Harbor District begins environmental review for project to turn Humboldt Bay into a wind farm manufacturing hub

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Harbor District begins environmental review for project to turn Humboldt Bay into a wind farm manufacturing hub

Big changes are afoot on the Samoa Peninsula. The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District is planning to construct a large manufacturing center to craft and assemble giant wind turbines suitable for the deep offshore waters of the Pacific Coast.

Officially known as the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Multipurpose Marine Terminal Project, the port development is a crucial step to bring plans to build a first-of-its kind wind farm off the Pacific Coast to fruition. It would also position Humboldt’s as the only port on the West Coast built to manufacture and repair the turbines — a potential economic boon for the area as the industry enters a period of unprecedented growth.

In an effort to address the climate crisis, the Biden administration issued an executive order about a year ago requiring 30 gigawatts of energy to be produced by offshore winds by 2030. That’s enough to power approximately 15 million homes, or just about all the housing units in California.

“The government has said, ‘Within the next seven years, we’re going to deploy 60 coal-fired power plants’ worth of wind,'” Harbor District Development Director Rob Holmlund said at a recent public meeting initiating the environmental review process for the port project. “That is a really ambitious goal … it’s nearly double what the world currently has.”

To achieve this, the federal government has leased out numerous areas on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in locations where the wind is the strongest.

While wind turbines are already common off the Atlantic Coast, where the ocean water is relatively shallow, the Pacific Coast poses unique challenges. Because the continental shelf drops steeply off only a few miles from the shoreline, wind farms off the Pacific Coast require a different design. While the East Coast’s shallow waters allow for turbines to be built directly up from the sea floor, wind farms on the Pacific Ocean must float atop the water on barges tethered to the ocean’s floor. It’s a relatively new technology only being used at a handful of wind farms in the world on a small scale, and even those are different from what’s being proposed off Humboldt’s shore. (For example, the world’s deepest offshore wind farm is currently in Norway at a depth of 721 feet, according to CalMatters, while Humboldt’s farm would be located in waters approximately 2,500 feet deep.)

Pacific Coast wind turbines must be incredibly large. The platforms that will support the turbines alone are each the size of the Arcata Plaza, comprised of three separate pontoons. Atop each platform will stand a 500-foot tower, the top of which will be attached to three 500-foot rotating blades. The entire length of the completed turbine extends about 1,100 feet straight up from the surface of the water. (For reference, the smokestack at the old pulp mill on the Samoa Peninsula stands about 300 feet tall.)

A series of examples of what the Harbor District’s old pulp mill property would look like re-built as the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal.

Because the components of the turbine are too large to be shipped by air, rail or highway, they must travel by sea to a location where they can be assembled onsite. After completion, they will be towed 20 miles out to sea to the specific areas leased out by the Bureau of Ocean Management.

So far, nobody in the United States has manufactured this type of turbine, but Humboldt Bay is admirably suited for it. It is centrally located along the North Pacific Coast and — perhaps most importantly — has no large barriers, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, to block the entry of 1,100-foot-tall turbines being towed in and out.

Not only is Humboldt Bay directly ashore from one of the windiest areas off the California Coast and situated between the other two leased areas on the Pacific Ocean (near Morro Bay and off the Oregon coast), the Samoa Peninsula is also already set up for industrial use from the days when timber was king in Humboldt. Because those days have passed, much of the peninsula now sits empty, allowing plenty of room for a large industry to set up shop.

And room is what is needed. With such enormous component parts, the turbines must be assembled in large, clear areas very close to the water. The peninsula is available, roomy, barrier-free and centrally located, making it an ideal location for the budding industry.

Holmlund explained all this at a public meeting held at Eureka’s Wharfinger Building on July 19. The 160-seat meeting room was filled to capacity. The purpose of the meeting was to allow public input on what residents want to see discussed in a future Draft Environmental Impact Report assessing the potential impacts of transforming the Harbor District’s property on the peninsula into a state-of-the-art port facility and manufacturing center, and what measures would be necessary to mitigate those impacts. Technically, the meeting was a scoping session held in response to a CEQA-required Notice of Preparation posted at the end of June — a first opportunity for public input in what will be a long process.

