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Aug 22, 2017

Rockland fishpier dredge plan withdrawn!

Rockland fishpier dredge plan withdrawn! 
Opposition to contaminants & costs  push it back for at least a year

What a roller coaster this dredge process has been - the Feds said NO...the City said YES...the Feds came back with YES...the City came back with NO!  At least until 2019 

What happened.
Realizing that a great deal of decisionmaking was going on behind closed doors, we decided to  lift the rock that dredge fast-trackers were creeping about under. We showed  the  people how shaky a plan its supporters had for dealing with old sediments heavy with PCBs lead, cadmium PAHs.

Little more than a year ago the Army Corps of Engineers rejected dumping  Rockland fishpier dredge spoils into the Rockland Disposal Site - located between the Fox Islands and Rockland. The Corps  bluntly found that:
"These sediments are not suitable for unconfined open water disposal at the Rockland Disposal Site (RDS) as proposed. There are alternatives available to the applicant. These include upland disposal or biological testing of the materials.
Metals "in the sediments represented by Composite 2, cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) concentrations for the project are more than twice the “mean plus two times the standard deviation” of the RDS reference value." .
"Five PAHs (phenanthrene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo(a)anthracene, and chrysene) concentrations are at least 10 times reference values.
PCBs, "most of the congener concentrations in the project were above the analytical detection limits.
End of excerpts

Then the plan shifted to dumping it onto a public park - Rockland people said NO. Lots of them. Heavy metals PCBs, and families and pets don't mix.  

Foiled again, the  dredge wannabees went back to the Army Corps of Engineers and talked them into reconsidering their earlier NO.  On July 27, 2017, Army Corps' Charles Farris sent an email to two other Corps officials and Bud Brown of sediment sampler EcoAnalysts Inc, 

He tersely stated "Here is the final sampling plan for the Rockland Fish Pier. Please contact me with any questions."


Time to reach out outside Rockland. I contacted the Vinalhaven town manager and the islands lobster cooperative suggested that they  were on the verge of getting a surprise dredge spoils  dump With its 42 million dollar a year (2016) lobster fishery at risk of getting tainted, they were eager to get all the gory details which Maine's Freedom of Access Act and several honest city officials   enabled us to gain and  then get out to the public



L

2. In 2017 the city of Rockland then turned to the land disposal option and found two possible sites.
One would be a fresh topping* of Snow Marine Park in Rockland's south end with the spoils. This would elevate the height above sea level of the park by a certain amount. The second would cap the now filled-to-capacity Rockland Quarry Dump with the spoils, over which a sodded surface would be planted
However Nature has reasserted Herself. The waters that formerly flowed down slope through the South End as a stream into the cove now disperses itself through the filled-in spoils, upwelling as significant wetlands across the north end of the park, making that area off limits and apparently reducing the available area to too small for the spoils . In addition the city councilmembers seem to oppose topping a public park with sediments tainted with lead, cadmium PCBs and other toxins
* Snow Marine Park was created by filling an intertidal cove with dredge spoils - about half a century ago. (From where?)
3. Back to the bay! On July 27, 2017, Army Corps' Charles Farris sent an email to two other Corps officials and Bud Brown the rep of EcoAnalysts Inc . The short message:
"Here is the final sampling plan for the Rockland Fish Pier. Please contact me with any questions."
Norm"

Aug 19, 2017

Rockland Comprehensive plan overhaul - updates 8 /17/17 on water uses, recreation, forestry & more. AUDIO

Rockland Comprehensive Planning Commission meeting August 17, 2017 
Audio mp3s of  the meeting. *  Meeting agenda  Commission webpage 
Includes: (1) Reports on Comprehensive plan updates. (2) Rockland Farms & Forests Report 59min

(1) Update Reports


Recreation & Open Space  16min 9sec

Above reports as one audio. 27min 35sec

(2) Presentation:  Rockland Farms & Forests Report by Amy Files &John Grondin

Meeting Attendees
Commission members 
Julie Lewis, Chair
Eileen Wilkinson
Amy Files,  Renew Rockland
Callie Black,  Rockland heart and soul 
James Kalloch Workboat operator, snowplowing

