t's YOUR Bay. Deal with it. | Feb 06, 2009
Gulf of Maine funding sponges threaten to uselessly absorb Obama Bucks Feb 18, 2009
Strike Two against Sears Island port plan Feb 23, 2009
Pen Baywide protection forming on Monday May13th, 5pm help make it happen! May 09, 2013
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2009
* It's YOUR Bay. Deal with it.
By Ron Huber | Feb 06, 2009
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ROCKLAND — A great and terrible water body is Penobscot Bay, where Gulf of Maine and Penobscot River battle each other back and forth from Matinicus to Cape Jellison.
Where rich plumes of river water, bearing the tinctured essence of a vast watershed, slide intact to Penobscot Bay's mouth, a wet kiss that dissolves into great bursts of nutrients and geochemicals that, imbibed by plankton, soar up the food chain, to power what is (to no one's surprise), our planet's richest lobster grounds, and the once and future homes of sturgeon, cod, salmon, haddock, redfish and halibut. And more. Many more.
Where, while the mouth of the river and the mouth of the bay are thus..err.. busy, the stolid march of inbound Gulf of Maine shelf water continues. Creeping past Port Clyde and Isle au Haut,its darkened ranks swell as the Maine Coastal Current joins the parade. Inward they press, cold as stone, moving around the roots of the Fox Islands, commandeering the drowned channels of the ancient river around the great divider called Islseboro. To rise suddenly, like Jack-in-the-box, invading the estuary bounded by Castine, Verona Island & Belfast, where it spices the great river freshet with deep sea nutrients and creates brackish way stations for traveling salmon, sturgeon and eels, where these animals can safely morph from saltwater to freshwater life, or vice versa, as the season requires of them.
This living cornucopia is fraught with dangers seen and unseen. The riot of ledges edging the bay may provide salty habitat, but at the same time it has claimed countless vessels; from the canoes of the Red Paint People to working schooners to the petroleum powered merchant vessels of today, many an unwary or unlucky sailor has run upon them and contributed its catch or cargo, or worse, to Penobscot Bay.
It will be the purpose of this blog to look at both faces of Penobscot Bay: Creator and Destroyer. To see where the one may be assisted, the other limited. Jefferson said the blood of martyrs is needed to nourish the Tree of Liberty; the blood of many, human and non-human, has certainly nourished Penobscot Bay, and will continue to do so.
Stay tuned.
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2009
Gulf of Maine funding sponges threaten to uselessly absorb Obama Bucks
By Ron Huber | Feb 18, 2009
AUGUSTA — Is it a case of : "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."?
Or is it:
"The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."?
In the case of the Gulf of Maine Restoration Collaborative, one hopes the former, but fears the latter.
For decades, Maine has had a small community of on-the-government-payroll coastal marine advocates, who revolve themselves through the doors of the Maine Coastal Program, the Department of Marine Resources, Maine SeaGrant and the Maine Cooperative Extension marine team . Shifting, as the years and decades pass, from organization to agency and back again as the funding shifts. Attending, inoffensively to be sure, Maine's many fishing industry regulatory meetings, taking part in state and federal sponsored research panels and keeping a harem of private consultants on call upon whom to shower grant monies that pass through their disbursing hands.
With the combined talents and energies of this merry band, and the greater Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, one would think that every ill that afflicts the Maine coast and its coastal waters: pollution, habitat loss, coastal sprawl, inappropriate fishing tech, mal-regulated aquaculture - every one of these challenges would have been met long ago.
Guess again.
These folks have met and spent much time (decades) and treasure on "task forces" designed to take on "bay management, aquaculture reform and more.
Those task forces have steamed furiously about the Gulf of Maine, holding meetings, dispensing coffee, catered lunches, grants and goodwill. But these task forces - run by the very same people who (see below) now want $500,000 dollars of stimulus money to outfit another intellectual armada - have always returned empty-handed.
The Maine Bay Management Study and the Maine Aquaculture Task Force (21pg pdf) illuminate this nicely. Both well funded initiatives, they brought together the above usual suspects and a few chosen hangers-on, held copious meetings with 'stakeholders' over the course of a year or more, teleconferenced mightily, and then at their close brought out lavishly illustrated reports that were completely barren of innovation.
Neither task force, however, proposed any changes to state law or state regulation to better manage Maine's bays, or to improve aquaculture operations. Nada. The reports do conclude, with a smirk, that more cash is desperately needed to finance further adventures of the task force voyageurs.
In fact, in a sort of mea culpa, David Keeley, former head of the Maine Coastal Program and now employed somewhere within the bi-national bureaucracy of the GOMCME, confesses the failure of he and his fellow taskforcers to protect natural Maine:
"The Gulf of Maine watershed—its streams, lakes, bays, and beaches—are damaged by untreated sewage, toxic pollution, invasive species, loss of wildlife habitat, abandoned fishing gear and other human-caused impacts," Keely writes, warning that "The problems are serious and many of them, have reached or are reaching crisis proportions."
So now Mr Keeley & friends, under whose guidance and direction that crisis has taken shape, wants $500,000 more to develop "a comprehensive ecosystem restoration strategy for the Gulf of Maine". What has he been doing the last twenty years? How many times must this wheel be reinvented?
For notice that this money would not be used to plant eelgrass, or to remove ghost traps from the water, or to in any way actualy restore any habitat or fish stock or do anything tangible.
No, it would be used to develop a "strategy". In other words, it would be spent for the creation of -what else- a task force, in which Keeley and his revolving door friends once more tootle about the Gulf of Maine region, lamenting the lack of research, genuflecting to the wisdom of the dragger fishing industry that has nearly destroyed the Gulf of Maine's fishes, noshing on catered luncheons and producing a report heavy on graphics but once again light on ideas.
Beyond -burp- demanding more money for more catered conferences.
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2009
Strike Two against Sears Island port plan
By Ron Huber | Feb 23, 2009
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AUGUSTA — The Sears Island Conservation Easement seems increasingly in doubt.
On Friday, an Augusta man filed a petition in Maine Superior Court (pdf) asking for MaineDOT's Sears Island Conservation Easement to be set aside. The move follows last Thursday's filing of a similar petition (pdf) in Knox County Courthouse by yours truly.
Douglas Watts filed his Petition for Review of Final Agency Action on Friday afternoon in the Kennebec County Superior Court.
Watts describes himself in his petition as "an avid user of the Penobscot River and its tributaries near Sears Island since
1982." and wrote to the court that the conservation easement signed by MDOt and Maine Coast Heritage Trust "will irrevocably harm his ability to continue using and enjoying the Penobscot River and these tributaries as he has done since 1982."
He is asking the Court to "rescind the Jan. 22, 2009 conservation easement until the MDOT has fully complied with the requirements of the Maine Sensible Transportation Policy Act and the Maine Site Location of Development Law."
Watts played an important role in development and passage of the Maine Sensible Transportation Policy Act In the late 80s and early 90's.
For more information contact Doug Watts at (207) 622-1003 or by email at info AT dougwatts DOT com
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2013
Penobscot Bay-wide protection forming -on Monday May 13th, 5pm help make it happen!
By Ronald Huber | May 09, 2013
Courtesy of: MDEP Mercury in upper bay tainting lobster claws. Will dredging spread the contamination?
STELLA MARIS HOUSE, 148 BROADWAY, ROCKLAND — Are you a Penobscot Bay fisherman, paddler or activist? Do you enjoy and want to protect the irreplaceable scenic treasures of your bay's coastal forests and islands?
Got ideas on what needs doing?
On Monday May 13th at 5pm join the Friends of Penobscot Bay at Stella Maris House in Rockland for a strategy session on bringing the full bay protection nto being this year. All are welcome.
