The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has completed the environmental review of the proposed 132MW South Fork offshore wind project.
The South Fork wind project is planned to be built offshore New York and Rhode Island.
The project entity South Fork Wind intends to build the project nearly 19 miles (30kms) southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island, and 35 miles (56kms) east of Montauk Point, New York.
Being developed by Ørsted and Eversource, the offshore wind project is anticipated to create up to 1,700 jobs.
Also, the project would become the second commercial-scale offshore wind project in the US, if approved.
BOEM is expected to publish a Notice of Availability for the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in the Federal Register later this week.
The EIS analyses the potential environmental impacts of the activities at the project, based on South Fork Wind’s construction and operations plan.
In January this year, BOEM has published a Draft EIS for the South Fork project, and has received 1,300 public comments over the 45-day comment period.
Also, BOEM has conducted three virtual public meetings to get additional feedback on the Draft EIS from community members, Tribal nations, commercial fishing interests, and others.
BOEM has included the comments and stakeholders’ feedback into the Final EIS, to ensure the advancing of project.
Once the steps are complete, the federal agency intends to issue a record of decision on whether to approve the proposed project in October.
The US Army Corps of Engineers and the National Marine Fisheries Service are expected to sign the record of decision for their respective authorisation decisions.
The federal agency said: “BOEM incorporated these comments and stakeholders’ feedback into the Final EIS, a critical step to ensure the project can move forward while balancing the needs and interests of everyone who may be affected by the development.”
