Block Island Wind Farm Impact Assessment

Inspire Environmental

Exa provided statistical expertise for a 7-year program to monitor the environmental effects of wind farm construction and operation at the Block Island Wind Farm (BIWF) in Rhode Island. Beginning in 2012, Exa worked closely with the scientists at INSPIRE Environmental (Newport, Rhode Island), the prime contractor to Deepwater Wind (now Ørsted), in developing a series of demersal fish trawl and lobster surveys to measure potential ecological and economic effects of BIWF. For development of the lobster ventless trap survey design, Exa evaluated existing time series data of lobster surveys conducted by Rhode Island and Massachusetts state agencies. Relevant variance estimates were gleaned from these existing datasets to conduct a power analysis and optimize the study design within logistical constraints on gear type (i.e., ventless or vented traps), sample size, trap spacing, and sampling locations. In addition to annual reports summarizing the results of the annual lobster and fish trawl surveys, multi-year synthesis reports were also prepared. The lobster surveys produced catch data and endpoints summarizing lobster health and reproduction; the fish surveys produced catch (abundance and biomass) data for the communities collected by otter trawl. Results were analyzed using generalized linear models (GLMs) and planned linear contrasts (e.g., before-after-control-impact [BACI] hypotheses) to quantify temporal changes within the lobster and fish communities near the windfarm compared to communities from far-field reference areas. The magnitude of the BACI effects were estimated from the GLMs, with 95% confidence intervals estimated via Monte Carlo simulations. Results were published in a series of peer-reviewed papers.