Brian Swan was the Maine Department of Marine Resources Environmental Coordinator for nearly 20 years. This made him one of Maine's most powerful yet little known environmental officials. Why is Environmental Coordinating a powerful job? Read on.
The Environmental Coordinator is responsible for "conducting/coordinating environmental impact reviews for permits and federal consistency determinations for projects in the coastal zone".(1)
Such projects include "Wetland alteration, pollution discharge and dredging/dredge material disposal, both in organized and unorganized territories."
When developers come around with applications for coastal or marine development projects, the Environmental Coordinator's job has been to speak for Maine's marine resources. The fate of Maine's plankton, finfish, shellfish, seaworms, seabirds, seaweeds, eelgrass and marine mammals, the fate of the public's and shoreowners' access to the state's coastal waters, the fate of dredging and ocean windpower projects all rest in his hands.
Why? Because the agencies that issue or deny permits or pollution licenses to developer wannabes consider the Environmental Coordinator's recommendations to be authoritative.
If he tells a state or federal agency on environmental permits and licenses like Maine DEP, Bureau of Public Land or fed agencies NOAA and Army Corps of Engineers that there will be "no significant adverse impact" from a dredging project, or armoring an eroding shoreline with boulders, then those agencies then check off the box for "habitat and water quality of Maine's marine and estuarine fish and shellfish" in the development application. If the E.C. says otherwise,then its full stop for the developer.
What makes the Coordinator so powerful? To put it simply: without his okay, neither the Army Corps of Engineers nor other federal or state agencies can approve development projects in Maine's territorial sea or in her her bays, tidal wetlands or tidal rivers.
This pursuant to the federal Coastal Zone Management Act or CZMA. As Maine's 2013 Guide to the Coastal Zone Management Act notes:
"A federal license or permit, or other form of federal approval, certification, or authorization, listed below, may not be issued until the State concurs that the proposed activity is consistent with the enforceable policies of the Maine Coastal Program."
The Environmental Coordinator is the Maine state official who must concur on whether or not the applicant has met the "consistency standards" requirements of the Act.
Will a project have a "significant adverse impacts to marine resources, traditional fishing, recreation, navigation or riparian access",
Whether it is a mammoth dredging project proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S Navy seeking to test sonar off Bath, the UMaine's DeepCwind Consortium floating windpower project off Monhegan, or a coastal homeowner seeking seeking to armor an eroding shoreline, if the Environmental Coordinator decides it'll have "significant" adverse impacts to our state's marine cology " adverse" then its not going to happen. Details Here federal and here state
Do the Environmental Coordinator protect marine living marine resources or doesn't he?
Hard to say. The record of Maine's former EC conserving Maine's marine resources is hard to tell. For as far as Mr. Swan was concerned, his decisions and his records were seemingly none of our business.
In the few Penobscot Bay area Environmental Reviews he has released - under pressure - Mr Swan has warned against found "no significant impacts" in development proposals that terraformed the shore in Owls Head, Camden and Belfast
Is this a trend? At a recent meeting and email correspondence recent and past, Mr Swan has shown extreme reluctance to making available the memos he has sent the Army Corps of Engineers and Maine DEP over the past two decades, advising them on the environmental impact to marine resources of these projects of reviewing development projects around Penobscot Bay.
Mr. Swan is also "responsible for environmental impact reviews on projects seeking public lands leases on publicly owned submerged and/or inter-tidal lands, which could have an effect on Maine's fisheries infrastructure, as well as reviewing and commenting on municipal comprehensive plans which may affect marine, estuarine and riverine resources"
Quite a loaded plate for a single midlevel DMR official!
He must be familiar with local, state and federal officials and the rules regulations laws and ordinances they regulate, ranging from municipal clam committees to Maine DEP, Maine DOT, the Bureau of Public Lands, the Army Corps of Engineers, NOAA and the Federal Highway administration.
When one of those agencies or municipalitiies needs to know if a development proposal would harm Maine's marine ecology, they ask DMR's Environmental Coordinator. Whatever he tells them they accept as the facts, and use it to inform their permit decisions.
From all evidence, however, Swan rubberstamps every_ coastal sprawl application brought before him! It doesn't matter if it's a homeowner wanting to "armor" 50 feet of a naturally eroding shore, or Sears Island's port wannabees. Or giant gas tank applicant DCP Midstream-which yearns to gobble acres of coastal forest, turning the natural tea of forest runoff there into petrol-tainted "stormwater" from its asphalt concrete and steel replacement of the existing forest, wetlands and peat.
He approves them all. No matter how big or small, it's always "no significant impacts". At least that is what one must conclude by reading the few "reviews" of he has written that he has - very grudgingly - released.