As the recent struggle over the DCP giant tank proposal shows, Penobscot Bay is again becoming attractive to big industry. Including those that could damage the bay's ecosystems and environment, thus harming the livelihoods of those who sustainably exploit those natural resources, from fishermen, sailors and aquaculturists to resort operators and restaurateurs.
Meanwhile the toxic history of Penobscot Bay is written in the bay's sediments and in hundreds of waste pits, dumps and spill sites, some of which are leaking into our bay and into drinking water. At the same time, dozens of companies and towns are licensed to discharge pollution into the bay, with little if any public oversight.
Friends of Penobscot Bay will pull together the talents skills and resources of the people who care about Maine's biggest bay. Together we can clean up old pollution sites, restore fisheries and fend off inappropriate development , while making sure that development that does come fits harmoniously into what's already here
Be involved. When the next big developer wannabee tries to pit bay town against bay town, fisherman against environmentalists, we'll be ready for them. Before the addition of another polluter to the bay's “outfall community” tips our bay's water quality balance even further from nature.
It's YOUR bay. Deal with it.
Stella Maris House is located on the corner of Broadway and Route 1 in Rockland.
FMI Contact Friends of Penobscot Bay at 593-2744 www.penbay.net
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2013
"Big Diggah" dredge plan for Searsport could elevate mercury in Penobscot bay lobsters to warning label levels.
By Ronald Huber | May 09, 2013
Photo by: Army Corps of Engineers
Searsport. A federal plan to dredge a gigantic expansion of the shipping basin off Searsport, Maine would not only be a taxpayer boondoggle; it could also resuspend so much methylmercury into Penobscot Bay's water column that lobsters and other shellfish harvested as far away as North Haven could be tainted to levels triggering mercury advisories. The dredge spoils disrupt clams and disrupt and other filterfeeders on the bay floor for years.
That according to critics of the project who have urged the US Army Corps of Engineers to limit its effort in Searsport Harbor to maintenance dredging of the Mack Point dock and approaches, while dropping its economically improbable, and ecologically dangerous expansion dredging plan.
The Searsport Harbor Improvement Project would dig out up to a million tons of sediment from the floor of Searsport Harbor from two locations: the Mack Point terminals and approaches, plus an immense bite out of the shoal separating Mack Point from Sears Island.
The Friends of Penobscot Bay letter to the Corps of Engineers warned that contaminants in the sediments to be dredged would be resuspended at levels that could raise methylmercury in lobster tails and claws to levels requiring issuance of a public health advisory
The group cites the 2008 Penobscot River Mercury Study ordered by Federal judge Gene Carter to determine how much mercury the now defunct HoltraChem company had leaked or spilled into the tidal Penobscot River in Orrington.
The study examined samples of sediment, fish and shellfish taken from the waters off the Holtrachem site, downriver, and throughout the upper bay to Vinalhaven. It found high levels of the potent neurotoxin methylmercury (MeHg) were in the sediments closest to the holtrachem plant, tapering off downstream until reaching the upper bay, where the level of methylmercury rose again, tapering off to background levels in Vinalhaven
According to the report: "At the eight upper estuary sites (see map Figure 36), of 67 lobster sampled, 25% exceeded the MDEP criterion of 200 ng/g w.w. MeHg and 6% exceeded the USEPA criterion of 300 ng/g. This was calculated from the mean of total Hg in claws and tails (from individual total Hg concentration in claws assuming tail muscle was 53% higher in total Hg) and that 75% of the total Hg in both tissues was MeHg."
The Friends of Penobscot Bay warned the Corps that
"some of the most elevated levels of mercury in lobster claws was in samples taken less than a mile away from the area proposed for improvement dredging. If more mercury were resuspended as a result of dredging, then the contaminated lobster zone – in that location already well above EPA toxicity limits – could spread to a far greater part of the bay"
The group warned of economic disaster to the region if public health laws mandate posting a
mercury advisory on Penobscot Bay lobsters and processed lobster products.
Thanks But No Tank's letter to the Army Corps of Engineers challenges the Corps' claim that dredging is required to accommodate deep draft vessels presently using the existing terminals at the port. TBNT's attorney Steve Henchman wrote that this claim "is expressly contradicted by all of the Corps’ prior representations about Mack Point and the port of`Searsport, published in the 2012 EA regarding the proposed DCP Searsport LLC LPG marine import terminal at Mack Point."
"In that 2012 EA," the group attorney Steve Hinchman wrote, "the Corps concluded that "no dredging” would be required to accommodate the 4 to 8 ocean-going, deep draft LPG tankers that the DCP facility would have been serviced by annually — ships with an anticipated draft of up to 39.7 feet"
TBNT called this "proof that the assertions of need for the proposed "improvement" dredging in the April 5, 2013, Feasibility Study, and draft EA, FONSI and CWA letter are arbitrary and capricious — unsupported even by the Corps’ own prior, recent findings about the safety and adequacy of this port area — without any dredging — for a significant increase in large, ocean-going, deep draft tanker trafiic."
"Despite having thirteen years to conduct a thorough assessment of the alleged need to deepen the channel and pier area of Mack Point," Hinchman wrote, "the cursory and out-dated analysis on which the Corps’ April 5th Feasibility Study and draft EA, FONSI and Clean Water Act (CWA) letter, is based fails to adequately consider the potentially significant environmental damage that the direct and indirect, primary and secondary consequences of the proposed "improvement dredging" would wreak on the fragile environment of Upper Penobscot Bay, and the Bay as a whole from the dumping of almost a million cubic yards of dredge spoils that potentially contain significant contaminants (including mercury."
Down East Lobstermens Association also wrote to the Corps of Engineers in opposition to the dredge expansion project. DELA regularly samples the area for pollutants They warned of the complexity of the water circulation at the top of the bay and called for a public hearing and environmental impact study to learn the extent of methylmercury contamination of bottom dwelling species that the project would bring, and how badly the fine sediments resuspended en mass into the bay water column would suffocate bay plankton and clamsn and other filterfeeders... According to the group, dredging in the region in the past depressed lobster fishering in the upper bay for nearly a decade.
"Everyone hopes that the Army Corps of Engineers will drop its "dig it and they will come" expansion plan fantasy," said Huber. They must not throw Penobscot Bay's lobster fishery under the bus." for a completely unnecessary expansion dredging project could taint the bay's lobsters with enough of this dangerous neurotopxin compound to require lobster processors to add mercury advisory labels to their product packaging when made from Penobscot Bay lobsters." Friends of Penobscot Bay's spokesperson Ron Huber said.
BACKGROUND INFO (Courtesy TBNT)
37,000 cubic yards of dredge materials would be removed as maintenance dredging.
This would maintain the current federally authorized 35’ depth of the existing channel, tum around and pier area
892,000 cy of dredge spoils have to be removed for the "improvement" project
An additional 31,000 cubic yards of dredge spoils would be removed from the pier area.
The existing entrance channel and turning basin would be deepened from 35’ to a depth of 40
The entrance channel would be widened from its current 500’ at the narrowest point to 650’,
A maneuvering area would be created in Long Cove adjacent to the east berth along the State Pier.
The rectangular maneuvering area would be 875’ on the west side and 1,066’ on the east side
A width of 400’. This area would also be deepened to 40’ MLLW.
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2013
Celebrate YOUR bay June 1st , Sears Island causeway & ghostport.
Sears Island causeway Sears Island Road, Searsport, Maine
Contact Ron Huber coastwatch@gmail.com Phone 207-593-2744
Website www.penbay.net
Date Jun 01, 2013 10:00 AM - 4:00 AM
On Saturday June First, from 10am to 4pm, the Friends of Penobscot Bay will host an information frolic on the Sears Island and its causeway,
We'll consider the state of Penobscot Bay's shipping, lobstering, recreational fishing, tourism, and other bay-dependent businesses, and the health of the bay's environment.
