NROC
In August 2012, CoastalVision partnered with SeaPlan, The Nature Conservancy, and the University of New Hampshire to assist the Northeast Regional Ocean Council in reviewing marine habitat
Ocean Frontiers II: A New England Story for Sustaining the Sea
Ocean Frontiers II: A New England Story for Sustaining the Sea premiered on Monday, October 28th at the Providence Public Library Auditorium in Providence, Rhode Island. ‘Following on the heels of the award-winning Ocean Frontiers, Green Fire Productions brings you face-to-face with those now embarking on the nation’s first multi-state ocean plan. The film prominently features Rhode Island and is an inspiring story of citizens coming together to promote healthier economies and healthier seas across New England.’
The film highlights Rhode Island’s collaborative approach to ocean resource planning by featuring Rhode Island citizens, fishermen, environmental advocates, resource managers, scientists, and wind energy specialists. Interviews with Rodman Sykes, commercial fisherman and Lanny Dellinger, lobsterman assisting CoastalVision’s trawl surveys for DeepWater Wind, emphasizes the importance of protecting natural resources and critical habitats through surveys like those carried out by CoastalVision and SeaPlan. CoastalVision teamed up with SealPlan to conduct a 2 year pre-construction and 3 year post-construction survey at DeepWater Wind’s Block Island Wind Farm to provide a before, after, control impact (BACI) assessment on the local demersal fin fish community, to confirm the seasonal patterns and determine potential post-construction impacts. Additionally, they are conducting a ventless lobster trawl survey to characterize changes in local lobster abundance. Following a BACI study design for direct physical disturbance effects and a before after study design for indirect noise effects at two distance intervals from the Block Island Wind Farm wind turbine array construction impact area and at two far field reference areas for six months each for 2 years before, 1 year during, and 1 year after construction.
Green Fire Productions Executive Director and producer of Ocean Frontiers II, Karen Meyer stated, “The people of Rhode Island impressed us with the passionate effort that went into the Rhode Island Ocean SAMP. We see this as an ideal example to share with New England and the rest of the country as ocean planning across the region gets underway. Rhode Island clearly shows that win-win solutions are possible when industry, scientists, fishermen, conservationists, Native American tribes and governments work together.”
A Q & A discussion followed the premiere featuring Rhode Island ocean planning and conservation leaders. The panel included:
Moderator — Sunshine Menezes, Executive Director, Metcalf Institute at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography
Grover Fugate, Executive Director, RI Coastal Resources Management Council
Jeff Grybowski, CEO, Deepwater Wind
Tricia Jedele, Vice President and RI Director, Conservation Law Foundation
Andy Lipsky, Policy and Science Director, SeaPlan
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Deepwater Wind secures lease for largest offshore wind farm
BOEM Lease Blocks Offshore RI and MA
Deepwater Wind announced that it has been awarded the first two commercial offshore wind leases in the United States. They have proposed the Deepwater Wind Energy Center (DWEC) in BOEM’s Wind Energy Area on the Outer Continental Shelf roughly 17 miles south of Rhode Island, between Block Island, Rhode Island, and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. This within the ‘Area of Mutual Interest’ jointly proposed by Rhode Island and Massachusetts for the first offshore wind development area. CoastalVision and partners SeaPlan, Germano & Associates and CR Environmental have supported Deepwater Wind in assessments of the Block Island Wind Farm and desktop studies for the proposed Deepwater Wind Energy Center.
Designed to serve Long Island and New England, DWEC is the nation’s first 1,000 MW-scale offshore regional energy center. As the first of the “second generation” of offshore wind farms in the United States, it is larger, farther from shore, capable of producing cheaper electricity, and uses newer technology than offshore wind projects proposed in the United States to date. DWEC is planned as a 150-200 turbine project with an approximate nameplate capacity of 900-1,200 MW.
Deepwater Wind plans to sell the electricity generated from DWEC to Long Island and to New England states including Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Deepwater Wind will pair DWEC with a new regional HVDC transmission system to deliver this clean, renewable energy to multiple markets. The New England-Long Island Interconnector (NELI) will for the first time link Long Island electrically to southern New England, increasing system reliability in both regions and enabling the delivery of utility-scale offshore wind power.
