PETERSBURG – Some members of the public speaking at the June 12 Upper Township Committee meeting asked the governing body to take a stance on the proposed Ocean Wind project, however, three of the five committee members have so far declined to do so.
The request came in the wake of an eight-page resolution from the Cape May County Board of County Commissioners voicing opposition to two Ocean Wind projects that would result in a combined 200 wind turbines with foundations being installed on the seabed.
The first speaker asked why Upper Township was not listed among 50 towns opposing the wind farm projects.
“We are quite literally on the front lines,” the speaker said.
Committeemen Victor Nappen and Curtis Corson have expressed skepticism about the project and voted against an ordinance that allows a substation that will ultimately be connected to the wind farm. Corson was more specific in his opposition to the wind farm June 12.
“I’m against the windmills. They will destroy tourism, they will destroy fishing… no one will say they want that view, and I think it is not fiscally responsible,” he said.
Members of the public, such as Deb McMahon, described the wind turbines as being “the size of the Eiffel Towner,” and referred to the wind farms as the industrialization of the ocean.
Technically, the turbines are 200 feet shorter than the Eiffel Tower, and a portion of the turbine’s tower will be submerged. The visible portion of the wind turbine will be 9 miles to 16 miles from the beach.
McMahon also referred to the electrical cable that will run from the wind farm to the power substation at Beesley’s Point and the electromagnetic field it will create.
“Who wants to live near that?” she asked.
At an application hearing before the Planning Board, the applicant for the substation called on Pamela Dopart, who holds a doctorate in environmental health sciences, to address environmental considerations of the project.
Dopart said, in response to a resident’s question, electromagnetic fields dissipate very rapidly and likely would not be felt 40 feet away – the distance from the resident’s house to the buried cable.
“This is going to destroy the fishing industry. It’s going to devastate the entire coast,” said Bob Rush, who described himself as working in the fishing industry. “How much are you getting paid off?”
An NBC10 article posted online in December 2021 said the Ocean Wind developer was going to pay the State of New Jersey $26 million in fees, which would go to monitoring the effects of the wind farm on the environment. The article said the two wind farms would provide for the electricity needs of 1.1 million homes in New Jersey, or about one-third of all the homes in the state.
In May, it was announced that the City of Wildwood was one of nearly 20 municipalities in Cape May and Atlantic counties to share $2.8 million from the latest round of grants from the Ocean Wind Pro-NJ Grantor Trust.
Wildwood was slated to receive $678,000, which it planned to use to bolster infrastructure projects begun with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding.
Cape May County municipalities listed as receiving funds through the trust include Avalon, North Wildwood, Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Wildwood, and Wildwood Crest in Cape May County, plus 11 more communities in Atlantic and Ocean counties.
So far, Upper Township has not been named among the towns receiving money from the trust, and Mayor Jay Newman, Deputy Mayor Kim Hayes, and Committeeman Mark Pancoast have not expressed their support or opposition to the wind farm.
Hayes did direct a question to one of the speakers, saying the county commissioners proposed in their resolution that an onshore wind farm site be identified.
“Do you know where that is?” Hayes asked.
The speaker did not know the answer.
Contact the author, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