Whether you can stay a few minutes or an hour, your insights and suggestions will make a difference!
* VISIT THE SEARS ISLAND GHOST PORT for a noon time Mad Hatter's Mercury-Tea Party overlooking the site of the controversial proposed Searport harbor expansion dredge..See how big a bite our of the Searsport Shoal the Army Corp plants to take, and where the mercury-tainted mud will go.. Paddle or cruise the perimeter of the Big Bite.
* TALKATHON We all know something what's going on or whaqt to know. Bring your questions or piece of the truth to the discussions on
FISHING.How are the stripers doing? The lobsters? The mussels? The clams? Is the bay producing more fish & shellfish or less? Is global change bringing southern species like blue crabs into Penobscot Bay? Should we welcome them?
POLLUTION Rockland, Camden and Searsport's wastewater treatment plants are all out of compliance. What is coming out of those outfall pipes? compliance.(Rockland especially) Is MaineDEP up to the task of keeping waste water treatment plants in line?
Will dredging up century-old sediments in outer Searsport Harbor taint the bay's seafood with methyl mercury?
SHIPPING. Searsport hosts important bulk products and energy port. Camden windjammers sail tourists around the Fox Islands. Rockland sends cement to greater New England by barge. Modular industrial machinery comes down from Orrington Forest products cfrom Bucksport. What other commercial and recreational ports and vessels do we want to attract to our bay's many harbors and ports?
TOURISM: Are the bay's scenic vistas by land and by sea being conserved? How clear is the state process for protecting unspoiled scenic views that attract tourists and their dollars?
AGENCIES: How well are environmental and fishery agencies conserving Penobscot Bay resources? Are they careful or are they rubber stamping to placate ?
LEGISLATURE: What has the legislature passed this year that affects Penobscot Bay? For good or ill?
NGOs: What is their scorecard on protecting and conserving Penobscot Bay natural resources? Island Institute, NRCM, Sierra Club etc.
CRYSTAL BALL What can the scallopers of Stonington, the mills of Bucksport, the energy businesses and tourism resorts of Searsport, the windjammers of Camden, the lobstermen of Port Clyde and all the rest of those who depend on Penobscot Bay look forward to in the next five years? The next fifty years?
Please attend! Bring your brain June 1st to the Sears Island causeway (even by speakerphone!)
We look forward to your thoughts and insights.
Questions? Suggestions? contact
Ron Huber, secretary
Friends of Penobscot Bay
593-2744 * coastwatch@gmail.com
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2013
GAC moves closer to Stockton Harbor waterfront waste cleanup.
By Ronald Huber | Jul 20, 2013
Photo by: Peter TaberAbandoned factory & tank overlooking Stockton Harbor
GAC Chemical's wasted shores
View More...
Searsport. Advocacy group Friends of Penobscot Bay asked Searsport's Planning Board at their July 16th meeting for help getting local company GAC Chemical to halt the erosion of industrial wastes dumped by past tenants of the company's Kidder Point property, that are washing into Stockton Harbor.
The group also called for GAC toremove an abandoned factory and tank onsite that aerial photos taken earlier this year suggest are also leaking wastes into the harbor.
After the meeting, company chief David Colter hinted that remediation could start by early August. Details, link to audio, below.
GAC Chemical was on the planning board agenda concerning a proposed platform structure for a natural gas regulator, as part of their plan to switch fuels from oil to natural gas. Instead of one big gas tank onsite, GAC would use a fleet of tanker trucks that would take turns connecting to the regulator and pumping gas into the facility as needed.
However GAC's CEO David Colter was delayed. The planning board opted to fill their slot with an"open to the public" section of the meeting, during which Friends of Penobscot Bay spoke..
Friends of Penobscot Bay executive director Ron Huber told the Planning Board that its recent decision to reject DCP Midstream's giant tank has given the board a moral force and authority in their community.
“We would like you to use whatever force you have available" Huber said, "to get GAC to commit to dealing with the legacy industrial waste dumps along its shoreline.
He said this is especially important here, as Penobscot Bay is "America's Lobsterbasket" . The bottom line is that, he told the planning board, "a healthy, ecologically productive bay is a profitable bay." Listen to Huber's presentation and questions from the Searsport planning board. (15 minute mp3)
Huber praised GAC Chief David Colter for keeping the company's present operations well in compliance with its EPA permits. “Mr. Colter runs a tight ship at GAC,“ Huber said.
But unlike its present operations, Huber said, GAC Chemical has a disappointing record on cleaning up industrial wastes that previous businesses have left behind on the company's mile long shore since the the start of the 20th century. See list of shoreline waste dumping onsite from 1939 to 1990
“As we speak," Huber said, "those wastes are still eroding and leaking into Stockton Harbor."
The group say the site include acidic bauxite tailings from a now gone alum product facility. mixed with other wastes dumped along the shore in the middle of the last century. The eroding wastes have contaminated the intertidal flats,turning portions of it white.
Meanwhile, unknown materials are leaking onto the Stockton Harbor Beach from an abandoned factory, chemical tank & pipeline on their waterfront.
Huber gave the planning board copies of a photograph of the site showing the eroding wastes, contaminated mud and abandoned buildings and said GAC is the responsible party.
Searsport Planning Board Chair Bruce Probert then asked whether the group has gone to the enforcement branch of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Huber said he had several times in the past, with no result. DEP inspectd the site, gave GAC recommendations. GAC did nothing.
Huber also stressed that his group at present would rather not to go the enforcement route. He said Friends of Penobscot Bay didn't want to be adversary He urged GAC to do proactively what's right for the health of the bay, not because a government agency makes them do it.
However, noting that a year had passed since the company struck an informal agreement with his group to start ending the Kidder Pt waste erosion , Huber urged the company to move forward on its own initiative.
"GAC can do this by committing to creating and implementing a shoreline remediation plan", he said, "and an intertidal flat remediation plan."
A minor kerfluffle ensued when Colter halted his testimony to object to FOPB's placement of an audio recorder on a table close to him. At the planning board chairman's request, Huber, who had been recording the meeting from its beginning, moved the recorder to a location out of Colter's sight.
After the meeting, Huber met with Colter and apologized for distracting him. But he also repeated that the conservation group was “getting a little exasperated” with GAC's year-long series of delays in its promised startup of fixing their waste erosion problem.
Huber said that when he pressed Colter to come up with a timeline for starting the cleanup, the GAC chief indicated that he would have a shore erosion plan ready in two weeks.
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2013
Toxic Tour of Stockton Harbor. Tuesday noon
Sear Island Causeway
Contact Ron Huber
coastwatch@gmail.com
Phone 207-593-2744
Website www.penbay.net
Date Jul 30, 2013 Time 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Photo by: Forest TaberGAC Chemical Corp and tainted harbor beneath old abandoned part of company at tip of Kidder PointPhoto courtesy Project Lighthawk
On Tuesday July 30th at 12 noon, advocacy group Friends of Penobscot Bay will host a press conference and tour of the contaminated Stockton Harbor shoreline beneath GAC Chemical Corporation. Directions below See image of where to park and where to go (sandbar in this aerial photo) All are welcome! Wear footwear that can get a bit muddy.
The Friends of Penobscot Bay is bringing journalists and the interested public across a small cove via a sandbar, to where they can see, close up, the company's polluted muds, its debris-filled waterfront, including eroding shoreline waste dumps, and some that haven't yet started to erode, and tainted clamflats, a tottering abandoned pipeline, a crumbling abandoned pumphouse and ceramic waste littering a beach.
