Offshore Wind Energy - Humboldt Waterkeeper

BRIEF OVERVIEW: In 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) awarded two lease areas 20-30 miles west of Humboldt Bay to offshore wind developers. BOEM’s environmental review process for offshore wind development is separated into two analyses. First is environmental impact assessment of the impacts of the studies that need to be done, such as the use of buoys, radar, and sonar. Next, after studies of the lease areas are complete, Environmental Impact Statements will analyze impacts from construction and operation of the wind turbines. These processes will be done separately for the two lease areas.

Also in 2022, the California Coastal Commission reviewed plans for studying marine life in the proposed Humboldt Wind Energy Area, 21 miles west of Humboldt Bay. We submitted these comments and these comments. The plans for studies were approved with seven conditions, including a vessel speed limit of 10 knots (11.5 mph) to decrease the likelihood of collisions with whales and other marine mammals.

In 2023, the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District issued a Notice of Preparation for the proposed Heavy Lift Terminal in Samoa. We submitted these comments on the potential impacts that must be addressed in the Draft EIR, which is being developed. For more info, check out the website we developed with colleagues at EPIC and CORE Hub: FAQs on Offshore Wind Energy.

LATEST NEWS on Offshore Wind Energy:

Offshore Wind Terminal Visual Simulations

In July, the Humboldt Bay Harbor District unveiled visual simulations of the proposed heavy lift terminal in Samoa, where offshore wind turbines would be built and stored temporaily before being installed 20-30 miles offshore. Drone image by Oren Nardi.

Humboldt County environmental organizations launch offshore wind website

A few local environmental organizations have put together a new website, which was announced on Monday, with aims to answer questions about offshore wind and help people learn about the massive projects in development stages in Humboldt County.

“I am currently reading through questions that people are submitting and writing up new answers. And so if you have a question about offshore wind that you want someone, who isn’t a developer, a representative of a local environmental nonprofit to research and try to answer, this is the place to do it,” said Matthew Simmons, climate attorney for the Environmental Protection Information Center in Arcata, reached by phone Tuesday.

The website, www.northcoastoffshorewind.org, has contributions from EPIC, Humboldt Waterkeeper and the Redwood Region Climate and Community Resilience Hub (part of the Humboldt Area Foundation).

What’s RWE’s next move in Humboldt County offshore wind? Surveys

Next week, the company that leased swaths of ocean space roughly 20 miles west of Eureka to build offshore wind turbines will begin gathering data on the site’s biological and geographic characteristics.

RWE contracted with ocean surveying company Argeo to examine the ocean floor and identify its plants, animals and geographic specifications, data that could help determine where exactly the floating turbines are placed. The area off the coast of Samoa where the turbines would be built doesn’t have much high-quality data about it, said Rob Mastria, RWE’s project director for Canopy, their offshore wind project off the county’s coast.

Seabird Study Helps Understand Environmental Impacts from Offshore Wind

Researchers from the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and environmental consulting firm H. T. Harvey & Associates recently deployed technology off the West Coast in one of the first efforts to understand how high seabirds fly and whether they might interact with wind turbines and other infrastructure. They published the research on April 24 in Frontiers in Marine Energy.

The Complicated Truths About Offshore Wind And Right Whales

By the time researchers found the dead whale on a Martha’s Vineyard beach, her jet-black skin was pockmarked by hungry seagulls, her baleen had been dislodged from her mouth, and thin rope was wrapped tightly—as it had been for 17 months—around the most narrow part of her tail.

Researchers quickly learned this was a 12-ton, 3-year-old female known as 5120, and that she was a North Atlantic right whale, a species with just about 360 members left.