Letter: Don’t let offshore wind cable come down Sakonnet

Posted 5/30/23

To the editor:

I writing today because of my concern and opposition to the proposed cable coming down the Sakonnet River.

I have lived near the water’s edge in Portsmouth all of my 64 …

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Letter: Don’t let offshore wind cable come down Sakonnet

Posted

To the editor:

I writing today because of my concern and opposition to the proposed cable coming down the Sakonnet River.

I have lived near the water’s edge in Portsmouth all of my 64 years — specifically, the Cove in Island Park. For decades the waters in this area — the East Bay, Mt. Hope Bay, and the Sakonnet River — were polluted by the substation at Brayton Point, the tank farms in Tiverton and a host of other sources. The water here just past the Sakonnet Bridge going north looked like root beer. 

It has taken decades to get the waters here to be the cleanest they have ever been in my lifetime and I believe that digging and dredging to install a cable down the Sakonnet could be devastating and undo all of the work that has been done trying to clean it up by organizations such as Save The Bay.

My fear is if they tap into the seabed decades of legacy sediment which can contain contaminants like cadmium, chromium, copper, lead and mercury, (that) will be again be disbursed through the river and taken to all of the smaller water ways up and down the river posing damage to natural habitats and polluting our fishing and shellfishing beds. Fishing and shell fishing is a major priority in this area. 

Not to mention what these wind turbines will do out in the ocean to bird migrations, fish migrations and spawning, as well as shark and whale migrations. There has been evidence that many whales have been beached on the shores off places like New York and New Jersey. There also reports that scallop beds have been killed off as well. 

For many years now, the fishing industry has had to deal with so many regulations so that fish populations retain their numbers which has also forced many fisherman to leave the business because they can’t absorb the cost of these regulations. However, companies, many backed by large oil companies, can come into a little town like Portsmouth and take over our waterways and wreak havoc on our property with huge machinery, tearing up the town and that is OK because it is “green energy.” How green can it be if it could have catastrophic consequences for our pristine waters?

They say this cable could go down six feet in an effort to mitigate the effect of the electrical waves on fish and other sea creatures, but by doing so you will surely be dredging up this legacy sediment and it will travel all over. The current in the Sakonnet River is very swift and tides will take that sediment and spread it into every inlet and cove in the area. Even now when we have a lot of rain they close many areas to shell fishing just because of runoff. 

What is going to happen when they start this dredging? I really do not want to find out. Every action has a reaction and the best-made plans paved the way to hell. Do not bring your hell to our little town. 

Please do not allow this cable to come down the Sakonnet River. 

Donna Lafleur

24 Cedar Ave.

Portsmouth

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