We are petitioning the Cape Cod Old Kings Highway Regional Historic Commission.  We want the Cape Cod Old Kings Highway Regional Historic Commission to allow for a wind energy turbine project at Aquacultural Research Corporation in Dennis, Massachusetts.

Aquacultural Research Corporation is a family farm with 18 employees.  This facility supports the community of 70 plus individual shellfish farms in Massachusetts and New England.  In turn, these family farms employ individuals from the surrounding communities.  Without ARC, these family shellfish farms have no future.  The survival of this facility threatens the shellfishing community as a whole.

Aquacultural Research Corporation (ARC) is one of, if not the oldest shellfish hatchery in the United States. This facility produces 98 percent of shellfish seed (quahogs, oysters, scallops, razor clams, etc.) used in Massachusetts. ARC is the lifeline for hundreds of shellfishermen and woman in Massachusetts and the Northeastern United States. As well as supporting communities, ARC also repopulates shellfish stock in coastal New England waters.

Over the past five years ARC has been working towards lowering its overwhelming energy costs with the goal of erecting a wind turbine at the facility in Dennis, Massachusetts. Not only would ARC be putting energy back into the power grid, but based on statistical data estimated from a single WES 30 turbine, 439 tons of carbon dioxide, 0.4 tons of nitrous oxide, and 1.60 tons of sulfur dioxide will be decreased each year. Without a drastic reduction in energy spending it is not feasible for the facility to continue operation. This jeopardizes the economic and social well being of thousands of individuals as well as town shellfish departments.

The construction of the single WES 30 turbine had been approved by the Dennis Old Kings Highway Historic Commission. However, this February ARC was forced to halt the five year struggle due to the appeal of a visual abutter to the Old Kings Highway Regional Historic Commission.  The Regional OKH Commission is made up of Sandwich, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Dennis, Brewster, and Orleans.  Sandwich, Barnstable, and Yarmouth voted that the Town of Dennis showed poor judgement and thereby overturned our approval (the Town of Dennis could not vote, Orleans never showed up,  and Brewster voted in support of the project). The heavy legal cost of continuing to fight for the turbine is unsustainable for ARC.

One of the ways for small corporations to remain viable is through the use of sustainable energy such as wind, tidal, and solar power, etc. With the present economic situation there is no cap on where energy and fossil fuel costs are headed. This puts many small local businesses at grave risk, which impacts local jobs and of course the tourist economy.

We truly believe that if ARC goes, so goes our legacy of shellfish and a real part of what identifies and supports Cape Codders and New Englanders alike.