Notice2022-18057
Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Construction of the New England Wind Offshore Wind Farm, Offshore Massachusetts
Primary source
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Published
August 22, 2022
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
NMFS has received a petition from Park City Wind LLC (Park City Wind), a wholly owned subsidiary of Avangrid Renewables, LLC, requesting authorization to take small numbers of marine mammals incidental to construction activities associated with the New England Wind Offshore Wind Farm in a designated lease area on the Outer Continental Shelf (OSC-A 0534) offshore Massachusetts over the course of 5 years beginning in 2025. Pursuant to regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is announcing receipt of Park City Wind's request for the development and implementation of regulations governing the incidental taking of marine mammals and issuance of a Letter of Authorization (LOA). NMFS invites the public to provide information, suggestions, and comments on Park City Wind's application and request.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 161 (Monday, August 22, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 161 (Monday, August 22, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51345-51346]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-18057]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[RTID 0648-XC234]
Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals
Incidental to Construction of the New England Wind Offshore Wind Farm,
Offshore Massachusetts
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; receipt of application for regulations and Letter of
Authorization; request for comments and information.
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SUMMARY: NMFS has received a petition from Park City Wind LLC (Park
City Wind), a wholly owned subsidiary of Avangrid Renewables, LLC,
requesting authorization to take small numbers of marine mammals
incidental to construction activities associated with the New England
Wind Offshore Wind Farm in a designated lease area on the Outer
Continental Shelf (OSC-A 0534) offshore Massachusetts over the course
of 5 years beginning in 2025. Pursuant to regulations implementing the
Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is announcing receipt of Park
City Wind's request for the development and implementation of
regulations governing the incidental taking of marine mammals and
issuance of a Letter of Authorization (LOA). NMFS invites the public to
provide information, suggestions, and comments on Park City Wind's
application and request.
DATES: Comments and information must be received no later than
September 21, 2022.
ADDRESSES: Comments on the application should be addressed to Jolie
Harrison, Chief, Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected
Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service and should be sent to
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#1b524f4b355f7a77625b75747a7a357c746d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="4a031e1a640e2b26330a24252b2b642d253c">[email protected]</span></a>.
Instructions: NMFS is not responsible for comments sent by any
other method, to any other address or individual, or received after the
end of the comment period. Comments received electronically, including
all attachments, must not exceed a 25-megabyte file size. Attachments
to electronic comments will be accepted in Microsoft Word or Excel or
Adobe PDF file formats only. All comments received are a part of the
public record and will generally be posted online at <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/incidental-take-authorizations-other-energy-activities-renewable">https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/incidental-take-authorizations-other-energy-activities-renewable</a> without change.
All personal identifying information (e.g., name, address) voluntarily
submitted by the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do not submit
confidential business information or otherwise sensitive or protected
information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jaclyn Daly, Office of Protected
Resources, NMFS, (301) 427-8401. An electronic copy of Park City Wind's
application may be obtained online at: <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/incidental-take-authorizations-other-energy-activities-renewable">https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/incidental-take-authorizations-other-energy-activities-renewable</a>. In case of problems accessing these
documents, please email the contact listed above.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Sections 101(a)(5)(A) and (D) of the MMPA (16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq.)
direct the Secretary of Commerce (as delegated to NMFS) to allow, upon
request, the incidental, but not intentional, taking of small numbers
of marine mammals by U.S. citizens who engage in a specified activity
(other than commercial fishing) within a specified geographical region
if certain findings are made and either regulations are issued or, if
the taking is limited to harassment, a notice of a proposed
authorization is provided to the public for review. For requests under
section 101(A)(5)(A) of the MMPA, NMFS is also required to begin the
public review process by publishing a notice of receipt of a request
for the implementation of regulations governing the incidental taking
(50 CFR 216.104(b)(1)(ii)).
An incidental take authorization shall be granted if NMFS finds
that the taking will have a negligible impact on the species or
stock(s), will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the
availability of the species or stock(s) for subsistence uses (where
relevant), and if the permissible methods of taking and requirements
pertaining to the mitigation, monitoring and reporting of such takings
are set forth.
NMFS has defined ``negligible impact'' in 50 CFR 216.103 as an
impact resulting from the specified activity that cannot be reasonably
expected to, and is not reasonably likely to, adversely affect the
species or stock through effects on annual rates of recruitment or
survival.
The MMPA states that the term ``take'' means to harass, hunt,
capture, kill or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine
mammal.
Except with respect to certain activities not pertinent here, the
MMPA defines ``harassment'' as: any act of pursuit, torment, or
annoyance, which (i) has the potential to injure a marine mammal or
marine mammal stock in the wild (Level A harassment); or (ii) has the
potential to disturb a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild
by causing disruption of behavioral patterns, including, but not
limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or
sheltering (Level B harassment).
Summary of Request
On December 1, 2021, NMFS received an application from Park City
Wind requesting authorization to take, by Level A harassment and Level
B harassment, 39 species of marine mammals incidental to construction
and operation activities associated with the development of the New
England Wind Offshore Wind Farm offshore of Massachusetts in Commercial
Lease (OCS-A-0534). In response to our comments, and following
extensive information exchange with NMFS, Park City Wind submitted a
final, revised application on July 13, 2022, that we determined was
adequate and complete on July 20, 2022. Park City Wind requested the
regulations and subsequent LOA be valid for 5 years beginning in 2025.
