Cape Cod History

February 25 - 2007: Former Mashpee student killed in BU fire; 2005: Local environmental group endorses Cape Wind

2007: Former Mashpee students among two BU students killed in fire
Rhiannon McCuish graduated in 2004, regional all-star in soccer and track

On this day in 2007 a gifted former Mashpee High School athlete was found to be one of the Boston University students killed in a searing apartment fire near her college campus.  Rhiannon McCuish, 21, was found dead after 5 a.m. in a burned out, top-floor apartment at 21 Aberdeen St., the Cape Cod Times reported Sunday, quoting a Boston Fire Department official and a family member.

Fire officials have not released the identity or age of the second victim, and were still investigating the cause.  Another man was injured in the blaze and taken to a local hospital. Rescuers found him unconscious and removed him from the flames, Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said.  When the fire broke out early Saturday, the building had been without power for several hours as crews performed utility work nearby, MacDonald said. Investigators will try to determine if the work played a role in the fire.

2005: Coalition for Buzzards Bay expresses support for Cape Wind

On this day in 2005, the environmental non-profit Coalition for Buzzards Bay announced "its satisfaction with the current review" for the Cape Wind to build a wind farm in Nantucket Sound, according to a statement released by the coalition.

The coalition said its qualified support for the Nantucket Sound wind farm was based on a "thorough review of the Army Corp of Engineers' Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)." This led coalition members to conclude that the project would bring about "significant environmental benefits" for Buzzards Bay and the region while "any environmental impacts are likely to be minor, temporary, and/or outweighed by the significant environmental benefits of developing such a renewable energy facility."

"This project presents us with an opportunity to significantly reduce our reliance on dirty fossil fuel burning plants," said Ben Bryant, marine policy specialist for the coalition. "In reviewing the DEIS, we have not found reason to oppose the project and in fact believe the project will have significant environmental benefits for our Bay and our region."

Continued support for the project, the coalition stated, would be based on "a satisfactory review of the Final Environmental Impact Statement, due out this summer, and a successful implementation of mitigation and monitoring plans to minimize any potential environmental impacts."

The coalition also updated its wind power policy statement "to recognize the potential for a future project sited in Buzzards Bay." Sure enough, a year later, Quincy developer Jay Cashman proposed a wind project for Buzzards Bay consisting of three separate turbine arrays.

Skeptical about the other, Buzzards Bay proposal

In a June 2006 op-ed in the Cape Cod Times, coalition executive director Mark Rasmussen and John Bullard, coalition president, outlined their reasons for skepticism about the Cashman proposal.

"This issue is not as simple as being 'for' or 'against' - the appropriate siting of wind farms will make all of the difference," Rasmussen and Bullard wrote. "Based on the limited information available, the Cashman proposal creates significant conflicts with busy navigation routes (sitting at the intersection of the main channel and the New Bedford channel), the safe transport of oil and other hazardous cargo through the bay, near-shore fishing and recreational uses, and endangered species nesting areas."