Nov. 19--SALISBURY -- Salisbury officials have only recently become aware that 10 wind turbines could be built less than a quarter-mile off Salisbury Beach if the state's draft Ocean Management Plan were adopted.
A serious concern of both Salisbury Selectman Jerry Klima and Planning Board Chairman Don Egan is that after only recently seeing a map showing the turbine area less than 1,500 feet from shore, the state's office of Coastal Zone Management's public comment period for the draft plan closes Monday at 5 p.m.
CZM officials had a "listening session" in Salisbury in October 2008 to discuss the state's first Ocean Management Plan. The motivation for the plan was the Legislature's passage of the Ocean's Act of 2008, providing new energy opportunities for the state, such as off-shore drilling, wind and tidal turbines.
According to state officials at last year's meeting, they planned to collect information to formulate a plan. But Klima said Salisbury never received a copy of the draft plan with the map that has windmills so close to the town's beach. Klima only learned about Salisbury's role in the plan Tuesday, when a friend from Newburyport called to tell him.
"I never saw anything like this before that from the state," Klima said yesterday. "I asked (Town Manager) Neil Harrington, and he hasn't seen anything either. I don't think locating wind turbines within a quarter mile of Salisbury Beach is good for Salisbury. I looked at the map, and no other place along the coast where (the state) proposed turbines is this close to shore."
In July, the Daily News reported on information released by CZM concerning its report on its Ocean Management Plan to potentially put turbines off local shores as a secondary option to sites farther south. However, the July report didn't come with a map of specific turbine sites. It only discussed the possible wind energy area designations being anywhere from the New Hampshire border to Rowley.
In the material released in July, rules for setting up wind farms in state waters were discussed. However, the responsibility of site designation is placed at least partly in the hands of the state's regional planning agencies, in this case the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission.
"Under the plan, regional planning can allocate 10 turbines where they see fit by working with individual companies or cities and towns," assistant secretary for Oceans and Coastal Zone Management Affairs Deerin Babb-Brott said in July.
The plan also gives refusal rights to the community in whose waters a wind farm is proposed, but not neighboring communities.
"As I understand it, refusal rights doesn't mean veto power," Klima said yesterday.
The MVPC will hold a meeting at 7 tonight on the Ocean Management Plan, only two days before the public comment period closes. No one at the MVPC was available yesterday to respond to questions about the issue, and Babb-Brott did not return a call requesting clarification.
Egan has concerns similar to Klima's about the state's placement of the proposed wind turbine area, which private companies could then develop.
"I guess the thing that surprised me was the close proximity to the beach of the proposed area," Egan said. "Three miles offshore is way different than 1,329 feet. I believe in developing alternative energy sources, but I also believe that there has to be a balance."
Klima said he would be contacting Bob Straubel, the town's representative to the MVPC.
The area the state can manage through its plan is from 1,500 feet to three miles offshore, the only area within the state's jurisdictional waters.
In the other two areas proposed -- one off Cape Ann and the other off Cape Cod -- the location of the turbines would be farther away from the shoreline, Klima said, which would seem to indicate Salisbury Beach was singled out to take a greater burden.
"1,500 feet is a little longer than a good golf drive; that's pretty close," Klima said. "It seems to me that closeness isn't the standard down the coastline for other sites. I support wind energy, but this close placement in Salisbury is unreasonable."
Klima said wind turbines couldn't be this close to areas that are wildlife sanctuaries, such as on Plum Island.
"This couldn't be within three miles of Plum Island because it's a refuge," he said. "But you know, the same bird that sits on Plum Island sits on Salisbury Beach."
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