[OR_Archaeology] Interesting news article about Wind Farms and TCPs

[Susan White]

Here's the link--

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2009/10/26/2_tribes_object_to_cape_wind_turbines/

2 tribes object to Cape Wind turbines
Say Nantucket Sound is cultural property

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff  |  October 26, 2009

Native American rituals and beliefs have emerged as a surprising
last-minute obstacle to federal approval of the nation’s first
offshore wind farm, threatening to significantly delay the Cape Wind
project.

Two Massachusetts tribes say the 130 proposed wind turbines in
Nantucket Sound would disturb their spiritual sun greetings and
submerged ancestral burying grounds.

The Aquinnah and Mashpee Wampanoag tribes - with help from the main
opposition group to Cape Wind - are pushing for the entire sound to be
listed as a traditional cultural property on the National Register of
Historic Places. A listing by itself would not necessarily stop the
project, but would make permitting much more cumbersome.

And even if the tribes’ proposal is ultimately rejected as many
observers predict, the issue will probably hold up a final decision on
Cape Wind by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, whose ruling had been
expected shortly. The concerns of the tribes had been seen as a minor
annoyance by supporters of the project, and the federal agency in charge
of reviewing and granting permits for Cape Wind had maintained that
federal waters are not eligible for listing. But officials of the
federal Minerals Management Service say they became aware in June they
were obligated to rule on the historic register eligibility question.

The agency is federally required to consult with Massachusetts State
Historic Preservation Officer Brona Simon, who earlier this year
criticized the federal government for not giving enough consideration to
tribal concerns. If she says Nantucket Sound is eligible for listing on
the historic register, the National Park Service would have to resolve
the dispute. That could inject delays of more than a year into the Cape
Wind timeline, according to state and federal environmental officials.
Simon, who declined to comment through a spokesman, must make her
decision by mid-November.

The Native American effort, which Cape Wind supporters say has already
delayed the project’s approval at least seven months, is being closely
watched by the wind energy industry. If the 560-square mile Nantucket
Sound is listed, other bodies of water across the country could be too,
potentially making it more difficult for other wind farms - or other
industries - to operate offshore.

“We have concerns on the precedent this might set on other wind
projects,’’ said Laurie Jodziewicz, manager of siting policy for the
American Wind Energy Association. “This is awfully late in the process
for this to be coming up.’’

The tribes’ objections to Cape Wind are in part a variation on
detractors’ original main complaint: The turbines will detract from
the view. Since 2004, the Wampanoag have communicated to federal
officials that Nantucket Sound is critical to their spiritual
well-being. Tribal representatives say their culture greets the sunrise
each day, sometimes from sacred sites on the shore of Nantucket Sound,
and this ritual requires unobstructed views.

“We are known as The People Of The First Light,’’ said Bettina
Washington, tribal historic preservation officer for the Aquinnah
Wampanoag Tribe on Martha’s Vineyard. “This is so important to
us.’’ She and George “Chuckie’’ Green of the Mashpee
Wampanoag Tribe also said their ancestors hunted and walked upon the
seabed in Nantucket Sound when it was dry land thousands of years ago.
“Our people are buried there,’’ Green said.

During the last ice age, so much of the world’s water was locked in
glaciers, New England’s coast extended more than 75 miles farther from
today’s shore. Archeological excavations in Nantucket Sound have found
tantalizing evidence of a submerged forest six feet under the mud, but
no signs of Native American camps or other signs of human life.

Supporters of the project and Cape Wind officials say the tribes’
views are perplexing. Federally designated traditional properties tend
to be defined areas, such as a boundary surrounding a ceremonial site -
not an enormous body of water, according to a letter state Energy and
Environmental Affairs secretary Ian Bowles and Secretary of Housing and
Economic Development Gregory Bialecki sent to the MMS this summer. It
urged the agency to issue a final favorable decision on the project.

In an interview, Dennis Duffy, vice president of Cape Wind Associates,
noted that the Aquinnah Wampanoag may erect wind turbines themselves.
“It’s odd they would raise this argument while simultaneously
proposing their own wind project on tribal land designated as a scenic
landscape,’’ he said.

Cape Wind supporters say the Wampanoag complaints have been publicized
by the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the main opposition group.
Alliance and Wampanoag officials say they are working together because
they have similar goals.

Federal regulations require that permitting agencies take into account
the effect a project could have on historic properties. If the impact is
considered “adverse’’, alternatives or modifications to the
project can be considered - but are not required, according to the
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, an independent federal
agency. An adverse finding rarely kills projects, the advisory council
said.

The Minerals Management Service originally ruled in a 2008 draft
environmental impact report that only three historic properties would be
affected by Cape Wind - and not the Wampanoag. After a public comment
period, however, the service revised its assessment in the final
environmental report issued early this year, determining the project
would adversely impact 28 historic property views and the “traditional
religious and ceremonial practices’’ of the Aquinnah and Mashpee
Wampanoag. Normally, when adverse findings occur, interested groups work
to come up with an agreement.

But that is not expected until a resolution of the Wampanoag request to
determine if Nantucket Sound is eligible to be on the historic register.
Even if it is ultimately determined eligible, the property would still
have to undergo a review to determine if it should be listed.

The Wampanoag say it is wrong to blame them for delays, and have
complained in the past that MMS officials dismissed their concerns early
on. MMS officials, meanwhile, detailed in a letter to the Wampanoag and
others many times the Wampanoag have canceled or postponed meetings in
the last year.

“The MMS is moving through the permitting process for an offshore
renewable energy project for the first time and we are making sure that
this is done in an environmentally and technically safe manner with
extensive consultation with local communities,’’ said agency
spokesman Nicholas Pardi.

Beth Daley can be reached at bdaley at globe.com.