Save Greater Dowses Beach https://savedowses.org/ is committed to prevent the use of Dowses Beach as a landing site for high-voltage power cables from a future offshore wind project. Offshore wind has onshore impacts!
The Greater Dowses Beach area is a unique coastal zone estuarine environment on Nantucket Sound in the Town of Barnstable. It deserves the continued environmental protections recognized under state law. Dowses consists of a narrow barrier spit, dune system, double embayment (East Bay and Phinney’s Bay), handicapped-accessible fishing pier, public mooring field and a small boat launch. Dowses provides a significant wildlife habitat. The entire Dowses Beach area is protected from development under Article 97 of the Massachusetts Constitution.
• The three-year construction project proposed by Avangrid, Inc. would install three massive, 400-megawatt power cables at the Dowses area, turning it into a permanent utility site requiring constant maintenance and repair. We believe this project will damage the natural environment, degrade the wildlife habitat, risk a failure of the causeway and potentially contaminate the Sole Source Aquifer, the only source of fresh water to all of Cape Cod.
• If allowed to proceed, the proposed cable landing from the Commonwealth Wind project would result in 1,200 megawatts of electricity – almost twice the peak output of the former Pilgrim nuclear plant – flowing under the water and beach where our children swim and play, and under residential roadways. This is simply unacceptable.
• Save Greater Dowses Beach (SGDB), a 501(c)(4) organization, has generated overwhelming support among residents of Barnstable and other Cape Cod communities who vehemently oppose this landing site. Over 5,500 people have signed our petition in opposition. Our Facebook page has 1,100 members and thousands of visitors.
• SGDB is fully engaged in all regulatory reviews and will oppose this project throughout the permitting process at the federal, state, regional and local levels. We have met with elected and appointed officials to give our views. We issued detailed responses to Avangrid’s July 2023 Draft Environment Impact Report (DEIR) filed with MEPA and to the DEIS released by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. SGDB has filed for formal intervenor status in upcoming hearings of the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB). We are advocating for preservation of Article 97 protections by Barnstable’s Town Council.
• SGDB is not against the transition to renewable energy. We are, however, opposed to letting offshore wind developers choose where high-voltage power cables will land. We believe the state of Massachusetts should promote a more sensible offshore energy infrastructure – one that doesn’t threaten environment disaster onshore.
• There are numerous alternative landing sites for offshore wind projects that would reduce risks to the environment, wildlife, fresh water resources and avoid disrupting tourism-based coastal communities. Alternatives include: o The “South Coast Variant,” an industrial site option spelled out in Avangrid’s own public filings. o Decommissioned or underused power plants such as the Canal Generating Plant in Sandwich. The much less costly “planned approach” – offshore infrastructure and substations requiring fewer power cables that can land in areas closer to population and industrial centers.
• Additional points: o Avangrid’s proposed financial payments to the Town are less than 1% of Barnstable’s $1.4 billion CWMP budget. They’re certainly not worth sacrificing Dowses Beach or our Sole Source Aquifer. o Avangrid defaulted under its power purchase agreements and is rebidding the project. Yet it continues to position itself as the developer in the face of competing bids and many questions about the company. o There is no Dowses Beach off season as Avangrid claims. Dowses is a critical year-round resource for Barnstable residents, including those with mobility issues. o The project entails a massive new substation containing about 150,000 gallons of toxic dielectric fluids directly above the Cape Cod’s Sole Source Aquifer. Even a minor leak would be catastrophic. o Avangrid vows to proceed with this multiyear construction project even as it lacks power purchase agreements and sufficient financing – and in the face of widespread and growing public opposition. For more information go to https://savedowses.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/groups/671818064368262/ or email saveourbeach22@gmail.com. Please support us! Mail your checks made payable to Save Greater Dowses Beach to P.O. Box 1068, Osterville, MA 02655. You may also contribute at https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-greater-dowses-beach S
Here are some suggested points to make in your letters and calls:
1. The entire Dowses Beach area is a fragile environment that should be protected, not given over to industrial development. The project recklessly disregards the real dangers the Commonwealth Wind project poses to the complex offshore undersea habitat, the embayment, the fragile causeway to the outer beach, and to Cape Cod’s Sole Source Aquifer, which supplies drinking water to 250,000 year-round Cape residents!
2. There are alternatives! There are much better places to land high-voltage power cables that do not infringe on fresh water sources, wildlife habitats, recreational areas, residential neighborhoods and downtown business centers.
