USCG moves ahead on plans for Atlantic Coast shipping fairways

The U.S. Coast Guard has released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing a system of shipping safety fairways along the U.S. Atlantic Coast. The NPRM comes as plans for Atlantic Coast offshore wind farms become increasingly ambitious — and as more large Post-Panamax ships call U.S. East Coast ports.

The proposed fairways were identified in a now-completed Atlantic Coast Port Access Route Study.

“Fairways would preserve the safe and reliable transit of vessels along well-established traffic patterns and routes,” notes the Coast Guard. “While vessels are not required to use them, fairways are designed to keep traditional navigation routes free from fixed structures that could impact navigation safety and impede other shared offshore activities. The Coast Guard recognizes that there is increasing interest in offshore commercial development, including offshore renewable energy installations, and believes this development is best served by the establishment of consistent and well-defined fairways. The proposed fairways would help ensure that offshore developments remain viable by allowing developers to construct and maintain installations without risk of impeding vessel traffic. The Coast Guard is also proposing to establish traffic separation schemes and precautionary areas along the Atlantic coast to further improve navigation safety.”

In the NPRM, the Coast Guard notes that is familiar with the competing demands between preserving unobstructed vessel navigation routes and the spatial needs of offshore development.

“In the 1940s in the Gulf of Mexico, the advent of increasingly significant numbers of oil installations in the Gulf soon demonstrated the reality of conflict between navigational and resource extraction uses of the same ocean space and the nature of the resulting economic loss and physical danger. Instances of navigational confusion, near-collision, and collisions began to occur. Lessons learned from participating in the process of establishing those fairways in the Gulf taught the Coast Guard to mitigate the impact on vessel operators and offshore developers by releasing the dimensions of the proposed fairways as soon as possible.

“However, unlike the mineral-based installations in the Gulf of Mexico that generally consist of a single installation or a tight cluster of 3 to 5 structures encompassing a singular facility, OREI [offshore renewable energy installation] developments are usually comprised of a much larger network of interconnected turbines that encompass a larger contiguous area. Considering the massive geographic scope of this proposed rule, which is partially caused by the large footprints of these OREI developments, the Coast Guard considers it necessary to gather additional information before initiating the NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act) process. The Coast Guard believes it would benefit from the public comment process that follows the publication of a proposed rule, which will help the Coast Guard narrow the range of reasonable alternatives and identify issues that need to be considered in the required environmental review. Therefore, the Coast Guard is publishing this NPRM and the coordinates of the proposed fairways before it starts the environmental analysis that normally accompanies the proposed rule.”

On June 19, 2020, the Coast Guard published an ANPRM (Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule Making) announcing the possible establishment of the Atlantic Coast fairways and the NPRM addresses comments received in response, which included questions asking about the width of proposed fairways, buffer zones around proposed fairways, and whether the width of proposed fairways will include these buffer zones.

Other comments addressed in the NPRM include those asking about the effect of the proposed fairways on marine mammals, particularly North Atlantic right whales, and about access by Post-Panamax ships. On this last one, the NPRM says “Post-Panamax vessels have been considered and will be able to use the fairways in the same way as any other ship.”

• Download the NPRM HERE