Park City Wind is proposing to develop the New England Wind project
in two Phases with a maximum of 130 wind turbine generators (WTGs) and
electrical service platform (ESP) positions. Two positions may
potentially have co-located ESPs (i.e., two foundations installed at
one grid position), resulting in 132 foundations.
[[Page 51346]]
Phase 1 would include 41 to 62 WTGs and one or two ESPs while Phase 2
would include 64 to 88 WTG/ESP positions (up to three of those
positions will be occupied by ESPs). Four or five offshore export
cables will transmit electricity generated by the WTGs to onshore
transmission systems in the Town of Barnstable, Massachusetts.
New England Wind's offshore renewable wind energy facilities are
located immediately southwest of Vineyard Wind 1, which is located in
Lease Area OCS-A 0501. New England Wind will occupy all of Lease Area
OCS-A 0534 and potentially a portion of Lease Area OCS-A 0501 in the
event that Vineyard Wind 1 does not develop ``spare'' or extra
positions included in Lease Area OCS-A 0501 and Vineyard Wind 1 assigns
those positions to Lease Area OCS-A 0534. For the purposes of the LOA,
the Southern Wind Development Area (SWDA) is defined as all of Lease
Area OCS-A 0534 and the southwest portion of Lease Area OCS-A 0501.
Park City Wind considered the following activities associated with
wind farm construction and operation in its application: installation
of WTG and ESP foundations using impact and vibratory pile driving and
drilling; high-order detonation of unexploded ordnances (UXOs); high-
resolution geophysical (HRG) site characterization surveys; fisheries
monitoring surveys; and export cable and inter-array cable trenching,
laying, and burial. Vessels will be used to transport crew, supplies,
and materials within the Project area to support construction and
operation. Park City Wind has determined that a subset of these
activities (i.e., WTG and ESP foundation installation, HRG surveys, and
UXO detonation) may result in the taking, by Level A harassment and
Level B harassment, of marine mammals. Therefore, Park City Wind
requests authorization to incidentally take marine mammals.
Specified Activities
In Executive Order 14008, President Biden stated that it is the
policy of the United States to organize and deploy the full capacity of
its agencies to combat the climate crisis to implement a Government-
wide approach that reduces climate pollution in every sector of the
economy; increases resilience to the impacts of climate change;
protects public health; conserves our lands, waters, and biodiversity;
delivers environmental justice; and spurs well-paying union jobs and
economic growth, especially through innovation, commercialization, and
deployment of clean energy technologies and infrastructure.
Through a competitive leasing process under 30 CFR 585.211, Park
City Wind was awarded Commercial Lease OCS-A 0534 offshore of
Massachusetts and the exclusive right to submit a construction and
operations plan (COP) for activities within the lease area. Park City
Wind has submitted a COP to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
(BOEM) proposing the construction, operation, maintenance, and
conceptual decommissioning of the New England Wind project within Lease
Area OCS-A 0487 and consisting of up to 130 WTGs, 2 ESPs,
Park City Wind has provided a complete description of the specified
activities and their proposed mitigation, monitoring and reporting
measures in their application. They have also included a description of
estimated take methods and results. Park City Wind anticipates the
following activities may potentially result in harassment of marine
mammals:
<bullet> installing up to 130 WTG foundations comprised of either
monopile or jacket foundations. Monopiles would not exceed 12-meters
(m) in diameter for Phase 1 and 13-m for Phase 2 and would be installed
using a 5,000 kilojoule (kJ) or 6,000 kJ impact hammer while each
jacket foundation would consist of four 4-m pin piles installed with a
3500 kJ hammer. A vibratory hammer and drill may also be used to
install the piles, as necessary. All pile driving and drilling would
occur from May through December over the course of 2-3 years;
<bullet> installing up to five ESP jacket foundations (four 4-m pin
piles) by impact and/or vibratory pile driving and potentially drilling
from May through December over the course of 2-3 years; and
<bullet> using HRG equipment to survey approximately 10,000
kilometers (km) over 5 years (80 km/day x 25 days/year x 5 years); and
<bullet> the potential high-order detonation of up to 10 UXOs over
the course of 10 days (1 UXO detonation per day, as necessary).
Park City Wind has provided two construction schedules
(Construction Schedule A and B) but has requested take assuming that
all foundations would be jacket foundations. A final decision on
foundation types (and hence construction schedule) will be identified
during the environmental review permitting process. Park City Wind has
also indicated that these are the most accurate estimates for the
durations of each planned activity, but that the schedule may shift
over the course of the Project due to weather, mechanical, or other
related delays.
Information Solicited
Interested persons may submit information, suggestions, and
comments concerning Park City Wind's request (see ADDRESSES). NMFS will
consider all information, suggestions, and comments related to the
request during the development of proposed regulations governing the
incidental taking of marine mammals by Park City Wind, if appropriate.
Dated: August 17, 2022.
Kimberly Damon-Randall,
Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. 2022-18057 Filed 8-19-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on August 22, 2022.
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