Holmlund explained that the offshore turbine endeavor legally consists of two entirely separate projects. The wind turbines, once they are built, are under the supervision of the U.S. Bureau of Energy Management, which will run its own lengthy review of the environmental impacts of the offshore wind farm itself, separate from those done by the Harbor District for the port. Financial agreements concerning the wind turbines are also completely separate from those concerning the harbor and the port.

The Harbor District is currently negotiating with Crowley, an international maritime company that builds and manages ports. No lease has yet been signed but an exclusive right to negotiate agreement has been signed by both parties.

At the July 19 meeting, Holmlund gave a highly detailed, video-enhanced, 45-minute presentation on the district’s port plans.

The 180-acre project will be located between the bay waters and New Navy Base Road, roughly 2 miles northeast of the North Jetty, and south of the bridges that connect the peninsula to Eureka. It will have both land-based and marine components. The upland portion will be used for manufacturing, cleared of existing buildings and structures, including asphalt and concrete foundations.

The upland area also presently contains water storage tanks, power poles and lines, underground water lines of various sorts, telecommunication lines and gas mains, as well as sewer lines for sanitation and storm water. These will be relocated or modernized, as necessary. The area will be regraded and filled to reach a ground level of 17 feet to allow for sea level rise. Ground surfaces will be covered with compacted gravel or asphalt, and an internal network of roads will be constructed.

On this area, about 650,000 square feet of building space will be constructed (an area nearly as large as the Bayshore Mall), to be used for manufacturing and repairs, as well as offices and storage.

The lighting will be dramatic, with 150-foot tall “high-mast lights” installed around the perimeters of the project, and other shorter lights where needed. (Because no lease has been finalized with Crowley, it’s unclear what hours the facility would be in operation and at what hours the lighting would be used.)

A charging station for electrified construction equipment and forklifts will be installed, as well as fueling stations for land-based vehicles. There will be a connection to an electric substation directly south of the project site, which will be connected to solar arrays.

It is still unclear how much of the project can initially be electrified and how much of that electricity can be provided through clean sources, although the stated goal is to construct a green port run entirely with renewable energy. Some equipment, such as cranes, must use fossil fuels to operate. Obviously, no electricity can be expected from the wind turbines until after they have been built and deployed, which may take years.

In the marine section of the project area, old wharves will be demolished and new ones constructed on the bay. Intensive dredging will create berth spaces between the wharves for cargo ships, and one of them will have a sinking basin down to about 60 feet below sea level, which allows for transitioning the massive fully constructed floating platforms from land into the water.

In addition, a wet storage berth, 40 feet deep, will be constructed between the pier and the federal navigation channel. The purpose of the wet storage berth is to house some components, such as the floating foundations, and temporarily hold fully assembled wind turbines before they are towed out to sea.

Once moored in the farm 20 miles off the coast, Holmlund said the huge turbines will be a barely visible line of specks on the horizon. But they will be quite visible from shore while they are being assembled, with proposed site maps including storage areas for as many as 11 of them onsite. (Imagine 11 structures standing nearly three times taller than the pulp mill smokestack on the bay’s edge.)

Although Humboldt has had its share of boom-and-bust industries — think whaling, timber and cannabis — Harbor District Executive Director Larry Oetker is convinced this will be different.

“People don’t want a boom-and-bust industry,” he told the Journal. “This is a long-term, slow and steady, sustainable industry. Someone could spend an entire career working in this industry.”

A Harbor District graphic shows the massive scale of the offshore wind turbines proposed to occupy the waters 20 miles off Humboldt Bay, which will stand some 1,100 feet from a floating platform on the water’s surface.

