On Thursday, June 8, 2023, NOAA Fisheries will open a 30-day public comment period on the proposed incidental take regulations related to Park City Wind’s New England Wind Project. The project would be located offshore of Massachusetts within the Massachusetts Wind Energy Area and adjacent to the Rhode Island/Massachusetts Wind Energy Area. Under power purchase agreements, the project would provide power to Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, these regulations would govern the “take” of small numbers of marine mammals exposed to elevated underwater noise generated by the project’s activities over a five-year period. NOAA Fisheries has preliminarily determined authorizing the requested take would have a negligible impact on all affected marine mammal species and stocks. The proposed regulations include mandatory mitigation measures that avoid or minimize the impacts of the activities on marine mammals and their habitat, as well as monitoring and reporting requirements to better understand those impacts.
The public comment period on the proposed regulations will be open June 8-July 10. Documents associated with this proposed action, including information on how to submit a public comment, will be available on our website tomorrow.
This regulatory action is part of NOAA’s ongoing work to ensure the nation’s deployment of offshore wind energy is done in a manner that avoids and minimizes impacts to protected resources and their habitats.
