‘Icebreaker’

   The Energy Department and the Army Corps of Engineers are facing a lawsuit from two bird conservation groups in the hopes of halting the development of a wind turbine farm off the coast of Cleveland named ‘Icebreaker’.

   The American Bird Conservancy of Washington, D.C. and the Black Swan Bird Observatory said in a lawsuit that the project and its evaluations run into problems with the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act.

   “The potential risk is not just six wind turbines, but thousands of wind turbines. ‘Icebreaker’ is initially breaking ground with six wind turbines and plans to build many more in the future,” Research Director Mark Shieldcastle of the Black Swan Bird Observatory said.

  Results have shown that ‘Icebreaker’ did not do enough evaluations to get a proper understanding of the area and how it would affect the birds in the area.

   “It takes multiple studies over the past decade to get a conclusion on migration. There was inadequate science done with evaluations that didn’t meet standards. They did not pose enough information to reach a conclusion,” Shieldcastle said.

   The Cleveland area is native to many kinds of birds and this project poses a potential risk to those birds flying in and around the area of the wind turbines.

   “Birds such as the songbird and the common loon are at risk for potential collision with the turbines. This has the potential to displace a lot of birds in this area. Birds will tend to avoid these areas where they used to feed and end up having to fly around them,” Shieldcastle said.

  The conservation groups said in a news release that that the chosen site for the project is part of a “Global Important Bird Area”, seeing millions of birds each year.

   Both sides have conflicting issues as the conservation groups state they did not provide enough data to conclude proper evaluations. On the other hand, LEEDCo, states the area is not a risk to migrating birds.

   ‘Icebreaker’ is being pursued by Lake Erie Energy Development Cooperation, or LEEDCo, a private-public partnership.

   The project will be the first offshore wind facility in the Great Lakes, the first freshwater wind farm in North America and only the second offshore wind project in the entire U.S. This gives the Cleveland area a boost in jobs and a national leader in the nascent industry.

   According to LEEDCo’s website, ‘Icebreaker’ alone will create over 500 jobs and $85 million in economic impact during construction and an additional economic impact of $168 million over the life of the project in Northeast Ohio.

      There has been no response to the lawsuit that was filed to a judge in Washington, D.C.