Abstract
Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation's (LEEDCo’s) Project Icebreaker (also known as Icebreaker Wind) was competitively selected for a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) financial assistance award under Funding Opportunity Announcement U.S. Offshore Wind: Advanced Technology Demonstration Projects (DE-FOA-0000410). DOE is proposing to provide funding to LEEDCo to support the development of the demonstration-scale offshore wind project that would be located approximately 8 miles off the shore of Cleveland, Ohio in Lake Erie. This Environmental Assessment (EA) evaluates the potential environmental impacts of providing funding to LEEDCo to support the development of the offshore wind advanced technology demonstration project (the Proposed Action) and evaluates the impacts that could occur if DOE did not provide funding (No-Action Alternative). The Proposed Project would consist of six wind turbine generators erected on foundations constructed on the Lake Erie lakebed that would generate approximately 21 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Inter-array cables (connecting the wind turbines) and an export cable (transmitting electricity generated by the wind turbines to the shore) would be buried in the lakebed, and the export cable would be brought ashore entirely under the Cleveland Harbor and the Cleveland Harbor breakwater to a new electrical substation located at the existing Lake Road Substation. The energy generated by the Proposed Project would deliver power to a single point of interconnection on the existing Cleveland Public Power electric grid – the138 kilovolt (kV) Lake Road Substation.
List of Appendices:
A-1 : Public Scoping Documents
A-2 : Draft EA Public Comment Documents
B : Substation Layout Plan
C : Favorability Analysis Map
D : Substation and Cable Route Design Report
E-1 : LimnoTech Report – Results of 2016 Aquatic Sampling
E-2 : LimnoTech Report – Results of 2017 Aquatic Sampling
F-1 : Alpine Geophysical Survey Report
F-2 : McNeilan Windfarm Ground Conditions Report
F-3 : McNeilan Harbor & Nearshore Ground Conditions Report
G-1 : Sediment Quality Evaluation Technical Memorandum
G-2 : Inadvertent Return Contingency Plan
H : Substation Geotechnical and Subsurface Exploration Report
I : Aquatic Ecological Resource Characterization and Impact Assessment
K : Tetra Tech Bird Survey Report
L-1 : WEST Summary of Risks to Birds and Bats
L-2 : WEST Bird and Bat Annual Report 2018
M-2 : USFWS BA Concurrence Letter
N : ODNR Division of Wildlife Letter
P : LimnoTech Boat Survey
Q : Characterization of Lake Erie Ice
R : Navigational Risk Assessment
S : Gray & Pape Cultural Resources Report
T-1 : Section 106 Geophysical Survey Review
T-2 : Addendum to Section 106 Geophysical Survey Review
U : Visual Impact Assessment
V-1 : Cultural Resources Effects Analysis
V-2 : OHPO and ACHP Correspondence
W : Socioeconomic Report from EDR, January 2017
X : Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and Avian and Bat Memoranda of Understanding