The current operator of GAC Chemical is doing a great job keeping their present operations well within their discharge license limits. But earlier companies on the the site in the twentieth century thoughtlessly dumped 100s of tons of industrial wastes on the shore. So today, GAC Chemical's property is eroding and leaking those wastes into Penobscot Bay.
This needs to stop. GAC can stop it. If we ask them loud enou
DIRECTIONS: See aerial photo from Route 1, Searsport, take the Sears Island Road, to the parking area near the mainland end of the Sears Island causeway.
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2013
Maine Greencrab Summit: Maine coast invaded, occupied.
By Ronald Huber | Dec 18, 2013
Photo by: U Maine web stream
Orono. A hyperbloom of green crabs in Gulf of Maine coastal waters has left Maine's native intertidal and shallow water ecosystems ravaged, according to presenters at the Maine Greencrab Summit, held December 16th at the University of Maine. Links to audio from the summit, below
Gone are millions of wild blue mussels and clams that until recently filtered Maine's salty shallows and providing a living for generations of Mainers and their predecessors. Gone too: most of Maine's recovering eelgrass.
No silver bullet was trumpeted by the empaneled experts. Nor by the hundreds of summit attendees in person and online. Only a sad litany of facts and anecdotes, and urgings to kill the crabs on sight. See short video of greencrabs unearthed living in mass burrows on the edge of a saltmarsh in Brunswick.
"Let's face it, said Ron Huber of Friends of Penobscot Bay" "The green crab invasion was a success. Maine's coastal waters are, in effect, under occupation."
Listen to the Summit's afternoon speakers, a discussion on the invasion and concluding remarks by Maine DMR Commissioner Pat Keliher.
* Cynthia McKenzie, DFO Newfoundland 30 min
* Chad Coffin, Maine Clammers Association 36 minutes
* Panel & Audience Discussion 17 minutes
* Pat Keliher, DMR Commissioner 13 minutes
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2014
Ocean acidification bill supporters make case to Maine Legislature.
By Ronald Huber | Jan 13, 2014
Photo by: Ron Huber. Representative Mick Devin and Sierra Club's Becky Bartovics at Belfast meeting. File photo November 2013.
It was standing room only at the Maine Legislature's Marine Resources Committee as supporters of LD 1602 the "Save Our Shellfish" bill, made their case for appointing of a coastwide multisector committee to study how to reduce the impact of oceanic acidification on Maine species and what proactively to do, fishery by fishery.
Not only were clammers, shellfish farmers and the scientific community evident, The groundfish industry called for the scope to be broadened to consider all Maine marine species from plankton up. A wastewater management too was represented, and a wide spectrum of Maine ENGOs weighed in as well.
The bill's full title is Resolve, Establishing the Commission To Study the Effects of Ocean Acidification and Its Potential Effects on Commercial Shellfish Harvested and Grown along the Maine Coast"
In addition to bill sponsor Mick Devin, and DMR Commissioner Pat Keliher, fifteen members of the public and interest groups testified.
Senator Chris Johnson, committee co-chair, gave the introduction to the public hearing (mp3)
Representative Mick Devin Sponsor laid out the case for LD 1602 spending time money and energy getting up to speed on the impact acidification is having on maine marine and estuarine species.
DMR Commissioner Pat Keliher followed, calling for achievable outcomes, not only another report - bottom line is produce something that will help Maine. (3minutes)
Suzy Arnold of Island Institute spoke next. She noted that the pH of some Gulf of Maine waters is 30% lower than it was (4min 9sec). If our blood went that that much lower we'd be in a coma, Arnold said. The increased acidity is dissolving shells of baby shellfish. Critical prey like zooplankton are affected too. Crabs seem okay but have thicker shells and slower growth. The California rockfish and other fish exhibit confusion & anxiety when acidified on the west coast.
Arnold said that compared to bivalves, nothing known about lobster acidification. This must be a priority. She said Seagrant & Cooperative extension agreed. She noted that there will be a daylong meeting Thursday in Augusta to ID priorities, and that all are welcome.
Nick Battista of Island Institute recommended changes to the composition of the acidification study commission.(6minutes) Follow the Washington state process: Get more money. Washington state convened a panel of 24 members. Met 12 days. Selected strong co-chairs who are not politicians. This study, he said, should be joined with existing programs. Let all stakeholders get informed and involved. Nick suggested the legislature consider an authorizing account where this study can accept outside funding.
Dave Cousens spoke on the bill as did Patrice McCarron of the Maine Lobstermen's Association. They told the legislature that the effect on lobsters continues to be unknown. We aren't going to stop OA in our lifetime. But we need answers on how to live with it. Maine lobster is a huge part of our economy, McCarron stressed. This is very very important to look into.
Becky Bartovics of North Haven spoke on behalf of the Maine Sierra Club (3min 18sec).There's an oysterfarm on North Haven at risk, she said. Maine needs to do something. All Maine's shellfish are at risk, even from small changes in acidification. There must be ways for communities to do something. Maine should act quickly.
Maine Coast Fishermen's Association representative Lucy Van Hook called for the study to be expanded to include at least two fishing representatives (4 min), with one to examine effects to groundfish and forage species. MCFA has 35 groundfish permit holders among its members.
Van Hook described a Gulf of Maine groundfishery in trouble: a federal disaster declaration is in effect and the Maine shrimp industry has been shut down. More and more fishermen are dependent just on lobstering: a very unstable situation. This makes it more difficult to set management plans, she said.
The rapid increase in acidity is pervasive through the Maine ecosystem. Especially of concern are species at the base of the food web. How will they be effected? What to do ? So expand the scope. An outreach plan must use existing outreach channels,
Given the diversity of fisheries affected, it is important that at least two different commercial fisheries be represented on the committee.
Richard Nelson, Friendship lobsterman said that his area's fishermen are in trouble (4min 10sec) by a combination of rising acidity and loss of fishing grounds displacement by ocean windfarming Maine should be like Rhode Island and Mass and have actual ocean management.
Damariscotta Shellfish farmer Bill Mook called his business the canary in the mine shaft (6min 42sec). He's been farming shellfish there since 1985 and supplies shellfish seed from Maine all the way south to Virginia. He also raises oysters for market in Maine restaurants.
Mook said businesses are doing well, but "the check-engine light is on". Oysters spend 14 days swimming, creating tiny shells of simple calcium carbonate. Over the past 5-6 years,he's found serious mortality of nursery stock after storm events with lots of runoff, "Our crude pH studies" he said, show acidification. Mook lost $100,000 worth of hatchery spawn from a single freshwater storm.
Other speakers at the event included Joe Salisbury, South Portland, Bigelow Lab scientist Meredith White, Joe Payne, Casco Baykeeper, John Melrose Maine Wastewater Control Association, Lisa Pullman of NRCM, Tom Abuello of the Nature Conservancy, Ivy Fernuka of CLF and Taryn Hallweaver of Environment Maine, and Beth Ahearn, Environmental Priorities Project
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2014
37 Outfalls and 1 Bay: tracking Penobscot Bay's licensed waste dischargers.
Belfast Public Library Feb 05, 2014 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
106 High Street, Belfast, Maine
Contact Ron Hubr coastwatch@gmail.com
207-593-9241 www.penbay.net
Photo by: Google & MDEP
Who pumps what into our bay? Where and how much? Who's keeping watch?
CANCELLED DUE TO SNOW. NEW DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED
On February 5, 2014, from 6-7:30 pm, join the Friends of Penobscot Bay at the Belfast Public Library to consider "37 Outfalls and 1 Bay: Tracking Penobscot Bay's licensed waste dischargers". The meeting will be in the 3rd floor conference room and is free and open to all.