Are coastal developers so ecologically conscious lately, their projects designed with such exquisite sensitivity? Evidently Swan thinks so.
We've tried to get him to release copies of the "Impact reviews" (aka "comments" that he has written on development projects around Penobscot Bay. But Brian "No significant Impact, no public hearing" Swan says he can't do that. He only files projects by the owner's name. And, now, he can't supply a list of those names. In fact, he says, why don't I go away? Go ask the Army Corps of Engineers for what he sent them, he urged. Or Maine DEP.
So I asked the Army Corps guy: he said get them from Swan. Swan's the originator. He is right of course.
But when I met with Swan, even though his filing cabinet and computer were only yards away from us, he said it would take up to four full work days of sustained effort to find his own files. Regrettably, have to charge me $400 bucks or more for having to spend all those days hunting through his file drawer of "reviews" he wrote last year.
The tenacity of his opposition to revealing his own work product (not a scrap of it "confidential" by the way) strongly suggests that Brian Swan has something to hide.
rules and laws that restrict and guide development and conservation Maine's coastal zone and the interested parties from across the social and economic spectrum. He must have the strength to hold firm in dedense opf anture and when to compromise
Under the state's rules, Brian Swan can order a public meeting or even a public hearing be held on a development application, either on his own judgement or based on a show of significant interest from interested persons. For, the more input he gets from the interested and affected coastal public and private interests, the better his evaluation must surely be.
So how often does Maine Department of Marine Resources's Environmental Coordinator call a public meeting or hearing?
Public Notice or Legal Notice # 3456348
PUBLIC NOTICE Notice of Intent not to hold a Public Meeting The Department of Marine Resources (DMR) has determined not to hold a public meeting on a proposal by Bath Iron Works to conduct maintenance dredging of up to 65,000 cubic yards of sandy material about every three years over a ten year period from an ~ 0.40 acre area within their dry dock Sinking Hole, a 5.5 acre ~ - 70 ft. MLW deep area previously constructed in the river. Disposal of materials would be in the river north of Bluff Head, Arrowsic in ~ 98 ft. of water, a location used by the Corps of Engineers for disposal of dredged material from the Kennebec River federal navigation project. Pursuant to 38 M.R.S.A. ?480-D, sub-?9 DMR will accept verbal and written comments in lieu of a public meeting. If five or more persons request a public meeting within 30 days of this notice, by June 16, 2012, DMR will hold such a meeting. Contact: Brian Swan, DMR, P.O. Box 8, West Boothbay Harbor, ME 04575; tel.: 633-9510. #4593236
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| Brian Swan: Does he or doesn't he? |
Such projects include "Wetland alteration, pollution discharge and dredging/dredge material disposal, both in organized and unorganized territories."
When developers come around with applications for coastal or marine development projects, the Environmental Coordinator's job has been to speak for Maine's marine resources. The fate of Maine's plankton, finfish, shellfish, seaworms, seabirds, seaweeds, eelgrass and marine mammals, the fate of the public's and shoreowners' access to the state's coastal waters, the fate of dredging and ocean windpower projects all rest in his hands.
Why? Because the agencies that issue or deny permits or pollution licenses to developer wannabes consider the Environmental Coordinator's recommendations to be authoritative.
If he tells a state or federal agency on environmental permits and licenses like Maine DEP, Bureau of Public Land or fed agencies NOAA and Army Corps of Engineers that there will be "no significant adverse impact" from a dredging project, or armoring an eroding shoreline with boulders, then those agencies then check off the box for "habitat and water quality of Maine's marine and estuarine fish and shellfish" in the development application. If the E.C. says otherwise,then its full stop for the developer.
What makes the Coordinator so powerful? To put it simply: without his okay, neither the Army Corps of Engineers nor other federal or state agencies can approve development projects in Maine's territorial sea or in her her bays, tidal wetlands or tidal rivers.
This pursuant to the federal Coastal Zone Management Act or CZMA. As Maine's 2013 Guide to the Coastal Zone Management Act notes:
"A federal license or permit, or other form of federal approval, certification, or authorization, listed below, may not be issued until the State concurs that the proposed activity is consistent with the enforceable policies of the Maine Coastal Program."
The Environmental Coordinator is the Maine state official who must concur on whether or not the applicant has met the "consistency standards" requirements of the Act.
Will a project have a "significant adverse impacts to marine resources, traditional fishing, recreation, navigation or riparian access",
Whether it is a mammoth dredging project proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S Navy seeking to test sonar off Bath, the UMaine's DeepCwind Consortium floating windpower project off Monhegan, or a coastal homeowner seeking seeking to armor an eroding shoreline, if the Environmental Coordinator decides it'll have "significant" adverse impacts to our state's marine cology " adverse" then its not going to happen. Details Here federal and here state
Do the Environmental Coordinator protect marine living marine resources or doesn't he?
 |
| Good Bryan |
Hard to say. The record of Maine's former EC conserving Maine's marine resources is hard to tell. For as far as Mr. Swan was concerned, his decisions and his records were seemingly none of our business.
