Eyeing Possible Bay Trenching Should Protests Fail; Great Visual Relief Offered By Homes on the Horizon

May 12, 2023

By Jay Mann | on May 17, 2023

SIGHT FISHING: The South Jetty at Barnegat Inlet can be fished top and bottom, with highly qualified mask and snorkel divers getting the best up close and personal look at the complex rock, grass, and sand habitat in the waters adjacent to the rocks. (Photo by Jay Mann)

As an army of feisty Island folks immerse themselves in the oceanic wind turbine ruckus-upus, there is a quiet need to move up yonder in time – to check out the what-if zone.

So then, what if turbines make it through this first volley of intense societal flak? That in mind, it's strategically mandatory to think – and check – ahead, in a bayside manner.

The fight against close-in oceanic wind power has failed to concurrently focus on the Barnegat Bay aspect of the proposed build, leaving our area's most sensitive waters a sitting duck.

Should the current turbine building plans prevail, one of the most disruptive bay gashings in modern times would befall a bay area near Barnegat Inlet, speaking of a "defunct" channel that extends from the south end of Island Beach State Park to Oyster Creek on the mainland.

Windmeisters at Ørsted Ocean Wind of Denmark are unalterably committed to utilizing the decommissioning Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station as an onshore gathering and distribution point for power acquired from its turbine arrays. That means energy-buzzed cables would be entrenched across one of the widest points in the bay.

Per state sources, "The Ørsted cable will be routed through Island Beach State Park, crossing Barnegat Bay, and landing in Lacey Township just above Oyster Creek."

Note: Although Atlantic Shore Wind Energy will be the wind company nearest and undearest to LBI, its turbines far closer to the Oyster Creek than Ørsted's, state literature regarding trenching Barnegat Bay is fully Ørsted oriented. I’m checking to see if the work might be a joint effort between the two oceanic wind power giants.

METHOD TO THE MADNESS: The power trip of energy from turbines to mainland begins with an initial gathering of electricity by first-degree substations, strategically placed among turbine groupings. Many folks are underinformed about the sea-top substation structures that must accompany windfarms.

Within the first-degree substations, turbine energy is directed into transformers, where it gets "stepped up," achieving a high voltage state. Once juiced, the hyped electricity travels through a transmission cable, bound for the onshore "collector substation." In our case, it would be Oyster Creek.

Within the mainland substation, the voltage gets downwardly tweaked for a controlled distribution into the grid and outward to area homes. Welcome to Profit Land.

The transport of energy from offshore to onshore demands the laying down and burying of many miles of main cable, doled out by specially designed boats called field development vessels.

Extreme ditch-digging actions are needed to lay and bury oceanic wind power cables. Off LBI and Island Beach, it is likely vessels with diverless subsea trenching equipment would be used. While this equipment has been perfected for use on ocean bottoms, no such perfection exists when it comes to cutting ditches across the bay. More on that troubling aspect down below. Pun intended.

CABLE PRIMER: Within the sea-to-land main cable are three conductor cables along with an optical fiber communication line. Those components are tightly compressed by fillers, designed to keep the works properly aligned.

The cable's outer protective jacket is comprised of a thick external sheath, most often made of polypropylene. The covering is highly flexible with a built-in strain relief to fend off intrusive forces, like commercial fishing equipment, boat anchors and even everyday fishing gear.

Although the main cable, which can have a 12-inch diameter, gets buried, it has a way of reemerging, as seen in arrays around the world. It then requires reburying.

WHERE CUTS CUT DEEPEST: Regardless of which wind energy company leads the ditch dig across Barnegat Bay, the scouring out of trenches for the cables would put an unroyal hurting on the bay. In terms of damage potential, it would easily supersede the bottom upheavals wrought during the Causeway project.

Per the latest N.J. Marine Resources Administration Monthly Report, "The crossing of Barnegat Bay will involve adverse impacts to shellfish and SAV habitats."