View of the seafloor surrounding the Block Island Wind Farm
Image copyright CoastalVision, LLC 2013
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Connecticut Voices Their Concerns
Holly Drinkuth of The Nature Conservancy expressing concerns about water quality in Long Island Sound.
On Wednesday June 26th, the LISS Communications Team and WaterVision held the second public scoping meeting at the Margaret Morton Government Center in Bridgeport, CT.
Davey Ives from the City of Bridgeport Office of Sustainability presented a summary of Bridgeport’s efforts in sustainable development. The Long Island Sound plays an integral role in creating clean, resilient urban environments and coastlines. Holly Drinkuth from The Nature Conservancy presented her organizations priorities for water quality and hypoxia in the Long Island Sound as well as protecting submerged habitats. Holly also stressed the importance of adapting to climate change and ensuring the coastline’s resiliency
Jim Latimer, LISS CCMP Lead Coordinator, re-presented the CCMP background slideshow including new concepts incorporated into the revision. Drew Carey and Danna Truslow from WaterVision facilitated a breakout session where participants voiced new ideas and concerns about watershed management, conservation efforts, municipal planning, sustainable and resilient urban waterfronts, transportation landscaping, and embayment water quality.
The public input stage continues for those who were unable to attend the public meetings. An online public comment form will be available soon and additional public listening sessions will occur in the Fall.
Davey Ives from City of Bridgeport Office of Sustainability highlighting Bridgeport’s sustainable urban development efforts.
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Listening to the Public
Maureen Dolan Murphy from Citizen’s Campaign for the Environment expressing her concern for Long Island Sound water quality.
As part of the LISS CCMP Revision, WaterVision and the LISS Communications Team are holding public scoping meetings to obtain feedback and comments to incorporate into the updated CCMP. On June 5th, the first public scoping meeting was held at SUNY at Stony Brook, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences in Port Jefferson, Long Island NY. Citizens of the Long Island Sound watershed, representatives from NY state elected officials, and members of local environmental advocacy groups contributed to the update discussion.
Jim Latimer, LISS CCMP Lead Coordinator, presented a slideshow on CCMP background, the revision process, and new concepts incorporated into the updated CCMP. Drew Carey and Danna Truslow from WaterVision facilitated a breakout discussion where participants expressed concerns about Long Island Sound water quality, beach access, and community education efforts. Participants provided positive feedback about the goals and outcomes that were developed by the LISS Core Team.
The next public meeting is on June 26th at the Margaret Morton Government Center in Bridgeport, CT from 5.30-8.30pm. We look forward to hearing from those who were unable to attend the NY meeting.
A beautiful day for the Bridgeport — Port Jefferson ferry on the Long Island Sound.
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Ruggles/RI DOT Superstorm Sandy Repairs to the Newport Cliff Walk
Destruction of Cliff Walk from Superstorm Sandy
Ever since Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast in November 2012, Rhode Island along with many coastal communities, has been in clean-up mode. Beaches along the southern Rhode Island shoreline, like Westerly and Misquamicut, still have a long way to go before the summer crowds arrive. Here in Newport, Ocean Drive recently re-opened after extensive repairs were made to Brenton Point State Park, but the renowned Cliff Walk still awaits restoration before patrons can enjoy the Cliff Walk in its entirety.
RI Department of Transportation (RI DOT) presented a repair plan to the Cliff Walk Commission and Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) in February 2013. Plans involved restoring walkways and sea walls to protect the Cliff Walk from future storms like Sandy. However, part of their plan involved construction of temporary jetties that would extend 200 feet into the ocean and placement of 4 ton armor stone below the mean high water line. Both the jetties and armor stone would destroy one of the best surf spots in New England, Ruggles Point.
RIDOT’s Proposed Repairs to the Cliff Walk at Ruggles
It was obvious nobody was going to take this issue lying down. Locals rallied, surfers screamed, and Clean Ocean Access (COA) was there to pull everyone together in an orderly fashion. Drew Carey, a founding member of COA, has a vested interest in ensuring repairs to the Cliff Walk are resilient and natural. As a surfer, concerned citizen of Newport, and one of many who enjoy the Cliff Walk every morning with his dog, it was clear Drew was going to be a part of the citizenry effort. Drew contributed his knowledge of marine habitats and expertise with creating geographic information systems (GIS) maps to better illustrate the impact RI DOT’s proposed plans would have on Ruggles and surrounding natural environment.