Another thing that will make this high-tech manufacturing development different is the provision that some of the profits be kicked back to the local community. A compendium of about 40 local groups, including tribal nations, labor unions and various social service agencies, are working together, under the title of the Redwood Region Climate and Community Resilience Hub (or the Core Hub, for short), which operates under the sponsorship of the Humboldt Area Foundation. A central idea is to make sure those who historically have endured most of the negative impacts of big projects get some of the benefits from this one. Another goal is to commit to hiring locally and avoiding importing hundreds of itinerant construction workers, bringing challenges with minimal benefit to the local economy. The Core Hub is currently negotiating with the federal agencies overseeing the farm side of the project but also hopes to reach an agreement with the Harbor District.

“We want to make sure that it doesn’t happen to us — it happens with us,” Katerina Oskarsson, a Core Hub executive, told the Journal.

After his presentation at the scoping meeting, Holmlund spent well over an hour listening to dozens of comments from the audience and answering a few questions. He reminded attendees he could not answer questions dealing with the wind turbines’ operation or the farm itself, because that is under the jurisdiction of another agency. Most commenters received vigorous applause from the audience.

“I had a question about … delivering this energy onshore, when the grid will not be capable of fully receiving the amount of power that will be generated,” a man asked. “And how will it be transmitted to other population centers?”

Holmlund said this is not within the Harbor District’s purview, but that the Schatz Energy Center, Cal Poly Humboldt and the Redwood Coast Energy Authority are working on that problem.

Another audience member asked how the high-mast lighting planned for the project would affect nearby Tuluwat Island, a sacred site to the Wiyot Tribe and the location of its annual World Renewal Ceremony.

Holmlund said the district is studying the issue and working with tribal governments and tribal consultants to better understand the potential impacts and find possible mitigation measures.

“It’s important to remember that real people will be living next to the terminal, and safeguards must be in place to ensure that it is designed in a way that reduces impacts, such as pollution to water, air, light and noise, and increased traffic,” said a representative of the Redwood Community Action Agency and the Peninsula Community Collaborative, a coalition of local residents.

Another audience member noted that while the presentation was rich on detail about infrastructure, there was little information about how the port would actually operate, and she was concerned “because you’re leaving it all to Crowley. You’re letting Crowley make all the decisions about how many hours a day you work — 24 hours a day? … I really urge you to put some limits on that.”

Jennifer Savage, a long-time resident of the peninsula and well-known community activist (as well as Journal contributor), spoke favorably about the project — with some caveats. She praised the harbor district for “making the peninsula a safer and cleaner place.”

“This project provides the opportunity to reduce planetary harm by making a transition away from fossil fuels while providing living wage jobs for our struggling region,” she said. “These are really noble goals that deserve support. But the communities that live and recreate on the peninsula should not be forced to suffer unnecessary negative consequences as part of the deal.”

She also questioned the legality of the Harbor District’s process.

“My understanding is that you are legally required to complete CEQA before you sign the lease,” Savage continued. “I thought that was the way the law worked … and I think it’s really concerning that we may be signing the lease before the environmental review is complete. … Even the most cursory Google search of Crowley will show that there is a disappointing record.”

She urged the Harbor District to hold at least one additional meeting, and to extend the time for written comments. Others also urged the district not to move too quickly.

“Waiting until after the environmental review period to sign the lease with Crowley would do a huge amount to help with public buy-in,” said Caroline Griffith of the Northcoast Environmental Center. She mentioned concerns about Crowley’s human rights record, and also urged the Harbor District to come up with a zero-emissions plan for all of its properties.

Humboldt County Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo, whose district includes the Samoa Peninsula and who also serves on the board of the Redwood Coast Energy Authority, spoke, but quickly specified she was representing only herself as an individual. Arroyo said she is concerned about housing, possible transportation impacts, and visual and sound impacts “that are pretty impossible to mitigate.”

She also expressed concerns about temporary off-site work camps and the ability of local agencies to provide emergency responses.

