Developers who plan to build the nation’s first industrial-scale offshore wind farm south of Martha’s Vineyard saw their first major setback this week.
The Edgartown conservation commission recently prevailed in a long-running legal dispute with a Chappaquiddick property owner over whether he could build a boardwalk over a salt marsh.
Exposing the limits of environmental policing, wetlands violations that took place across six and a half acres of privately-owned, ecologically sensitive Cow Bay land were stumbled upon after the fact by Edgartown conservation agent Jane Varkonda while she was in the area on other business.
The violations took place on property leading to Cow Bay beach owned by C. Dean Metropoulos of Connecticut.
Citing concerns about allowing prisoners out on work release in a summer camp setting, the Edgartown conservation commission decided this week to end a work release program between the Dukes County jail and the Farm Institute in Katama.
“Because it’s open to the public and there’s a summer camp there, it’s probably not a good idea for the Farm Institute to have a work release program,” conservation agent Jane Varkonda said at a meeting of the commission on Wednesday.