In the few Penobscot Bay area Environmental Reviews he has released - under pressure - Mr Swan has warned against found "no significant impacts" in development proposals that terraformed the shore in Owls Head, Camden and Belfast
 |
| Bad Bryan |
Is this a trend? At a recent meeting and email correspondence recent and past, Mr Swan has shown extreme reluctance to making available the memos he has sent the Army Corps of Engineers and Maine DEP over the past two decades, advising them on the environmental impact to marine resources of these projects of reviewing development projects around Penobscot Bay.
Mr. Swan is also "responsible for environmental impact reviews on projects seeking public lands leases on publicly owned submerged and/or inter-tidal lands, which could have an effect on Maine's fisheries infrastructure, as well as reviewing and commenting on municipal comprehensive plans which may affect marine, estuarine and riverine resources"
Quite a loaded plate for a single midlevel DMR official!
He must be familiar with local, state and federal officials and the rules regulations laws and ordinances they regulate, ranging from municipal clam committees to Maine DEP, Maine DOT, the Bureau of Public Lands, the Army Corps of Engineers, NOAA and the Federal Highway administration.
When one of those agencies or municipalitiies needs to know if a development proposal would harm Maine's marine ecology, they ask DMR's Environmental Coordinator. Whatever he tells them they accept as the facts, and use it to inform their permit decisions.
From all evidence, however, Swan rubberstamps every_ coastal sprawl application brought before him! It doesn't matter if it's a homeowner wanting to "armor" 50 feet of a naturally eroding shore, or Sears Island's port wannabees. Or giant gas tank applicant DCP Midstream-which yearns to gobble acres of coastal forest, turning the natural tea of forest runoff there into petrol-tainted "stormwater" from its asphalt concrete and steel replacement of the existing forest, wetlands and peat.
He approves them all. No matter how big or small, it's always "no significant impacts". At least that is what one must conclude by reading the few "reviews" of he has written that he has - very grudgingly - released.
Are coastal developers so ecologically conscious lately, their projects designed with such exquisite sensitivity? Evidently Swan thinks so.
We've tried to get him to release copies of the "Impact reviews" (aka "comments" that he has written on development projects around Penobscot Bay. But Brian "No significant Impact, no public hearing" Swan says he can't do that. He only files projects by the owner's name. And, now, he can't supply a list of those names. In fact, he says, why don't I go away? Go ask the Army Corps of Engineers for what he sent them, he urged. Or Maine DEP.
So I asked the Army Corps guy: he said get them from Swan. Swan's the originator. He is right of course.
But when I met with Swan, even though his filing cabinet and computer were only yards away from us, he said it would take up to four full work days of sustained effort to find his own files. Regrettably, have to charge me $400 bucks or more for having to spend all those days hunting through his file drawer of "reviews" he wrote last year.
The tenacity of his opposition to revealing his own work product (not a scrap of it "confidential" by the way) strongly suggests that Brian Swan has something to hide.
rules and laws that restrict and guide development and conservation Maine's coastal zone and the interested parties from across the social and economic spectrum. He must have the strength to hold firm in dedense opf anture and when to compromise
Under the state's rules, Brian Swan can order a public meeting or even a public hearing be held on a development application, either on his own judgement or based on a show of significant interest from interested persons. For, the more input he gets from the interested and affected coastal public and private interests, the better his evaluation must surely be.
So how often does Maine Department of Marine Resources's Environmental Coordinator call a public meeting or hearing?
Public Notice or Legal Notice # 3456348
PUBLIC NOTICE Notice of Intent not to hold a Public Meeting The Department of Marine Resources (DMR) has determined not to hold a public meeting on a proposal by Bath Iron Works to conduct maintenance dredging of up to 65,000 cubic yards of sandy material about every three years over a ten year period from an ~ 0.40 acre area within their dry dock Sinking Hole, a 5.5 acre ~ - 70 ft. MLW deep area previously constructed in the river. Disposal of materials would be in the river north of Bluff Head, Arrowsic in ~ 98 ft. of water, a location used by the Corps of Engineers for disposal of dredged material from the Kennebec River federal navigation project. Pursuant to 38 M.R.S.A. ?480-D, sub-?9 DMR will accept verbal and written comments in lieu of a public meeting. If five or more persons request a public meeting within 30 days of this notice, by June 16, 2012, DMR will hold such a meeting. Contact: Brian Swan, DMR, P.O. Box 8, West Boothbay Harbor, ME 04575; tel.: 633-9510. #4593236
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