“I think these concerns are really important to document in the EIR and I trust that you will be doing that,” Arroyo said, offering “to go as an advocate to Sacramento or D.C. and ask that these infrastructure changes be funded in a way that allows us to fully address these concerns.”

Speakers also urged the district to pay attention to the concerns of local tribes.

“This project needs to be done differently from the traditional Western process that excludes the voices of our local communities,” an Arcata resident said. “Local tribes need to be included as decision-makers in the decision-making process, as independent sovereigns, given that this project will occur on unceded lands and waters.”

A representative of the Humboldt Builders Exchange in Eureka, which represents about 250 businesses in the construction trade and about 3,000 employees, also spoke.

“We support the project with the caveat that it needs to have strong protection for local workers,” they said. “We have a robust workforce here. We’re a tight community that has worked together for years in the construction industry, both union and non-union, and we need protection to make sure that the local folks have a good shot at this. It’s also less impactful without people driving hundreds of miles back and forth on weekends. So we ask that you look at that.”

A woman who owns a commercial fishing business with her husband said they worry about access issues for the local fleet, saying “limiting competition” for safe passage in and out of the bay on good fishing days is paramount.

“We talk about seafood as a natural resource but we need to be referring to it as a natural food source,” she said. “We have one of the most sustainable fisheries in the world. My hope for the Harbor District is for you to advocate for our industry. Wind is a renewable resource but so is commercial fishing.”

Another speaker called for more transparency, saying they felt the scoping meeting wasn’t widely publicized or noticed.

“Everything here is happening too fast,” they said.

Another speaker wanted a clearer explanation of Crowley’s role in the process.

“We need this industry to happen differently than the gold, timber and cannabis industries that have caused damage to the environment and exploitation of marginalized groups,” they said. “There’s an amazing opportunity here to make this happen differently in a way that’s truly beneficial to this community. … Put community benefits in the lease and do a full CEQA process before signing the lease.”

A representative of the Blue Lake Rancheria asked if the 30-day comment period could be extended for another 30 days.

“It’s a marathon and not a sprint,” she said. “We need to adopt some of the concepts that our tribal nations had, such as the idea of Seven Generations, not just looking at what the impacts are for us that live on the earth today, but for seven generations out.”

Someone identifying themselves as a “tribal member” also urged the district to ensure tribal communities have a voice.

The Humboldt Wind Energy Area, located 20 miles offshore from the mouth of Humboldt Bay, is about 206 square miles and has some of the most consistent strong winds on the West Coast.

“This project has to be different,” said a tribal member. “It can’t just be tribal consultation for the sake of checking off a box. There’s got to be tribal engagement, not just on a government level, but also with people. … This project can be very successful … but it’s got to be done right.”

Two different labor union representatives then spoke, reminding the group of the vast number of local construction workers who could be employed on the project, and said they wanted to see an agreement to hire locally written into the project documents. One said he represented more than 400 individuals living in the area.

“This project is going to be the hub of the offshore wind industry here on the West Coast,” he remarked, wanting a written agreement ensuring that “local folks here work locally on these projects” and that those jobs go to unionized workers.

Others raised concerns about whales, salmon, seabirds and an endangered wildflower that grows on the dunes of the peninsula.

The following night, the Harbor District’s board met and decided to extend the written comment period for the notice of preparation to Aug. 25. The public will then have a chance to comment on the draft environmental impact report once it’s complete, and then again as the district pursues the bevy of permits needed for construction.

As to the operation of the farm itself, companies that purchased the leases in the Humboldt Wind Energy Area have until December to submit plans to the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the California Coastal Commission detailing how they plan to survey the area and collect data to inform their project designs. These plans will then undergo an environmental review before the companies can begin surveying and developing their design plans, which would then go before both agencies for review before undergoing a full National Environmental Policy Act review, with BOEM serving as the lead agency.

Details can be found on the Harbor District’s website, at humboldtbay.org.

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