In this second event in our Winter 2014 series, we'll take a look at how our Penobscot Bay towns, and state & federal agencies are doing at managing the flow of licensed wastewater from sewage treatment plants and industrial outfalls into our bay.
An art as much as a science, shepherding the great digesting swarms of bacteria used to turn our waste into safer compounds and ending up with safe discharges requires wastewater operators to stay sensitive to their tiny charges. (Think of these microbes as combining into single gigantic tame but hungry meta-animals, penned inside the tanks)
How well are Penobscot Bay's outfall operators doing? . Come find out February 5, 2014 6-7:30 pm at the Belfast Public library.
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2014
A tale of two harbors: Rockland by the mud; Rockport by the weed. April 2nd 6pm Belfast
Belfast Free Librar
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Contact
Ron Huber
coastwatch@gmail.com
Phone
207-593-9242
Website
www.penbay.net
Date
Apr 02, 2014
Time
Photo by: Maine DMRMud Plume in Rockland Harbor
"A tale of two harbors: Rockland by the mud, Rockport by the seaweed".
Wednesday, April 2, 2014 6-7:30 pm in the Belfast Free library's 3rd Floor Conference Room. Free and open to all
Join the Friends of Penobscot Bay in the Belfast Free Library's 3rd floor conference room on Wednesday February 5th , to consider the incredible differences between two bay floors waters only a few miles apart
A tale of two harbors: takes you by underwater video to Rockland Harbor's lobster burrow-riddled mud and its triple canopy bouldertop kelp forests, near its breakwater, then down the steep rock walls off Rockport's Deadman's Point, to colorful rolling hills and vales of multiple seaweed species, bryozoans and more, as verdant and lovely as can be.
In this third event in our Winter 2014 series, we'll take a look at how differences in water circulation and depth have produced entirely different but equally successful ecosystems in our mysterious Penobscot Bay - and ponder what changes in these two habitat types we may expect as the water warms and turns less alkaline
Come find out Wednesday, April 2, 2014 6-7:30 pm in the Belfast Free library's 3rd Floor Conference Room.
For more information FOPB website: http://www.penbay.net/
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2014
Friends of Penobscot Bay President Harlan McLaughlin, on GAC Chemical Corp's role in the push to industrialize upper Penobscot Bay.
By Ronald Huber | Apr 02, 2014
In a recent letter to the Republican Journal, Tony Kulik mentioned the corporations that would benefit most from the "Improvement" dredging project in Searsport. He could have added GAC to that list.
GAC owns over 100 acres along the shore in the harbor and has high hopes of renting it out to other industrial corporations. Mr Colter mentioned that in a conversation I had with him as we walked along the shore in front of his property discussing the obvious problem of pollution leaching out from behind the berms constructed by court order and intended to stem the flow of toxins, and he admitted the need to revisit the methods used to keep the legacy waste out of the bay and acknowledged it was his responsibility to do just that.
He promised GAC would get the DEP permits necessary to remedy the situation. Well, he forgot to apply for those permits [ we checked with DEP ] but he kept telling us it was in the works. Now he supports the "improvement " dredging project and we wonder why. He has no customers lined up waiting to send products through the "improved" port.
There is no back log of products waiting in the shadows. Like all the other corporate sponsors of this project, he is only hoping that the bigger port will attract customers for his business. There is no evidence that this will happen. If there were products waiting to get into or out of Searsport they would be shipping them even as we speak. The demand and market is just not there.
This dredging project of just under one million cubic yards of material, supported by corporations like GAC from here to Bangor is divided up into 2 portions. The dredging necessary to maintain our current shipping lanes which accounts for only 4% of the total, and the "improvement" dredging which will greatly expand the shipping lanes way beyond what we need and makes up a whopping 96% of the total.
It calls for over 900,000 cy of polluted spoils to be dumped on the prime lobster grounds adjacent to the area. The silt alone will suffocate everything that isn't fast enough to get away and will linger in the area long enough to discourage them from returning to their former ranges. We can't afford to risk our lobster industry on speculation. No one I know is opposed to the "maintenance" dredging, but the "improvement" dredging is another matter.
The Friends of Penobscot Bay is committed to improving the quality of life in the estuary of the upper part of the bay by reducing the pollution dumped into it by companies like GAC. [ Again, in GAC's case, this is pollution that was produced decades ago by previous owners and dumped into pools on GAC's property reinforced by earthen berms, yards from the intertidal areas.]
As far as Maine DEP records show, GAC is no longer dumping pollution from their current systems into the water. We compliment them on their new closed system but we chide them for supporting this dredging project without any economic justification. Increased industrialization of the area will ultimately have a very negative impact on our fisheries.
We have to choose, do we want to keep our lobster industry or do we want to go for what is behind the curtain?
The Friends of Penobscot Bay are against the "improvement" dredging. It is unnecessary and potentially deadly to our sea food industry. Please come to the Dredging Meeting at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast on 8 Apr. Doors open at noon. Drop by if you can [and care] and tell the Army Corps of Engineers that you are opposed to the "improvement " dredging and demand an Environmental Impact Study of the project be conducted before any dredging is attempted.
Respectfully,
Harlan McLaughlin
President
Friends of Penobscot Bay
Searsport
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2014
Belfast to Bangor: Restoring Lower Penobscot River as an ECO-ECO Corridor
Category
Community Happenings
Location
Belfast Library, 3rd floor meeting room
Address
106 High Street, Belfast, Maine 04915
Contact
Ron Huber
ron.huber@penbay.org
Phone
207-593-2744
Website
www.penbay.net
Date
May 07, 2014
Time
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Photo by: google earthThe Penobscot Estuary Corridor
BELFAST TO BANGOR: Restoring Lower Penobscot River as an ECO-ECO Corridor
In the 18th 19th and early 20th centuries Bangor, Bucksport, Belfast, Searsport and other Penobscot River and Bay towns were closely connected culturally, economically, ecologically and agriculturally via their shared commons: the waters of Penobscot River and Bay.
Can we bring this conection back? Should we? Join the Friends of Penobscot Bay in the Belfast Library's Third floor Meeting Room on May 7th at 6pm, and join this important discussion.
BACKSTORY. Bay & river shipping between Penobscot Bay communities and the City of Bangor has sharply declined. Petroleum transport to Bangor by barge halted 7 years ago; there are fewer cargoes travelling from the bay up to Bangor than ever.
At the same time the ecology of Penobscot Estuary (the tidal river between Bangor and the Bay), has begun to improve, especially since the removal of two dams from the mainstem of the Penobscot River.
Is there a way we can restore & better the economic and artistic links between Penobscot Bay's towns and their historic Queen City, while keeping this ecological restoration continuing? What safe and sensible cargoes might be brought up and down the tidal Penobscot River?
We will also discuss top Penobscot Bay issues: increased mercury pollution of the bay airshed as proposed by Dragon Cement in Thomaston, plans for two mega hotels in Rockland, Searsport's harbor dredging application, GAC Chemical's eroding acid wastes, the state of the bay's outfalls – And more!
All are welcome to come share their knowledge and questions on all Penobscot Bay-related subjects.
Free and open to the public. For more information call the Friends of Penobscot Bay at 593-2744 or by email coastwatch@gmail.com.
============================================
2014
Stockton Harbor's eroding legacy industrial waste: who's accountable?
Category
Community Happenings
Location
Belfast Public Library
Address
106 High Street, Belfast, ME
Contact
Ron Huber
coastwatch@gmail.comn
Phone
593-2744
Website
www.penbay.net
Date
May 06, 2014
Time
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Courtesy of: Project LighthawkAcid wastes eroding into Stockton Harbor from shorefront property owned by GAC Chemical Corporation.
