September 11, 2020 — The Town of East Hampton and the town trustees will share a community benefits package worth almost $29 million in exchange for easements allowing Orsted U.S Offshore Wind and Eversource, partners developing the proposed 15-turbine South Fork Wind project, to land the installation’s export cable and bury it on a path to the Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton.
Tuesday’s town board work session made clear that the board and trustees have agreed — although not unanimously — with the developers that the ocean beach at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott is the export cable’s most suitable landfall location. A town announcement on Thursday that a draft agreement had been reached made this official.
“Wainscott is the most appropriate landing site for the terrestrial portion,” Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said during the long discussion.
That decision has infuriated many residents of that hamlet, as well as most commercial fishermen in the town, though the site has equally impassioned support of other Wainscott residents, one of whom called in twice to Tuesday’s virtual meeting.