Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Construction of the New England Wind Offshore Wind Farm, Offshore Massachusetts, 51345-51346 [2022-18057]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 161 (Monday, August 22, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51345-51346]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-18057]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[RTID 0648-XC234]


Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals 
Incidental to Construction of the New England Wind Offshore Wind Farm, 
Offshore Massachusetts

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Notice; receipt of application for regulations and Letter of 
Authorization; request for comments and information.

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SUMMARY: NMFS has received a petition from Park City Wind LLC (Park 
City Wind), a wholly owned subsidiary of Avangrid Renewables, LLC, 
requesting authorization to take small numbers of marine mammals 
incidental to construction activities associated with the New England 
Wind Offshore Wind Farm in a designated lease area on the Outer 
Continental Shelf (OSC-A 0534) offshore Massachusetts over the course 
of 5 years beginning in 2025. Pursuant to regulations implementing the 
Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is announcing receipt of Park 
City Wind's request for the development and implementation of 
regulations governing the incidental taking of marine mammals and 
issuance of a Letter of Authorization (LOA). NMFS invites the public to 
provide information, suggestions, and comments on Park City Wind's 
application and request.

DATES: Comments and information must be received no later than 
September 21, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Comments on the application should be addressed to Jolie 
Harrison, Chief, Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected 
Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service and should be sent to 
[email protected].
    Instructions: NMFS is not responsible for comments sent by any 
other method, to any other address or individual, or received after the 
end of the comment period. Comments received electronically, including 
all attachments, must not exceed a 25-megabyte file size. Attachments 
to electronic comments will be accepted in Microsoft Word or Excel or 
Adobe PDF file formats only. All comments received are a part of the 
public record and will generally be posted online at https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/incidental-take-authorizations-other-energy-activities-renewable without change. 
All personal identifying information (e.g., name, address) voluntarily 
submitted by the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do not submit 
confidential business information or otherwise sensitive or protected 
information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jaclyn Daly, Office of Protected 
Resources, NMFS, (301) 427-8401. An electronic copy of Park City Wind's 
application may be obtained online at: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/incidental-take-authorizations-other-energy-activities-renewable. In case of problems accessing these 
documents, please email the contact listed above.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Sections 101(a)(5)(A) and (D) of the MMPA (16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq.) 
direct the Secretary of Commerce (as delegated to NMFS) to allow, upon 
request, the incidental, but not intentional, taking of small numbers 
of marine mammals by U.S. citizens who engage in a specified activity 
(other than commercial fishing) within a specified geographical region 
if certain findings are made and either regulations are issued or, if 
the taking is limited to harassment, a notice of a proposed 
authorization is provided to the public for review. For requests under 
section 101(A)(5)(A) of the MMPA, NMFS is also required to begin the 
public review process by publishing a notice of receipt of a request 
for the implementation of regulations governing the incidental taking 
(50 CFR 216.104(b)(1)(ii)).
    An incidental take authorization shall be granted if NMFS finds 
that the taking will have a negligible impact on the species or 
stock(s), will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the 
availability of the species or stock(s) for subsistence uses (where 
relevant), and if the permissible methods of taking and requirements 
pertaining to the mitigation, monitoring and reporting of such takings 
are set forth.
    NMFS has defined ``negligible impact'' in 50 CFR 216.103 as an 
impact resulting from the specified activity that cannot be reasonably 
expected to, and is not reasonably likely to, adversely affect the 
species or stock through effects on annual rates of recruitment or 
survival.
    The MMPA states that the term ``take'' means to harass, hunt, 
capture, kill or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine 
mammal.
    Except with respect to certain activities not pertinent here, the 
MMPA defines ``harassment'' as: any act of pursuit, torment, or 
annoyance, which (i) has the potential to injure a marine mammal or 
marine mammal stock in the wild (Level A harassment); or (ii) has the 
potential to disturb a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild 
by causing disruption of behavioral patterns, including, but not 
limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or 
sheltering (Level B harassment).

Summary of Request

    On December 1, 2021, NMFS received an application from Park City 
Wind requesting authorization to take, by Level A harassment and Level 
B harassment, 39 species of marine mammals incidental to construction 
and operation activities associated with the development of the New 
England Wind Offshore Wind Farm offshore of Massachusetts in Commercial 
Lease (OCS-A-0534). In response to our comments, and following 
extensive information exchange with NMFS, Park City Wind submitted a 
final, revised application on July 13, 2022, that we determined was 
adequate and complete on July 20, 2022. Park City Wind requested the 
regulations and subsequent LOA be valid for 5 years beginning in 2025.
    Park City Wind is proposing to develop the New England Wind project 
in two Phases with a maximum of 130 wind turbine generators (WTGs) and 
electrical service platform (ESP) positions. Two positions may 
potentially have co-located ESPs (i.e., two foundations installed at 
one grid position), resulting in 132 foundations.

