The Maria Mitchell Association has pulled out of the Good Neighbor Agreement with Vineyard Wind.
The organization signed the agreement with the wind farm, intended to mitigate the visual impacts of turbines 14 miles southeast of the island, along with the town and Nantucket Preservation Trust in 2020.
“Based on Vineyard Wind’s failure to meet its obligations under the Good Neighbor Agreement, the Maria Mitchell Association has decided to exit the Agreement,” the organization announced in a press release Wednesday.
“Our decision to exit the agreement is based on Vineyard Wind’s actions and our commitment to protect the night skies,” the release continues. “This decision was not made lightly. (With) the aggregate impact of the lighting from each turbine, and the recent blade failure, it became increasingly clear to us that the impact on our night skies and our island community was not something we could support.”
Maria Mitchell was part of a federal review process for the wind farm four years ago, along with NPT and the town. They were consulting the government and Vineyard Wind.
Their main concern was the turbines’ lighting system. According to the release, the bright lights on at night would “have a detrimental effect” on their observatory operations and astronomy programs.
The lights atop the turbines are there as a safety precaution for aircraft and are required under federal aviation guidelines.
Most wind turbines have lights that always stay on at night. The automatic-detection lighting system, or ADLS, required under the Good Neighbor Agreement, would keep the lights off until an aircraft was overhead, at which point they’d turn on for a short duration, then back off again.
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That system has not been operational on any turbines installed by Vineyard Wind so far, however.
“We will continue to monitor future projects and if necessary, file comments during the environmental impact periods for stakeholder review, which is part of the Federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management permitting process,” the release states.
Greg Werkheiser, the town’s offshore wind counsel, said Wednesday that the Select Board has not yet considered its options following the announcement.
He’s not sure yet whether MMA’s withdrawal will affect their dealings with the wind farm.
“Vineyard Wind’s primary interest four years ago was to try to set the groundwork for a meaningful relationship with the town, which, as a municipality has dozens of interests, beyond but inclusive of MMA’s mission of preserving our dark skies,” Werkheiser said.
“I imagine that right now Vineyard Wind has much bigger concerns about the state of that relationship than whether Maria Mitchell remains at the table,” he said.
A Vineyard Wind spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.
ACK4Whales showed their support for MMA’s decision in a statement Wednesday.
The island organization is suing Vineyard Wind and federal regulatory agencies in federal court for not properly accounting for the project’s effects on critically endangered right whales.
“We are grateful that the Maria Mitchell Association has decided, after a great deal of thought and review of the facts, that it will pull out of the Nantucket-Vineyard Wind Good Neighbor Agreement,” the statement reads.
“ACK4Whales has said for a long time that the GNA is bad for the environment, bad for Nantucket, and, most important, bad for the people who live here and the marine life that lives in our waters.”
Check back at ack.net for updates on this story as more information becomes available.
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