Between 1940 and 1970 fertilizer makers in Searsport manufactured thousands of tons of superphosphate that made the Maine Potato as iconic as the Maine Lobster. But every ton of fertilizer left behind five tons of highly acidic waste.
Dumped by long gone companies as a slurry along the southwest shore of Stockton Harbor during that era, these wastes have now begun to erode from their containment and taint the adjoining beach and intertidal flat, where pH below 2 have been measured! Is this coastal acidification a health threat for beachcombers, clammers and wormdiggers - and the wildlife of these flats? Who is accountable?
Come to the Belfast Free Library on Wednesday June 4th at 6pm for a slide and audio presentation by Friends of Penobscot Bay on the environmental impact of historic fertilizer production in Searsport, and on their efforts to pressure present day owner of the wastes, GAC Chemical Corporation to take accountability for its mess. Why is Maine DEP avoiding requiring GAC to protect the public from the health hazards of its wastes as they erode onto the beach and flats.? (You will be shocked by the reason)
The Friends of Penobscot Bay will also also offer an update on other bay concerns including the dredge applications of Searsport Harbor, megadevelopment planned for Rockland Harbor, the state organized Penobscot Bay pesticide study, and the state of mercury contamination.
=======================================
2014
Stockton Harbor's eroding legacy industrial wastes.What do we do to protect people and wildlife?
Category
Community Happenings
Location
Belfast Public Library
Address
106 High Street, Belfast Maine
Contact
Ron Huber
coastwatch@gmail.com
Phone
207-691-7485
Website
www.penbay.net
Date
Jun 04, 2014
Time
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Photo by: Ron HuberContaminated tidal flat and beach, SW Stockton Harbor. Note abandoned acid plant above eroding waste bluff. Shore between left and right sides of photo contain most of the dumped phosphogypsum and bauxite mud wastes of concern.
Between 1900 and 1970 fertilizer makers in Searsport manufactured thousands of tons of superphosphate and other fertilizers that made the Maine Potato as iconic as the Maine Lobster.
But every ton of fertilizer left behind five tons of highly acidic waste.This waste was dumped along the shore of Stockton Harbor and has been leaking into and contaminating the harbor's beach and tidal flats ever since.
Despite public pressure, the current owners of the eroding wastes say its not their responsibility.
On Wednesday June 4th , come to the Belfast Free Library's 3rd floor meeting room, and learn more about this fascinating era of Penobscot Bay history. Learn how you can protect yourself, your family and your community from a dangerous chronic pollution problem. Leanr how you can help make the company that is releasing these wastes, and the agencies that are facilitating them, accountable for their actions and inaction.
Free and open to the public
===================================
2014
Federal Investigation begins into acid-polluted Searsport beach & flats
By Ronald Huber | Jun 20, 2014
Courtesy of: Lighthawk Conservation PilotsView of the contaminated cove adjoining the 5 acre point of land bayward of the railroad line
Kidder Point legacy shoreline waste dumps from 1905 -1970 fertilizer manufacturing
View More...
Federal officials looking into acidic wastes eroding and leaking onto Searsport beach & tidal flats.
"Should merit concern for the well being of local residents in contact with these sediments," - leading ocean acidification researcher
Activists call site worst acid-polluted shore in New England. Web portal on the Kidder Point spill site
SEARSPORT. Tourists and local beachcombers visiting Kidder Point Cove in Searsport Maine may be getting needlessly exposed to unsafe levels of sulfuric acid and heavy metals eroding from a nearby abandoned manufacturing facility owned by GAC Chemical Corp, according to the advocacy group Friends of Penobscot Bay, who say because Maine DEP is refusing to protect the people by requiring the company to control its eroding wastes, the federal government is now stepping in.
The federal investigation of what is now known officially as Superfund Incident # 1084729 began June 10, 2014 with a report by the group to the National Response Center, the mandatory portal for all federal pollution complaints that is operated by the US Coast Guard.
After preliminary review at the Belfast Coast Guard station by Ensign Wes Wofford, the investigation has been elevated to USCG Lt. Commander Timothy Balunis at the Guard's Portland headquarters. Timothy.G.Balunis@uscg.mil (207) 767-0320
The group says that at least a third of the wooden containment cradles built along shore in the 1940s & 1950s to hold highly acidic phosphogypsum waste, spent bauxite mud and other wastes have failed.
Because the highly acidic wastes have been allowed to leak and erode directly onto the beach and into the flats, the group suspects that visitors to the popular beach are exposed to unsafe levels of sulfuric acid and heavy metals characteristic of abandoned phosphogypsum sites, in the beaches and tidal flats adjacent to the eroding waste dump.
When they visit the site to dig for worms or clams, or beachcomb among the industrial debris littering the beach and flats, people are v ery likely absorbing unsafe levels of these wastes, according to the Friends group
Ron Huber, executive director of of the bay gadfly group, supplied federal officials with historic reports about the site, and with the April 9th2014 report from prominent ocean acidification researcher Professor Mark Green of Saint Joseph's College in Standish, Maine.
Green examined samples from the beach and the tidal flats adjacent to GAC Chemical's troubled shore.
According to Dr. Green, “The results presented here clearly demonstrate a significant anthropogenic acid source and should merit concern for the well being of local residents in contact with these sediments, recreation in the immediate area, and wildlife.....I'd be very concerned about several things, not the least of which is that with pH's this low, metals will certainly be mobilized where otherwise they would be locked onto sediment particles.”
The group further complained that both GAC Chemical and Maine Department of Environmental Protection were failing to respond in the manner required by state law. The agency has declined to test wastes discoloring the beach and tidal flats at the site.
After first cooperating with Friends of Penobscot Bay, David Colter, CEO of the GAC Chemical Corp broke off negotiations, apparently over "cost" considerations and dropped the project to trim back the company's eroding shorelines. Colter's emails to FOPB about healing GAC's shore
"We had a schedule worked out to fix one part of the eroding slopes in late 2013, following up with the rest in 2013. Here we are in 2014 and the stuff is still eroding into the harbor."
To protect area residents to and visiting tourists from this obvious public health threat, the Friends of Penob ot Bay appealed to a federal agency with a track record dealing with spills from the shores of GAC Chemical's property - the US Coast Guard, which leads federal coastal pollution response in Maine.
Sheila Dassatt, executive director of Down East Lobstermen's Associationapplauded the federal initiative to examine GAC Chemicals shoreline wastes. "Acidification is a serious problem. Let's get to the bottom of this," she said.
Also adding his voice to growing chorus calling for action, Lobsterman Richard Nelson of Friendship a member of Maine's newly-appointed Ocean Acidification Commission, has contacted Lt Commander Balunis for opening the investigation. Noting extensive restoration and cleanup efforts going on in Penobscot Bay and River, Nelson wrote to Lt Commander Balunis that:
"Certainly it would not be wise to spend large amounts of taxpayers money on various projects with such a potentially negative stone unturned, as in the GAC case. I hope you agree that it would be worth the efforts to truly find out where we stand."
Huber said members of his group will be at the contaminated beach on Sunday afternoons to inform beach visitors of the pollution issues there.
"When leaving the cove, folks should rinse their hands and shoes or feet - their dogs' paws too - before reentering their vehicles" He said. "Don't unknowingly bring toxic waste home with you!"
"This is a public health hazard. Let's get it dealt with", he said.
More about the Kidder Point eroding pollution site click here.
Friends of Penobscot Bay: People who care about Maine's biggest bay.
www.penbay.net
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2014
EMERGENCY MTG on NEW developments re GAC CHEMICAL CORP's eroding legacy wastes ** WED NIGHT ** BELFAST LIBRARY** 6PM 3rd floor.
