Sea Girt residents to fight offshore wind cables in community: 'Not on my watch'

SEA GIRT — This small Monmouth County town is bracing for a big battle against the installation of offshore wind power cables throughout the community.

Sea Girt residents and officials met at the borough's elementary school on Aug. 14 and planned their modes of attack against a high voltage power cable that would connect a 200-turbine offshore wind farm to the electrical grid in Monmouth County. While Sea Girt residents have launched a grassroots campaign with neighbors from across the county, borough elected officials are considering a possible lawsuit to try and stop the cable installation.

The Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind project, which will be erected off Atlantic City and southern Long Beach Island, plans to run its power cables to the onshore electric grid through Atlantic City and the Army National Guard property in Sea Girt, according to plans submitted to the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. After making landfall in Sea Girt, the cable lines would then run to the Larrabee electrical substation in Howell.

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Once complete, the project is expected to power as many as 1 million New Jersey homes with renewable energy, according to the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which oversees federal permits for the project.

Gov. Phil Murphy has said that offshore wind plays a critical role in helping New Jersey transition away from fossil-fuel based power, a significant source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Offshore wind power "will bring us closer to achieving 100% clean energy by 2035, create thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic opportunity in our coastal communities and beyond, and guarantee that New Jerseyans have access to clean, affordable energy produced right here in our state and powered by our labor union workforce," Murphy said in a statement in March.

The power cable routes were selected to avoid underwater obstructions, utilities, navigation channels and anchor areas, Atlantic Shores personnel wrote in their development plans to the federal agency.

But Sea Girt residents and their neighbors worry the cables will bring health and safety risks into their communities.

"Thirty feet from my living room is where they want to put this," said Lynette Viviani of Sea Girt Avenue, Manasquan.

Viviani told the Sea Girt Council on Wednesday that she worried how laying the power cables through the area would affect the ground water and potentially disturb pollution at old Superfund sites in the area.

Related: Feds approve Atlantic Shores offshore wind plan along New Jersey shore

Other audience members said they were concerned about electromagnetic field generated by the cables.

"Our public safety, our children's health, will not be buried with this cable. Not on my watch," Keri Conkling of Neptune Place told the council.

New Jersey does not regulate electromagnetic fields, or EMFs, which are generated to some degree by all electronic devices. Cell phones, microwaves and radio antennas are common sources of this kind of radiation, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection .

However, EMFs of transmission lines are regulated in New Jersey, where EMFs are measured at the edge of the power utility's right of way, according to an Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind's electromagnetic field report to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

"The electric field from the shielded power cables is blocked by the grounded cable armoring as well as the earth and therefore, the shielded cables will not be a direct source of any electric field outside the cables," according to Atlantic Shores' report . "The Projects have no appreciable contribution to the surrounding environment outside (rights of way) in terms of electric and magnetic field strengths."

However, Sea Girt residents and their neighbors remain suspicious and opposed to the power lines.

Kimberly Paterson of New York Avenue, an organizing member of a group called " Stop the High-Risk Power Cables ," said she had found a "tidal wave of support" from people living in the area.

"This is not going to happen in our community," Paterson said during the Sea Girt council meeting. "We will fight this to the bitter end."

Sea Girt Mayor Don Fetzer said that the borough's elected officials would consider partnering with neighboring towns or organizations to sue over the cable installation, if needed.

"It takes a little bit of effort to get everybody at the same table feeling the same way," said Fetzer "But I think there's a group (for this), and the towns are in favor."

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers education and the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than 16 years. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Sea Girt residents to fight offshore wind cables in community: 'Not on my watch'