Members Not attending
Michelle Gifford
 Michael Silverstein  (resigned)

Also attending 
Ann Kreig from Midcoast Regional Planning Commission
Bill Butler - "staff"
Ron Huber  WRFR LPFM radio producer, FOPB
John Grondin head of Parks Commission

Members Not attending
Commissioner Michelle Gifford  wasnt there 
Commissioner Michael Silverstein  has quit 

 Alternate
Terry Pinto,Rockland Sewage Treatment Plan
 Shelley Kushner, Alternate

Aug 9, 2017

Penobscot Bay threatened AGAIN with offshore dumping of lead & PCB-laden dredge spoils

Is the US Army Corps of Engineers trying to fast track dumping of unacceptably contaminated sediments from the mainland into waters 3 miles off Vinalhaven?

The location for dumping sediment spoils dug up from the harbor floor has ping-ponged from the Rockland Disposal Site off the Fox Islands, onshore to Rockland's own Snow Marine Park and now back to the bay!


As we try to make sense of this Rockland Fishpier Dredge plan, here are some background documents and emails  to bring you up to speed.

EMAILS Discussions of the below documents, as well as about the now-dropped plan to land dump the spoils onto Snow Marine Park in Rockland,

2016 DOCUMENTS  Sediment test and Army Corp response


7/16/16 Army Corps of Engineers Suitability findings on Rockland Fishpier sediments  Quote:  "These sediments are not suitable for unconfined open water disposal at the Rockland Disposal Site (RDS) as proposed."

2017 DOCUMENTS Army Corps issues new plan for fishper dredge spoils  going to RDS

AUDIO



 Historical 


How we got where we are.  Above documents get  referred to below
1. July 6 2016, the Army Corps of Engineers rejects dumping fishpier dredge spoils into the Rockland Disposal Site - located between the Fox Islands and Rockland The Corps cites a toxic mix of wastes in the spoils Here are excerpts from their suitability findings on the spoils "
Excerpts:
"These sediments are not suitable for unconfined open water disposal at the Rockland Disposal Site (RDS) as proposed. There are alternatives available to the applicant. These include upland disposal or biological testing of the materials.
Metals "in the sediments represented by Composite 2, cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) concentrations for the project are more than twice the “mean plus two times the standard deviation” of the RDS reference value." .
"Five PAHs (phenanthrene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo(a)anthracene, and chrysene) concentrations are at least 10 times reference values.
PCBs, "most of the congener concentrations in the project were above the analytical detection limits.
End of excerpts

2. In 2017 the city of Rockland then turned to the land disposal option and found two possible sites.
One would be a fresh topping* of Snow Marine Park in Rockland's south end with the spoils. This would elevate the height above sea level of the park by a certain amount. The second would cap the now filled-to-capacity Rockland Quarry Dump with the spoils, over which a sodded surface would be planted
However Nature has reasserted Herself. The waters that formerly flowed down slope through the South End as a stream into the cove now disperses itself through the filled-in spoils, upwelling as significant wetlands across the north end of the park, making that area off limits and apparently reducing the available area to too small for the spoils . In addition the city councilmembers seem to oppose topping a public park with sediments tainted with lead, cadmium PCBs and other toxins
* Snow Marine Park was created by filling an intertidal cove with dredge spoils - about half a century ago. (From where?)
3. Back to the bay! On July 27, 2017, Army Corps' Charles Farris sent an email to two other Corps officials and Bud Brown the rep of EcoAnalysts Inc . The short message:
"Here is the final sampling plan for the Rockland Fish Pier. Please contact me with any questions."
Norm"

Aug 7, 2017

Maine Lobster Festival 2017 Interivews 1. Margot Kelley on "CAUGHT: Time Place Fish" by Glenn Libby and Antonia Small.

CAUGHT: Time Place Fish  by Glenn Libby and Antonia Small. Published by Wrackline Press  

Listen to a 21 minute interview of Margot Kelley,  an editor at Wrackline.

Recorded during the 2017 Maine lobster Festival by Ron Huber, of WRFR Community Radio