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DNREC should protect Fenwick park, not ruin it
Credit: Delaware News Journal | Nov. 15, 2019 | www.delawareonline.com ~~
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Translate: FROM English | TO English
Several offshore wind farm projects that will stretch from Rehoboth Beach to Ocean City, MD will soon be a reality unless citizens and legislators take action now.
Orsted Wind Power (Denmark) has been granted one of multiple offshore wind farm leases. Orsted’s Skipjack Offshore Energy LLC and Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control have a tentative agreement to allow installation of multiple electric transmission cables and connection facilities (industrial uses) in the ecologically fragile Fenwick Island State Park in exchange for a major expansion of the park.
The Park is a narrow strip of sensitive ecosystems, wetlands, and wildlife habitats that normally would be protected by DNREC, so why the push to commercialize and industrialize it?
Skipjack and other offshore wind energy companies are looking to use the tallest wind turbines in the world, measuring 853 feet or 3 times taller than the turbine in Lewes. These turbines will be in plain view from the Delaware shoreline both day and night with flashing red beacon lights.
This will forever destroy the pristine ocean vista.
Renewable clean energy is a good thing, but offshore wind turbines visible from Delaware’s Atlantic coastline should not be allowed. Many official groups are against placing these large turbines off shore including The Town of Fenwick Island and several wildlife groups.
DNREC has decided that $18 million plus a $740,000 endowment to support maintenance of the park far outweighs ruining the park and Delaware’s ocean horizon.
The park is located in a flood zone,which normally is a criterion for restricting the number of buildings, parking and permitted uses in such a sensitive ecosystem area.
It’s no secret that the Atlantic coastline is in a hurricane corridor. If the proposed turbines are struck down in a storm, who will pay to cleanup the damage?
The Atlantic horizon should NEVER be polluted with wind turbines because the natural horizon belongs to the people and future generations, not energy developers. Responsible renewable energy can be accomplished without destroying Delaware’s coastal views and fragile park ecosystems.
The solution is simple, offshore wind energy needs to be done “the right way,” by keeping turbines out of sight from the shoreline and placing the landside cables in proper industrial locations.
DNREC should be protecting the park, not destroying its natural character by approving its expansion and the creation of an industrial application within the Park boundaries.
Delaware’s legislators need to pick up the torch now, and be the stewards of the State’s natural resources and the protectors of our Atlantic coastline by stopping Skipjack and other offshore wind projects until the view from our coastline is guaranteed to remain as it is today.
— Patti Breger, Fenwick Island
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