By Ronald Huber | Jun 30, 2014
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Photo by: Peter Taber, courtesy Lighthawk Conservation FlightsComplex ledge and stone ruins in intertidal cove channel wastes eroding and leaching from Kidder Point in multiple directions to Stockton Harbor
PLEASE COME THINK FOR YOUR BAY
WHO: Friends of Penobscot Bay
WHAT: The future of the eroding legacy waste-filled shores of Kidder Point, in SW Stockton Harbor is actively being considered by federal and state officials. Whether interested party like a fisherman or seeker of a safe beach for recreation, you can influence and guide the decisionmaking of US EPA and Maine DEP to remediate this problem site for the betterment of all
WHERE: Belfast Free Library, Wednesday 6pm, 3rd floor meeting room.
WHY: Major federal and state agency decisions are being made about the future of the eroding waste filled shores of Kidder Point, presently owned by GAC Chemical. This is a critical moment for public pressure to be applied to the agencies to ensure they competently investigate the site and are transparent in their results and decisionmaking
Short briefing on site history up to present situation with agencies and organizations regarding Kidder Point shoreline waste site. Followed by community discussion and planning.
Help get Kidder Point's legacy shoreline wastes, laid down between 1940 & 1970, stop eroding into and poisoning the beaches and flats of southwest Stockton Harbor - and the people and wildlife that visit them.
Or should Stockton Harbor become a Sacrifice Zone? Its forested shores nibbled away, concreted over and developed by the chemical industry, as local kid turned GAC Chemical's very capable CEO David Colter, works to get additional chemical industry tenants to his company's 60 + acres of wooded property still undeveloped along this shore?
The future is now.
Come to the Belfast Free Library, Wednesday 6pm, 3rd floor meeting room.
Help decide how southwestern Stockton Harbor's beaches, flats and marine ecosystem are healed of Kidder Point's running waste sores. How the already tained mudflats and beaches get rendered safe for people and wild nature.
How Stockton Harbor's historic functional role in the Penobscot Bay estuary can be re-established.
BACKGROUND
PRESENT SITUATION. From USCG's Belfast Maine office's Ensign Wes Wofford, FOPB's complaint was elevated to Maine port security chief Tim Balunis in Portland, who regrettably distanced the investigation from the actual site, and forestalledsediment gathering. Balunis has passed the baton to Superfund co-lead US EPA, saying this is not a catastrophic threat emergency like an imminent oil spill. Slow erosion, cumulative toxicity is EPA's problem, not theirs.
Precisely WHO Comander Balunis notified in EPA never was made clear. and We had to contact EPA ourselves, where Kelsey O'Neil, a superfund staffer, has taken up the case
FUTURE SITUATION
If Commissioner Patty Aho, Maine DEP is back in the decision seat, our old "friend" Susanne Miller, director of Eastern Maine DEP office, is the gatekeeper once more.
This means that If anything is to occur, we must ensure she follows DEP's rules on investigating a hazardous waste site. For she hasn't, to date.
As a well trained revolving door 'environmental consultant' from Hitachi Corp -handmaiden to the Global Big Twenty top polluters/clients - Miller appears to be carrying out the basic industry aiding task of determined head-in-the-sandery, reduced public access to the department and disabling DEP Bangor's investigative capacities. These are tested Koch brotherian ways of keeping the corporate "customers" from being inconvenienced by accountability or that dreadful four letter word: "cost".
When Lepage goes, Miller will doubtless revolve back to Hitachi - with a rise in paygrade - but her prospects won't be so bright if GAC has to be accountable for its polluting of Stockton Harbor. For that means she will have presided over the application of Cost to an important corporate Customer a no-no in enviro consultant world!
If you think the future of Stockton Harbor's marine ecosystem and that of greater Penobscot Bay is more important than the career of a revolving door industry consultant, come to the Belfast Free Library 6PM Wednesday, 3rd floor mtg room.
More info: 593-2744
All are welcome, especially past and present employees of GAC Chemical. Cleanup won't happen without your help
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2014
Shallow Ecology: New fed regs to protect nearshore baby cod from pollution & sprawl. Belfast Library August 6th, 6-7pm
Category
Community Happenings
Location Belfast Free Library
Address 106 High St, Belfast, Maine
Contact
Ron Huber
coastwatch@gmail.com
Phone
207-593-2744
Website
www.penbay.net
Date
Aug 06, 2014
Time
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Photo by: NEFMCMap shows the new Habitat Area of Particular Concern for juvenile Atlantic cod along the Maine coast.
Come to the Belfast Free Library Wednesday on August 6th, from 6-7pm, and learn how new federal fish habitat regs will protect the homes and prey of juvenile Atlantic cod along our bay's and whole region's coast from pollution and habitat damage.
To be specific, eight types of chemical threats, nineteen categories of physical threats and four types of biological threats.
PLUS learn how important YOU can be in protecting and conserving this important shallow frontier of the sea. And how easily.
The new protection zone is called the "Inshore Juvenile Cod HAPC Habitat Area of Particular Concern". This HAPC along the New England coast has gone through several alternative size/depths extends from the low tide line to the 20 meter depth contour. Working waterfronts are exempted.
In the late 1990s the Fishery Council tasked researchers with finding out what coastal cod populations need and what harms them. First review of the nearshore juvenile cod habitat of particular concern & its vulnerability to landbased impacts was published in 2000. Research report on the nearshore HAPC: in 2000.
The zone was selected by commercial fishermen of the New England Fishery Management Council after reviews and commentary by academics , ENGOs and government agencies and is now in the hands of NOAA.
The agency is expected to post the new "HAPC" regs on the federal register shortly, making them official. The council has also designated HAPCs for all other fish they manage
Their final report on inshore juvenile cod HAPC, released earlier this year, notes that "Due to their close proximity to human activities, inshore and nearshore areas are sensitive to anthropogenic stresses."
The report describe eight types of chemical threats, nineteen categories of physical threats and four types of biological threats to the water quality, prey availability and habitat of these shallow areas, where nearshore Atlantic cod live during their larval and juvenile life stages.
Under the new regulations, coastal developers and others proposing to impact those shallow waters will need to be able to prove that their project will not harm juvenile cod nor their prey species and habitats. If it would, the developer would have to modify the project to minimize those impacts or move it elsewhere. The same goes for pesticide appliers and licensed outfall dischargers and owners of polluted shorelines.
The Friends of Penobscot Bay believe that this Habitat Area of Particular Concern will make give fishermen and others concerned about their fishes' environment a sensible way to protect it.
"These productive shore waters and shoals are the bay's and Gulf of Maine's front line," said Ron Huber, executive director of Friends of Penobscot Bay. "Here is where fish, shellfish and their prey first encounter the complicated mixture of wastes, pesticides and more coming off the land via outfalls, culverts, spills, leaks and runoff."
"Come to the Belfast public library Wednesday August 6th at 6pm and learn how you can help bring back our coastal cod."
FMI contact Friends of Penobscot Bay 593-2744
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2014
Aerial oversight: Photoessay shows that 1940's era acid waste still erodes & seeps into Stockton Harbor from GAC Chemical's property.
By Ronald Huber | Aug 09, 2014
Photo by: Robert HuberLegacy industrial wastes erode into Stockton Harbor from GAC Chemical property.
GAC Chemical, polluting Stockton Harbor, July 17, 2014
View More...
On July 17, 2014, Project Lighthawk took Friends of Penobscot Bay over GAC Chemical's property to check on the status of wooden containment cells built along the shore of Kidder Point i the 1940s. Set up to hold wastes from fertilizer, acid and alum production, they are now failing, allowing significant amounts of highly acidic phosphogypsum and bauxite mud to enter the intertidal cove alongside the point. The flight confirmed last year's flight when these waste discharges were also observed.