3. The Dowses area provides a wildlife habitat for many types of birds, mammals, and sea life that will be put at risk by the project’s construction and the permanent transformation of the area into a utility infrastructure zone.
4. Dowses provides a rare and much-utilized access point to the waterfront via the accessible fishing pier for persons who are handicapped or mobility impaired.
5. The amount of power, 1,200 megawatts that the developer proposes to install under the swimming area, the beach, and the parking lot is unprecedented in a recreational area. Health and safety concerns are real and unavoidable.
6. We support the transition to renewable energy! But installing high-voltage power cables at protected beaches and beneath residential neighborhoods – and a massive substation above Cape Cod’s Sole Source Aquifer – is doing clean energy in a dirty, risky way. Just say no!
7. The greater Dowses Beach area is protected under Article 97 of the Massachusetts Constitution. Article 97 protections have been waived by the Town Council for Covell’s Beach. Barnstable has risked enough! FEDERAL OFFICIALS THE STATE Secretary of the Interior
Deb Haaland of Constituent Services 1849 C Street NW., Washington, DC 20240
Governor Maura Healey's Office Room 280, Massachusetts State House, 24 Beacon St. Boston, MA 02133- 617-725-4005
Liz Klein, Director Bureau of Ocean Energy Management 1849 C Street, NW Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Washington, DC 20240
Secretary Rebecca Tepper Energy and Environmental Affairs 100 Cambridge St., Boston, MA 02114 202-208-6474 Rebecca.L.Tepper@state.ma.us
Senator Elizabeth & Warren Stephanie Cooper 2400 JFK Federal Building Undersecretary for Environment 15 New Sudbury Street stephanie.cooper3@state.ma.us Boston, MA 02203 617-565-3170
Elizabeth Mahony Commissioner – Department of Energy Senator Ed Markey Elizabeth.Mahony@mass.gov 975 JFK Federal Building Stephanie Cooper 15 New Sudbury St Boston, MA 02203
Sen. Karen Spilka, 617-565-8519 Senate President 24 Beacon St., Room 332, Karen.Spilka@masenate.gov
Rep. William Keating Boston, MA, 02133 Cape & Islands Office 617-722-1500 Fax: 617-722-1077 508-771-6868
How can I help prevent the landing of high voltage power cables at Dowses? This is not a done deal! Your voice counts! Speak out! Write and call your public elected and appointed representatives!
THE STATE (cont.) TOWN OF BARNSTABLE* Rep. Ronald Mariano, Ronald.Mariano@mahouse.gov
Town Council President Felicia Penn Speaker of the House FeliciaPrecinct13@gmail.com 24 Beacon St., Room 356 Boston, MA 02133
Town Council Vice President Craig Tamash 617-722-2500 Fax: 617-722-2750 CentervillePct4@gmail.com
Councilor John Crow JohnCrowPrecinct5@gmail.com 617-722-1570 Sen. Julian Cyr julian.cyr@masenate.gov
Councilor Kristin Terkelsen KTonCapeCod@gmail.com
Rep. Kipp Diggs 617-722-2080 Kip.Diggs@mahouse.gov
Councilor Matthew Levesque MatthewLevesque02648@gmail.com
Rep.Steven Xiarhos Councilor Charles Bloom Steven.Xiarhos@mahouse.gov CharlieBloom02601@icloud.com (508) 681-9673
Councilor Seth Burdick CotuitFresh@gmail.com
Councilor Betty Luktke Precinct3ludtke@gmail.com
Councilor Paula Schnepp paulabarnstable@gmail.com
Councilor Paul Neary NearyPrecinct6@gmail.com
Councilor Gordon Starr starrbarnstable@gmail.com
Councilor Jeffrey Mendez Jeffreymendes8@gmail.com Councilor Kristine Clark Precinct11clark@gmail.com
Town Manager Mark Ells mark.ells@town.barnstable.ma.us
* Felicia Penn heads Town Council, which has the power to protect Dowses Beach under Article 97. Mark Ells is Town Manager. The Conservation Commission is also a decision-making body. See links below for more information and names of people to contact to express your opposition to this high-voltage power cable landing: https://www.town.barnstable.ma.us/boardscommittees/towncouncil/Town_Council/Town-Councilor-Contacts.asp https://www.town.barnstable.ma.us/boardscommittees/ConservationCommission/?brd=Conservation+Commission&brdid=