Putting things in this column's alarmist perspective, you wouldn't want to be any sort of living creature in the path of the trenching equipment coming Barnegat Bay's way. As to essential subaquatic grasses surviving the dig, fuhgeddaboudit.

Somewhat ironically, the digging is done by what the industry calls "burial tools," meant to trench, place cable and immediately backfill. Cables would go down 3 feet or more.

It remains to be seen what equipment would be used for gouging Barnegat Bay, though one would think water-jet devices are a muck storm in the making.

Most likely out of contention is the underground pipeline tunneling method tried by New Jersey Natural Gas, which sought to literally burrow, mole-like, from West Creek to LBI. Equipment from that project remained trapped in the mud for years. It's a pity since that noble effort, with the best interest of the bay at heart, was a relatively unintrusive way to lay pipes or cables across the bay.

While only able to offer an overall apology for any wildlife killed during the trenching, Ørsted swears to high heaven it would replenish any ruined eelgrass beds. How the company might do that remains in limbo.

According to the state, "The SAV mitigation plan is still under development and approval is not expected until after the pre-and post-construction monitoring is complete."

Also, "SAV impacts may be substantial, depending upon the final chosen installation method and observed impacts, although Ørsted is making efforts to reduce impacts as much as possible."

That looks somewhat good in writing, but restoring the likes of eelgrass beds has proven close to impossible.

"SAV mitigation is expensive, time consuming, and often unsuccessful. … SAV serves as critical marine habitat for a variety of popular recreationally harvested mollusks, crustaceans, and finfish."

The N.J. Marine Resources Administration is not overly optimistic about the entire SAV remediation plan, noting, "Due to the substantial nature of the proposed work and opposition to the project from a variety of stakeholders, the Division of Land Use Regulation anticipates that permit issuance will be met with 3rd party legal opposition."

Here's hoping initial failures to stop the turbines will not reduce the 3rd party legal opposition.

LIVING ABOVE IT ALL, TURBINE-STYLE: Oh, ye faithful readers, I will herein daringly offer an ultra-ulterior rationale behind turbine builds. It's a supreme shocker, so please be seated.

Last week saw the launch of a huge wind farm off New England. The core of the effort is the pile-driving placement of rock-solid monopiles, being driven into what our federal government grammatically dictates is a "pristine sea bottom."

The massive monopiles, when topped with deck-like "transition" pieces, can easily support tons and tons of spinning blades. But is that what the poles are truly about?

We’ve all been led to believe the pole placements are being done in the noble name of renewable energy. Nay!

New findings forwarded by WikiLeaks, The Onion and certain sectors of Facebook thoroughly indicate that turbine array plans are phony, little more than smoky water and mirrorfish.

Get this: Many larger wind companies secretly want the turbines and their stupid props to fail miserably. Such is the case with one overseas not-only-wind company. I’ll stealthily rename that company Instead Wind, getting a little similarity-in-sound thing going.

Instead Wind and its formidable investors are clandestinely banking big on the turbine mega-props failing, having built in clever planned obsolescence. The sooner the blades go down, the faster the doors open for Instead Wind's Plan B, meant to Trump, I mean trump Plan A.

Plan B banks on all the legal, fiscal and permitting effort afforded wind arrays, primarily the placement of deep-seated monopiles, paying off in a very real manner.

When the bogus wind power thing grinds to a pre-planned halt, deep-pocketed investive entities would assert their right to utilize the hard-earned ocean bottom real estate. Poised to immediately emerge, in stunning detail, is a perfectly blueprinted plan to repurpose the monopiles – and in doing so, fulfill the ultimate quick money-making plan. Who wants to wait decades for a pittance of a profit? Not antsy Instead Wind backers.

So, get ready to burn your turbine protest signs, kiddies, and joyously behold "Instead Wind Estates."

You’ve all heard of "oceanfront homes." Now, envision "oceantop homes," built on solid stainless-steel decking, placed atop suddenly derelict monopiles. No such dereliction will befall these all-weather mansions, designed to proudly endure where no turbine could.

