About 17 months ago, the Vineyard Gazette published my essay entitled Say Goodbye to the Milky Way in which I expressed concern about the massive light pollution from construction of Vineyard Wind and the other proposed offshore wind projects in our nearby coastal waters.

The federal government has attempted to respond to the light pollution problem by mandating that the wind developers install Aircraft Detection Lighting Systems (ADLS) that control the flashing red aerobeacons mounted on the turbines. With ADLS, the aerobeacons are illuminated only when there is an aircraft in the vicinity of the wind turbine field, which would be only a handful of hours per year. Vineyard Wind is not complying with this requirement, however, unlike the smaller South Fork project to the west that is visible from the Gay Head cliffs and the western shore of the Island.

Now that Vineyard Wind has dozens of completed turbines in place, the issue of its massive light pollution is no longer an abstraction. There is a veritable forest of bright flashing red lights plainly visible from anywhere on the Island with a view to the south. The electric service platforms that house the crew and the substation transformers have even brighter white lights that would put a Broadway marquee to shame. The glow on the horizon does exactly what I warned about and creates a glow of scattered light that ruins the dark sky over the ocean we used to enjoy.

I have attempted for the past eight months to get Vineyard Wind to activate the ADLS they are required to use. Every time I get in touch, they respond that it will be turned on “in a few weeks” or “very soon.” The federal regulators assure me they are “looking into it.”

Of course these are the same regulators who allowed Vineyard Wind to resume construction almost immediately after the catastrophic blade failure this summer that dumped tons of toxic fiberglass resins and sharp shards into the ocean — despite not having any idea of what caused it.

I would encourage anyone who is concerned about the light pollution to contact Vineyard Wind (Ian Campbell; ICampbell@vineyardwind.com) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement at the Department of the Interior (Karla Marshall; Karla.Marshall@bsee.gov) and express concern.

There are many, many problems in this world. This is one that has a solution and needs to be fixed.

Frederick N. Khedouri

Chilmark