Wind farm planners propose compromises

That never-signed document is expected to serve as a rough template today in Washington when US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar convenes key players to broker a compromise on what appears to be the last major roadblock to Cape Wind’s approval: Native Americans’ conviction that the project will interfere with their age-old spiritual rituals, and the resulting determination by the National Park Service that Nantucket Sound is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

But it was unclear whether a deal can be hashed out by a March 1 deadline Salazar set last week. In recent days, the leader of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe said in a media interview that she wanted the project moved or denied and gave little indication there was room for compromise. The main opposition group, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, also has begun advocating more forcefully for relocation. Cape Wind officials say that Nantucket Sound is the best place for the project because of its shallow, protected site, and that relocation would start the approval process, now in its ninth year, all over again.

The series of three meetings today has ballooned into a full-blown media event, with two press conferences scheduled afterward, one by the Alliance and one with Salazar and some of the key parties to the dispute. Permitting the nation’s first offshore wind farm would probably position the Obama administration in a more favorable international light after last month’s failure to strike a strong international climate deal in Copenhagen.

“If there is any legitimate hope for this country to have a renewable energy strategy, we have to demonstrate individual stakeholders cannot block entire agendas,’’ said Robert Kaufmann, professor and chairman of Boston University’s department of geography and the environment.

Earlier this month, the National Park Service gave credence to Native American concerns, declaring Nantucket Sound eligible to be listed on the Historic Register, which affords it more development protection.

Six months earlier, a draft memorandum of agreement was circulated among the US Department of the Interior, the Massachusetts Historical Commission, Cape Wind Associates, and other groups close to the project that was designed to appease historical officials and Native Americans, although it was never signed. Still, the document gives a glimpse into concessions made by Cape Wind and indicates that any deal is likely to include monetary compensation for the project’s effect on 28 historic sites and Wampanoag traditional properties. The document was given to the Globe by a party involved in the dispute and was confirmed by another.

The document says Cape Wind’s reconfiguring of the project’s footprint was done in part to eliminate turbines closest to the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port and to make it harder to see from the National Historic Landmark. Turbines were also moved to lessen their impact on the view from the Nantucket Historic District, another landmark.

The document also said Cape Wind agreed to collect sediment samples from where the foundation for each proposed turbine would be dug, with representatives of the Wampanoag tribes present. If archeological remains are found, a federal procedure requires work near it to stop until federal officials decide next steps.

The agreement also provides two places to insert a dollar amount to compensate affected parties, but does not say how much money or to whom it should go.

Now that Nantucket Sound is seen as historic by a government agency, the tribes and other opponents are likely to insist on additional concessions.

Wampanoag tribes have been resolute in recent years, saying the turbines would disturb their spiritual sun greetings and ancestral grounds, which were submerged when the sea rose after the last ice age. On Monday, Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe head, told Indian Country Today the project needed to be moved.

“My fear is that they’ll try to throw money at us just to go away and let it happen, but what kind of legacy would we be leaving for our children?’’ she told the publication.

Rules governing historic sites do not require that a compromise be reached between the parties, merely that the tribes be consulted, but agreements are often struck in such disputes. If no compromise is reached by March 1, Salazar could move to make a final decision on the project.

Today, Salazar will meet with the Wampanoag tribes, then with officials from nearby communities and groups supporting or opposing the project. Finally, he will meet with the groups that would eventually sign a memorandum of agreement.