Now to the concept's greatest communal selling point: The "Estates" will be totally unseeable from shore! The pile-driven community will instead become a non-intrusive entity unto itself – and a tax ratable goldmine for government coffers.

On the green/blue front, a site gets no cleaner. Every home will be thoroughly powered by the most stellar solar-power panels and state-of-the-sea tidal turbines, capable of generating amazing amounts of electricity. Every monopile housing unit will literally be aglow with natural power.

One might wonder if a certain night glow will be detectable from shore. Very much so, but in a marketable manner. We could hype our Island as "The Land of the Midnight Daybreak," keeping in mind surf fishing is best when there's that subtle touch of light on the horizon.

If you’re in the market for a pole-top place at Instead Wind Estates, you had better hurry – with a $7.5 million initial down payment in tow. A highly communicative Danish-speaking source excitedly admitted in a recent phone interview that all "Phase One" units have been reserverad (reserved). Among the pre-purchasers are a lion's list of casinos and multibillionaires.

While the Instead Wind blueprints are a tough read, done in Danish numbers, it looks as if every home will be equipped with a vessel lowering/raising apparatus.

According to the new Instead Wind Estates Homeowners Association (IWEHOA), which virtually met last week in Brussels, all homeowner vessels must be fully electric, including electric oil and lubricants.

By the by, the first homeowners association president has been elected, code named, "Beff Jezos" – who is anticipating future derelict monopiles farther out at sea might be used for public rocket launches.

Another home amenity available at a decent price point is a heliport, though the HOA will require all choppers be battery powered. The heliport concept has excited Amazon, which has offered to build, free of charge, a "Prime Drone Delivery Target Pad."

But what about fishing in the waters beneath and within the Estates? That's where this planned community will rock, literally inviting anglers to fish down below. Salespeople at The SandPaper are designing ads that encourage fishermen to "Angle the Estates."

As an added angling attraction, Instead Wind execs have contacted federal officials hoping to acquire permits allowing the regular stocking of farm-raised tog and black seabass, to be released among the monopiles. What's more, the company is seeking permission to undertake an annual stocking of a "surprise species" – for the "catching pleasure" of anglers.

As to the always troubling whale and marine mammal matter, Instead Winds will be donating an entire upper-end unit, Danishly dubbed a "Marine Mammal Care and Maintenance Facility." When asked about the donation, a company spokesperson said, "It's the Right Whale thing to do."

The marine mammal unit will be large enough to accommodate a Marine Mammal Stranding Center office and also a seasonal Coast Guard station. Upon being contacted this week, the USCG voiced a keen interest in the space.

Please understand that not all proposed Eastern Seaboard wind farms are secretly designed to become hyper high-end housing units. Only the monopile arrays off LBI are being readied for such a rapid conversion. However, if anti-turbine folks in other states see how successful protests can be, ocean-top housing developments could spring up everywhere.

RUNDOWN: Some things are ripe for repeating, as is the case with my now weekly praising of stripering LBI waters, be they bay, inlets, ocean or beach.

For those of us often imprisoned within offices, there is always a bitter-sweetness when post after post offers photo after photo of fat and juicy bass being taken. Nice to see so many keeper-sized catches being invited home for dinner.

It might just be me, but there seems to be a delightful slew of ma’am anglers, fisherpersons by any other name. It is a coup for the gals. Sorry, when excited, I might slip and use that purportedly sexist term. Worst yet, I really slipped last week and wrote, "You go, girl!" honoring a "them" angler of exceptional tenacity. I got a retort, though it was sort of canned, repro retort, cut and pasted from some organization or other. Geez, I hope I can safely use the word organization.

Blues are bountiful, though in a less than bountiful way. Huh? They’re out there, being regularly taken, but not nearly in numbers reminiscent of days when they were bountifully bountiful.

Fluking is edging toward its summertime in the sun. Catching is scattered but always worth the drift.

A jumbo black drumfish was taken in our zone, pushing 50 pounds. It was kept. Smaller ones are available on a one-and-done basis, mainly off LBI's south end.

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