REHOBOTH BEACH, DE - The Caesar Rodney Institute has officially filed a lawsuit against Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) over plans to bring a power line ashore in Sussex County from a proposed offshore wind project.
Filed on behalf of the Cesar Rodney Institute and two other individual plaintiffs by the Brady Legal Group on September 30th, the suit argues DNREC lacks the authority to grant permits to US Wind to bring transmission lines ashore at Delaware Seashore State Park.
According to the lawsuit, US Wind has requested the permits to bring the power line ashore at 3Rs Beach, as well as permits to construct a power substation next to the Indian River Power Plant.
“The laws and regulations of the State require that any application for the wetlands and subaqueous lands permits include zoning approval for the project, where needed,” M. Jane Brady, who represents the plaintiffs, said Monday. “The application for a beach construction permit requires a report from the relevant DNREC Division, in this case, the Division of Watershed Stewardship. Both the required zoning approvals and the Division report are not part of the applications under consideration by DNREC. We therefore have asked the Court to prohibit DNREC from approving these permits until such time as all the mandated information is available and included. DNREC has a duty to comply with the law and the regulations they adopted relating to these matters.”
The suit requests the intervention of the Delaware Superior Court to forbid DNREC from issuing permits to US Wind until mandatory requirements and procedures under state law are met.
"We brought this lawsuit asking the court to declare as a declaratory judgement that they are not to allow by law to grant a permit that is not complete," Brady said.
The plaintiff's attorney said not having these components before the public comment period ended did not allow the public to become properly informed.
"If the public has an opportunity to read that, they can comment on what's contained in there," Brady said. "Given the fact that federal agencies have discouraged us from going under the bay, we were very interested in what the division would say, internal to DNREC, about going under the bay."
The plaintiffs also argue DNREC did not hold a public hearing regarding the permit that met state requirements.
“Overwhelmingly, the people of Sussex County are opposed to this project. It is hard to imagine why the governor would have signed an agreement to allow transmission lines for a project that benefits only Maryland to come ashore in our state park,” Brady said Monday.
David Stevenson, the policy director for the Caesar Rodney Institute, agreed. He said the risks in Delaware did not make sense for a project in Maryland.
"Anything that comes out of this has been promised correctly to Maryland," Stevenson said. "So why are we gonna take the hit for this in Delaware? There's no reason for it."
The suit will now be served to DNREC and the Attorney General, with the defendants given 20 days to file a response.
WBOC reached out to DNREC officials and US Wind Monday but were told neither had a statement at this time.