[[Page 51346]]

Phase 1 would include 41 to 62 WTGs and one or two ESPs while Phase 2 
would include 64 to 88 WTG/ESP positions (up to three of those 
positions will be occupied by ESPs). Four or five offshore export 
cables will transmit electricity generated by the WTGs to onshore 
transmission systems in the Town of Barnstable, Massachusetts.
    New England Wind's offshore renewable wind energy facilities are 
located immediately southwest of Vineyard Wind 1, which is located in 
Lease Area OCS-A 0501. New England Wind will occupy all of Lease Area 
OCS-A 0534 and potentially a portion of Lease Area OCS-A 0501 in the 
event that Vineyard Wind 1 does not develop ``spare'' or extra 
positions included in Lease Area OCS-A 0501 and Vineyard Wind 1 assigns 
those positions to Lease Area OCS-A 0534. For the purposes of the LOA, 
the Southern Wind Development Area (SWDA) is defined as all of Lease 
Area OCS-A 0534 and the southwest portion of Lease Area OCS-A 0501.
    Park City Wind considered the following activities associated with 
wind farm construction and operation in its application: installation 
of WTG and ESP foundations using impact and vibratory pile driving and 
drilling; high-order detonation of unexploded ordnances (UXOs); high-
resolution geophysical (HRG) site characterization surveys; fisheries 
monitoring surveys; and export cable and inter-array cable trenching, 
laying, and burial. Vessels will be used to transport crew, supplies, 
and materials within the Project area to support construction and 
operation. Park City Wind has determined that a subset of these 
activities (i.e., WTG and ESP foundation installation, HRG surveys, and 
UXO detonation) may result in the taking, by Level A harassment and 
Level B harassment, of marine mammals. Therefore, Park City Wind 
requests authorization to incidentally take marine mammals.

Specified Activities

    In Executive Order 14008, President Biden stated that it is the 
policy of the United States to organize and deploy the full capacity of 
its agencies to combat the climate crisis to implement a Government-
wide approach that reduces climate pollution in every sector of the 
economy; increases resilience to the impacts of climate change; 
protects public health; conserves our lands, waters, and biodiversity; 
delivers environmental justice; and spurs well-paying union jobs and 
economic growth, especially through innovation, commercialization, and 
deployment of clean energy technologies and infrastructure.
    Through a competitive leasing process under 30 CFR 585.211, Park 
City Wind was awarded Commercial Lease OCS-A 0534 offshore of 
Massachusetts and the exclusive right to submit a construction and 
operations plan (COP) for activities within the lease area. Park City 
Wind has submitted a COP to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management 
(BOEM) proposing the construction, operation, maintenance, and 
conceptual decommissioning of the New England Wind project within Lease 
Area OCS-A 0487 and consisting of up to 130 WTGs, 2 ESPs,
    Park City Wind has provided a complete description of the specified 
activities and their proposed mitigation, monitoring and reporting 
measures in their application. They have also included a description of 
estimated take methods and results. Park City Wind anticipates the 
following activities may potentially result in harassment of marine 
mammals:
     installing up to 130 WTG foundations comprised of either 
monopile or jacket foundations. Monopiles would not exceed 12-meters 
(m) in diameter for Phase 1 and 13-m for Phase 2 and would be installed 
using a 5,000 kilojoule (kJ) or 6,000 kJ impact hammer while each 
jacket foundation would consist of four 4-m pin piles installed with a 
3500 kJ hammer. A vibratory hammer and drill may also be used to 
install the piles, as necessary. All pile driving and drilling would 
occur from May through December over the course of 2-3 years;
     installing up to five ESP jacket foundations (four 4-m pin 
piles) by impact and/or vibratory pile driving and potentially drilling 
from May through December over the course of 2-3 years; and
     using HRG equipment to survey approximately 10,000 
kilometers (km) over 5 years (80 km/day x 25 days/year x 5 years); and
     the potential high-order detonation of up to 10 UXOs over 
the course of 10 days (1 UXO detonation per day, as necessary).
    Park City Wind has provided two construction schedules 
(Construction Schedule A and B) but has requested take assuming that 
all foundations would be jacket foundations. A final decision on 
foundation types (and hence construction schedule) will be identified 
during the environmental review permitting process. Park City Wind has 
also indicated that these are the most accurate estimates for the 
durations of each planned activity, but that the schedule may shift 
over the course of the Project due to weather, mechanical, or other 
related delays.

Information Solicited

    Interested persons may submit information, suggestions, and 
comments concerning Park City Wind's request (see ADDRESSES). NMFS will 
consider all information, suggestions, and comments related to the 
request during the development of proposed regulations governing the 
incidental taking of marine mammals by Park City Wind, if appropriate.

    Dated: August 17, 2022.
Kimberly Damon-Randall,
Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 2022-18057 Filed 8-19-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P