakes made at the Block Island landing (inadequate cable depth through the near shore/beach zone) to the proposed Beach Lane site.
Unlike the Block Island scenario, which utilized hydro-jetting with landing the cable, horizontal directional drilling (H.D.D.), a technique used throughout the world with pipeline and transmission cable installations, will be employed. H.D.D. is a proven technology capable of threading the cable deep underground and well below and beyond the influences of a dynamic coastal zone.
While community concerns about cable exposure are a legitimate point of inquiry, fears of the cable surfacing are misplaced. Placed at a depth of at least 30 feet and spanning roughly 1,750 feet offshore, there’s zero chance the cable will ever be exposed even with the most powerful, beach-altering storm events.
As I’ve stated publicly, it’s unsettling to think about the industrialization of our oceans in order to satisfy our energy needs. However, the choice between oil platforms and despoiled seas or wind turbines should be clear to us.
KEVIN McALLISTER
Founder
Defend H2O