Ruggles Point Surf Break going off!
With support from CRMC, Aquidneck Island residents, and Cliff Walk Commission members, COA’s efforts prevailed! After meetings and city council hearings, RI DOT removed the temporary jetties and additional armor stone at Ruggles from their plans and went back to the drawing board. On May 3 2013, RI DOT presented their revised repairs plan. As it stands right now, plans are under review by the Cliff Walk Commission and CRMC. Restoration of the Cliff Walk is scheduled to begin soon, but there are still aspects of RI DOT’s repairs that COA would like to discuss (e.g. not placing armor stone or sidewalks over Precambrian bedrock.) However, all parties involved have a mutual goal of reopening the Cliff Walk as soon as possible and ready to enjoy by visitors of Newport.
Note: Clean Ocean Access is an environmental organization concerned with safety, cleanliness and open access of the ocean and coastlines with a primary focus on the ocean shoreline of Aquidneck Island, Rhode Island. (COA Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/cleanoceanaccess
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U.S. Small Business Administration
U.S. Small Business Administration
CoastalVision and ten other small business owners and advocates will be recognized during the Rhode Island Salute to Small Business Awards Luncheon at noon on Wednesday, June 12, 2013 at the Alpine Country Club in Cranston, RI. This year’s celebration is co-sponsored by the Joseph Knight SCORE chapter in Providence.
Dr. Carey has been recognized, in part, for his role in mentoring small businesses in New England and development of a successful collaborative business model that relies on small businesses to share resources and workload. This business model has taken two distinct forms: the first form utilizes a pool of small business entities to provide professional collaboration in an informal network sharing staff and resources; the second form has led to the formation of two joint ventures of small businesses to successfully procure Federal small business set-aside contracts.
Dr. Carey started CoastalVision in 1999 with assistance from the SBDC to provide technical support on marine environmental issues. Initially, CoastalVision provided this support through subcontracts to large businesses with prime contracts with federal and state agencies. This model provided some financial success but soon proved to be highly dependent on the success and generosity of these large businesses. He sought advice from SCORE mentors, RIPTAC and colleagues and decided that competing directly for prime government contracts was a better model. In order to compete, a small business must show that it can perform 51% of the labor required on the contract. For a new microenterprise, this prospect was daunting; how to scale up quickly to demonstrate this capacity without work in hand? Dr. Carey had the experience and technical knowledge to compete, but he did not have the workforce or resources to build one. In 2004, SBDC and RIPTAC helped guide him to form a Joint Venture of small businesses capable of competing for prime small business contracts; in 2005 the JV was awarded the first $1 million prime contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Just as the contract was awarded, the impact of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war required drawdown of USACE resources and the contract was underfunded. Dr. Carey met with the SBDC and developed a business plan to diversify in emerging areas of offshore energy and marine policy (see supporting documentation). The combination of prime contracting and diversification has led to a doubling of average annual sales and support of a diverse part-time labor force which averages 4 full-time equivalents (see supporting documentation).
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Revision of the LISS CCMP
WaterVision LLC is supporting the Long Island Sound Study (LISS) in revising the 1994 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. A LISS Core Team is synthesizing background documents, soliciting stakeholder and public input, and developing a framework for the CCMP update. After stakeholder and public input, the Core Team will develop a revised CCMP document for public review.
What is the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP)?
The CCMP identifies commitments and recommendations for actions to manage Long Island Sound. The CCMP seeks to improve water quality, protect habitat and living resources, educate and involve the public, improve the long-term understanding of how to manage the Sound, monitor progress, and direct management efforts. The LISS uses the CCMP as a blueprint to develop strategies for short and long term goals.
Why update the 1994 CCMP?
In 1988, an LISS Management Conference began work on a CCMP for protecting and improving the health of the Sound while ensuring compatible human uses with the Sound ecosystem. In 1994, the states of Connecticut and New York and the EPA approved the CCMP for LIS. With awareness of new challenges and needs facing the Sound, it is time to revise the CCMP.
In 2011, the Long Island Sound Study Action Agenda was created to identify 2011-2013 priority actions to implement the 1994 CCMP and set the stage for a more comprehensive update to the CCMP planned for 2014.
