May 10, 2018 — A community benefits package hangs in the balance as the East Hampton Town Board and town trustees prepare to host a joint hearing next Thursday on Deepwater Wind’s plan to construct a 15-turbine wind farm approximately 36 miles east of Montauk.
Deepwater Wind plans to submit an application to construct the 90-megawatt South Fork Wind Farm to the State Public Service Commission next month, according to its vice president of development. It is seeking easements from the trustees to land the wind farm’s transmission cable beneath the ocean beach at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott, and from the town board to bury the cable in the public road right of way on a path to a Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton.
The Rhode Island company has offered a package of community benefits in exchange for those rights, and will include that plan in its application to the Public Service Commission, provided the easements are granted. Should the real estate rights be denied, Deepwater Wind would proceed with a plan to land the cable on state-owned property at Hither Hills, Clint Plummer of Deepwater Wind confirmed yesterday, an option the company’s officials have previously implied. The community benefits package would be withdrawn, Mr. Plummer said.
Read the full story at the East Hampton Star