For controversial wind farm off Cape Cod, latest hurdle is spiritual

BOSTON - In a new setback for a controversial wind farm proposed off Cape Cod, the National Park Service announced Monday that Nantucket Sound was eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, guaranteeing further delays for the project.

Known as Cape Wind, the project is the nation's first planned offshore wind farm and would cover 24 square miles in the sound, an area roughly the size of Manhattan. The park service decision came in response to a request from two Massachusetts Indian tribes, who said the 130 proposed wind turbines would thwart their spiritual ritual of greeting the sunrise, which requires unobstructed views across the sound, and disturb ancestral burial grounds.

The tribes - the Mashpee Wampanoag of Cape Cod and the Aquinnah Wampanoag of Martha's Vineyard - sought the listing last fall, shortly before a final federal decision on the project was expected. The project has been in the works since 2001 and is strongly supported by Gov. Deval Patrick.

The decision by the National Park Service did not kill the Cape Wind plan, but it erected new hurdles by requiring more negotiations and, possibly, changes to the project, like moving it. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar set a deadline of March 1 for the tribes and the project's developer, Energy Management Inc., to reach a compromise.

If they do not - a distinct possibility given the acrimony surrounding the project - Mr. Salazar can decide the project's future himself after seeking suggestions from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, an independent group. But even if Mr. Salazar lets the project move forward, the park service finding could help the tribes and other opponents build a legal case against it.

Cedric Cromwell, chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, said the decision confirmed "what the Wampanoag people have known for thousands of years: that Nantucket Sound has significant archaeological, historic and cultural values and is sacred to our people."

Others said the finding was surprising because Nantucket Sound, which encompasses more than 500 square miles, is by far the largest body of water ever found eligible for listing on the national historic register. Other eligible bodies of water have included Walden Pond in Massachusetts, which covers about 60 acres, and Zuni Salt Lake in New Mexico, which is about 6,500 feet across, said Jeffrey Olson, a spokesman for the park service.

"The decision is without precedent in terms of implicating many square miles of what is, legally speaking, the high seas," said Ian A. Bowles, the Massachusetts secretary of energy and environmental affairs. "But as a procedural matter, it's a good thing a decision was reached, and the secretary is getting personally involved to get it over the finish line."

A spokeswoman for Mr. Salazar said he planned to meet next week with representatives of the tribes and Energy Management Inc. in hopes of speeding a resolution.

The park service decision comes at a time when Mr. Cromwell's tribe, which won federal recognition only in 2007, is hoping to build a casino but has encountered obstacles.

President Obama has championed wind energy during his first year in office, though he has not publicly taken sides in the Cape Wind battle. In addition to the tribes, the project's opponents include homeowners and boaters on Cape Cod, who say it would hurt wildlife, fishing and tourism and spoil the beauty of Nantucket Sound. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, whose family compound in Hyannis Port looks out on the proposed wind farm site, was the project's most powerful opponent until his death last August.

In seeking the historical designation, the Wampanoag tribes - whose name translates to "people of the first light" - said their view to the east across Nantucket Sound was integral to their identity and cultural traditions.

"Here is where we still arrive to greet the new day, watch for celestial observations in the night sky and follow the migration of the sun and stars in change with the season," wrote Bettina Washington, historic preservation officer for the Aquinnah Wampanoag, in a letter to federal officials.

Supporters of Cape Wind have pointed out that the Aquinnah Wampanoag's land is on the western side of Martha's Vineyard, which does not face Nantucket Sound. But in its ruling, the National Park Service nonetheless said the sound was significant to both tribes.

"The sound is part of a larger, culturally significant landscape treasured by the Wampanoag tribes and inseparably associated with their history," wrote Janet Snyder Matthews, who was the keeper of the National Register of Historic Places until she left the park service in December.

The tribes also argued that the wind turbines, which would be 440 feet tall, could destroy long-submerged tribal artifacts from thousands of years ago, when the sound was dry land. Such artifacts could "yield further confirmation of our cultural histories," Ms. Washington wrote.