Sound Vision: An Action Plan for Long Island Sound 2011-2020 was developed to provide a framework to focus the short and long term citizen’s action agenda for the Long Island Sound Community. This document was created in a collaborative process with the LISS Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) as the main stakeholder group in the process.
What are the themes in the 2013 CCMP?
Taking into consideration the 1994 LISS priority areas and the Sound Vision Action Plan 2011 themes, four themes will guide the LISS CCMP 2013:
LISS CCMP Themes Diagram
|
Milestone |
Completion Dates |
| Review and Update Goals, Outcome, Objectives, and Indicators | February to May 2013 |
| Solicit Public Input on the CCMP Update | April to June 2013 |
| Develop CCMP Content | January to October 2013 |
| Complete CCMP Draft | December 31, 2013 |
| Solicit Public Comment on CCMP Draft | January to April 2014 |
| Incorporate Comments | March to September 2014 |
| Submit Final CCMP Draft for Approval | September 31, 2014 |
To learn more about past and current efforts with the LISS CCMP, visit their website: http://longislandsoundstudy.net/about/our-mission/. Here, you can view the Draft CCMP Presentation to learn more about the revision framework and process. If you would like to provide comments or feedback please email contact@watervisionllc.com
Like LISS on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/longislandsoundstudy.net
Keep up-to-date with the LISS CCMP on Twitter! Follow us @planupdate
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NROC Update: May Habitat Group Workshop
Claire and the Man at the Wheel, Fishermen’s Memorial
The fourth NROC Habitat Group workshop was hosted by Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries in Gloucester, MA. Representatives from New England coastal mapping efforts were present to review and provide feedback to CoastalVision on their comparative schematic and draft inventory deliverable. Drew Carey and Claire Coddington teamed with Emily Shumchenia, Marisa Guarinello of CoastalVision and Kate Longley of SeaPlan to provide an overview of the comparative schematic and inventory.
We look forward to the fifth and final workshop to be held this summer to present final deliverables to those engaged in marine habitat characterization efforts from the scientific and management community (e.g. coastal marine managers, scientists, and policy experts). The CoastalVision’s Team efforts will culminate with developing specific steps to increase and enhance collaboration among mapping efforts. These steps and recommendations may identify additional data development, analysis, and other requirements to pursue the goal of a more uniform approach in the New England Region.
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Update: Long Island Sound Citizen’s Summit
Photo credit: Save the Sound
Drew Carey attended this year’s Long Island Sound Citizen’s Summit hosted by Save the Sound, the Long Island Sound Study, and the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC) at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY. This year’s summit focused on “Superstorm Sandy and the New Normal: Rebuilding for Resiliency and Adapting to Climate Change”. The feature speaker was former New York Times journalist, current Times Dot Earth environmental blogger, and author Andrew Revkin. Andrew spoke to the urgency of taking action against climate change with resiliency and adaptation planning, but also highlighted the challenges of being heard in a culture of sound bites. In addition to Andrew Revkin, attendees heard from a range of speakers from municipalities, advocacy groups, federal agencies, and elected officials from Long Island and Southeastern Connecticut.
On behalf of WaterVision and the updating process of the LISS CCMP, Drew Carey hosted a table with display materials, informational handouts, and sign-up sheets for those interested in being part of the revision process. It was a great opportunity to connect with citizens who are interested and active in protecting the Long Island Sound.
To view videos from the summit and see the full list of speakers, please visit Save the Sound’s blog:
http://greencitiesbluewaters.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/long-island-sound-citizens-summit-recap/
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NROC
Northeast Regional Ocean Council
In August 2012, CoastalVision partnered with SeaPlan, The Nature Conservancy, and the University of New Hampshire to assist the Northeast Regional Ocean Council in reviewing marine habitat classification, characterization, and modeling activities in the Northeast United States. Since August, the CoastalVision team has extensively researched and analyzed coastal mapping efforts in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and the Mid-Atlantic Bight. Furthermore, the CoastalVision team has developed a creative schematic and visual comparative methodology that highlights elements of mapping projects critical to implementing solutions to regional ocean and coastal issues such as climate change/adaptation, energy siting, and fisheries management. The CoastalVision team has been working closely with NROC and the Habitat Working Group by hosting multiple workshops to present results and products, facilitate discussion, and ensure their interests and needs are met.