Offshore Wind Power Projects in the Great Lakes - Ministry of ...

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Offshore wind power projects in the Great Lakes: Background and science considerations for fish and fish habitat There are a number of ways in which the precautionary principle can be applied to offshore wind developments in the Great Lakes (Box 3). While the onus of conducting environmental risk or impact assessments for specific projects will likely fall upon the developers themselves, government or other regulatory agencies within the Great Lakes could also consider initiating broad-scale baseline fish community monitoring and habitat assessments in those areas determined to be feasible for development from a wind energy production point of view. In this way, areas housing sensitive habitat or species or that are otherwise at a significant risk from development activities can be pre-emptively identified and designated for protection, thereby becoming off-limits for wind power projects. At the same time, areas posing the least environmental risk or that are most suitable for wind power developments can also be identified and pre-selected. This type of pre-emptive inventory and analysis of habitats to identify avoidance areas is one of the key recommendations forwarded in a recent position statement by the Great Lakes Commission for jurisdictions responding to habitat alteration proposals involving wind power and other projects (Dempsey et al. 2006). Not only would such an initiative help to ensure the protection of valuable Great Lakes resources, but it would also relieve individual developers of the expense and effort of conducting baseline monitoring surveys at high-risk sites that would ultimately have to be abandoned. This approach has been taken by other jurisdictions (including Germany, Sweden and the UK) to support offshore wind development, and these examples can serve as a model for similar efforts in the Great Lakes. 6.3 Examples from other jurisdictions There are a number of working models from other jurisdictions involved in offshore wind power production where the guiding principles of adaptive management and the precautionary approach have been incorporated into national strategies to promote the facilitation of offshore wind developments. Here we highlight some of the unique aspects and experiences of several countries where a sustainable approach to the implementation of offshore wind has been taken. With a focus on ecological research to inform environmental risk assessments and best management practices, these examples can provide useful guidance for wind power projects in the Great Lakes. Aquatic Research and Development Section 82
Offshore wind power projects in the Great Lakes: Background and science considerations for fish and fish habitat Box 3. Options for applying the precautionary approach for offshore wind power development in the Great Lakes 1. Identify areas where sensitive or ecologically critical habitats or species exist that might be particularly prone to disturbance or harm from offshore wind power activities. Limit or avoid development, make mitigation measures more strict, effects monitoring more detailed, or make licensing more difficult in those areas. 2. Conduct comprehensive risk assessments in advance of construction to identify areas, species or processes likely to be impacted by various development activities so that measures to reduce or avoid these impacts can be taken. 3. Proceed with caution when permitting projects to proceed, recognizing that a phased-in approach or slow expansion of development will facilitate comprehensive scientific study, applying lessons learned to future development, and using adaptive management. 4. Adopt certain mitigation measures when the best-available science indicates magnitude of effect is expected to be high, even if uncertainty exists as to the spatial or temporal scale of the effect. 5. Recognize that uncertainty exists and that comprehensive baseline and monitoring programs will be needed to fill knowledge gaps, especially in the early stages of offshore wind power project development within the Great Lakes. 6. Consider the deployment of pilot project and research platforms and fund research programs and technological development to reduce uncertainty for future offshore wind power projects. Germany The approach to offshore wind development taken by the German government (Köller et al. 2006) aims to ensure that that the growth of offshore wind power occurs in a scientifically informed and environmentally sustainable manner. Several aspects of the German strategy could be useful to inform responsible offshore wind development in the Great Lakes. Among these is a federal deployment strategy whereby the implementation of offshore wind power projects is tightly regulated, taking place in discreet phases. The idea here is that stresses to the ecosystem resulting from potential cumulative impacts of multiple simultaneous construction projects can be minimized by allowing the system time to recover between disturbance events. Furthermore, research into potential impacts can be focussed around the initial developments, and the knowledge gained can then inform environmental impact assessments, best management practices and mitigation measures for subsequent developments. This is a good example of both the precautionary principle and of adaptive management put into practice. Accompanying the phased-in deployment strategy, the government has also funded and initiated an extensive ecological research programme. This multi-faceted programme includes the construction and monitoring of several offshore research platforms to assess the ecological impacts of various foundation types, research and development projects aimed at advancing Aquatic Research and Development Section 83
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