FENWICK ISLAND, DE - The Town of Fenwick Island has joined yet another legal partnership in an effort to combat offshore wind from landing in Sussex County.
On December 30, Fenwick officials voted to participate in the Caesar Rodney Institute’s appeal against the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), according to Fenwick Island Mayor Natalie Magdeburger. DNREC previously approved alternative energy company US Wind’s plans to bring power cables ashore at 3Rs Beach from offshore wind turbines.
Magdeburger says the Fenwick Council voted unanimously to join the legal challenge against DNREC on Monday.
Fenwick Island is also currently involved in litigation originally filed by Worcester County, MD against the Federal Bureau of Oceanic Energy Management
“The Indian River Bay is one of the top 20 estuaries in the country,” Magdeburger said. “It is responsible for all the shellfish that get distributed in the tributaries, the crabs, the young fish. It is a critical, critical estuary. It has struggled over the years. Some will say its from the coal plant, some will say it’s from runoff from farmers’ fields, but it’s a bay that is already at a tipping point that’s not going in the right direction.”
Magdeburger goes on to argue US Wind’s cable landing at 3Rs Beach would further endanger the fragile ecosystem of the Indian River Bay. According to the Fenwick Mayor, part of that project would see the creation of monitoring programs to oversee the damage, both known and unknown, to the local ecosystem.
“That to me is unacceptable. [DNREC’s] job is to protect our environment. By acknowledging it’s going to damage our environment - we don’t know much, but we have people that are going to look at it. But there’s no get out of Dodge, so if it’s really bad, what happens?”
Magdeburger says this is the primary reason she and other Fenwick officials voted to join the Caesar Rodney Institute’s legal move against DNREC. In their suit, the Caesar Rodney Institute contends DNREC did not have the authority to grant permits to US Wind to bring transmission lines ashore at Delaware Seashore State Park.