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2014
Beauty & the (sprawl) Beast - saving West Penobscot Bay from rampant development.
Category
Community Happenings
Location
Belfast Free Library
Address
106 High St, Belfast, ME 04915
Contact
Ron Huber
coastwatch@gmail.com
Phone
207-691-7485
Website
www.penbay.net
Date
Sep 03, 2014
Time
6:30 PM - 7:30 AM
Other Info
DEP's "Finding of "No Significant Impact" from the Rte 1 sewer extension. 
Photo by: R. CrumbSewer Snoids
On Wednesday September 3, 2014 6:30--7:30 pm join the Friends of Penobscot Bay at the Belfast Free Library's 3rd floor meeting room for a briefing and brainstorm on behalf of Maine's Biggest Bay. (Plus a GAC cleanup status report )
"Beauty & the sprawl Beast - Saving West Penobscot Bay from rampant development. A looming sprawl wave threaten the wooded shores of Rockport Harbor below Beech Hill along west Penobscot Bay. Can its impact to Rockport Harbor be minimized?
AT ISSUE: It's all one bay. If Rockport Harbor's coastal forest habitats are replaced by intensive residential & commercial development, it will harm the entire bay.
A great weakness of Maine DEP has been its reluctance to consider the secondary, indirect and cumulative impacts of development proposal around Penobscot Bay that comes before it.
As a result, the agency has no concept of a carrying capacity for Penobscot Bay's coastal environments, neither for forests nor the coastal wetlands nourished by them. Now more than ever, it is important for the state to follow the requirements of Maine's Site Location of Development law.
Why? Because ecologically terrifying sprawl plans are very likely now in the works along this southerly stretch of the Rockport coast. Sewer lines extending into this area presently served by individual septic fields will allow development within into the nearly unbroken natural Maine coastal forests on both sides of Route One between the Beech Hill Preserve and Rockport Harbor
What? Unless citizens and their planning and zoning boards stand in the way, an infestation of big box stores, big box hotels, condos, mcmansions and gated subdivisions galore could well flatten those beautifully recovered forests.
"This will replace the sweet runoff that is the forest's gift to the bay with a deadly spew of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, fertilizers, hot oily parking lot runoff, and more." said Ron Huber executive director of Friends of Penobscot Bay.
Combine that switch with the inevitable erosion & wetlands filling that such development projects and the land-clearing logging that the streams and tiny brooks that thread these woods. What do you end up with? A sterilized Rockport Harbor, its waters empty of fish and shellfish, Its world class forested skylines befouled with day and night with retail and residential development? Its birds and wildlife only memories?
A bay is a terrible thing to lose. Let's not let them slip loose the Dogs of Sprawl upon the natural southern Rockport coast!
Come to the Belfast Free Library Wednesday September 3, 2014 from 6:30--7:30 pm. Help brainstorm what is to be done to keep West Penobscot Bay's syvlan shores from falling beneath sprawler wannabee bulldozers.
GOT SKILLS? GOT TIME? There are multiple fronts for citizens to be effective. Can you swim with the snorkle cam on? Analyze aerial and satellite photos? Organize gatherings both of landowners of the Rockport south shore and of all concerned people? Write impassioned speeches and deliver them? Raise money? Spend money? Pore over property records in the Knox County Courthouse? Sample stormwater outfalls for pesticides and other nasties? Glide over the shallows in kayak or boat, towing an underwater movie camera? Take mugshots of Rockport Harbor's fish and shellfish large and small, grinning into FOPB's drop camera?
ROCKPORT HARBOR NEEDS YOU!
Come to the Belfast Free Library Wednesday September 3, 2014 from 6:30--7:30 pm. Free and open to all. Help save our irreplaceable coastal forests, and keep the runoff of development from tainting southern Rockport Harbor.
For more information
Friends of Penobscot Bay
tel: 207-691-7485 cell 207-593-2744
POB 1871 Rockland Maine 04841
e: coastwatch@gmail.com
FOPB website: http://www.penbay.net/
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Friends of Penobscot Bay meet Friday Sept 12 Stella Maris House 7pm
Category
Community Happenings
Location
Stella Maris House
Address
148 Broadway, Rockland Maine
Contact
Ron Huber
coastwatch@gmail.com
Phone
207-691-7485
Website
www.penbay.net
Date
Sep 12, 2014
Time
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Courtesy of: Project LighthawkAerial view of Rockport Harbor, looking south from above Rockport Village
Are you a friend of Penobscot Bay?
Maine's biggest bay is the nations greatest lobster producer, a scenic and sailing destination par excellence, and gateway between Midcoast and Downeast Maine Help keep Penobscot Bay that way - and help heal its 19th and 20th century wounds.
On Friday September 12th at 7pm, the Friends will host the first in its Fall 2014 series on Penobscot Bay issues and solutions at the Stella Maris House meeting room located at 148 Broadway Rockland.
* Protecting marine microbiota & the baby cod that eat them along our shore
* Getting leaky shoreline waste dumps stopped up.
* Keeping coastal sprawl down as new sewer pipe extensions attract Big Development along Rockport Harbor!
* Counting porpoises, turtles, seabirds and mummichogs
* Lots More.
The Friends of Penobscot Bay need your help to bring the public's critical attention to issues besetting the whole of our beautiful bay.
It's all connected. To harm one shore is to harm the whole bay.
Come to tonight's gathering Become a Friend of Penobscot Bay
FMI: coastwatch@gmail.com or call 691-7485 or 593-2744
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2014
Un-wasting the GAC Chemical Shore: Belfast Free Library November 5th
Category
Community Happenings
Location
Belfast Free Library
Address
106 High St, Belfast, ME 04915
Contact
Ron Huber
coastwatch@gmail.com
Phone
207-593-2744
Website
penbay.org/gac/gacalum.html
Date
Nov 05, 2014
Time
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
SEARSPORT. Years of pressure by Friends of Penobscot Bay and Downeast Lobstermen's Association are paying off as Maine DEP and GAC Chemical put their heads together to come up with a cleanup plan under the state's VRAP program for Maine's worst chronic coastal acidification site.
Come to the Belfast Free Library November 5th at 6pm and become a part of this bay-healing solution! At the event, Friends of Penobscot Bay will:
(1) Summarize the industrial history of Kidder Point including the important role its fertilizer production played in World War 2 by powering up Aroostook County's famed potato industry and other Maine businesses,
(2) Discuss the complicated industrial waste legacy that a series of companies, including Summers Fertilizer, Northern Chemical and Delta Chemical, have left behind on the 5 acre tip of Kidder Point between 1943 -1970, and
(3) Describe the cleanup process and the levels of cleanup.
At ISSUE: GAC and Maine DEP are using a state waste remediation program called the Voluntary Response Action Program. or VRAP. ("Vee-wrap")
The company must deal with its long-abandoned sulfuric acid manufacturing plant & acid tank perched above a leaking WW2-era chemical landfill dumped into containment cells along the shore of Stockton Harbor. GAC Chemical will release its a draft remediation plan in November.
As the VRAP website explains: "VRAP allows applicants to voluntarily investigate and clean up properties to the Department's satisfaction, in exchange for protections from Department enforcement actions."
So if GAC cleans up its wastes sufficiently, it will receive what is effectively a 'Polluter Pardon'. I.e. Maine DEP will not enforce the pollution laws that the company has been violating since it first took over the Kidder Point location in the mid 1990s.
But how clean does "to the agency's satisfaction" really mean? Come to the Belfast Free Library on November 5th at 6pm & help decide how environmental Restorative Justice will be served.
Maine DEP must pick from three “Tiers” of public review of the plan. FOPB is calling for a "Tier III" VRAP review of the site, which requires negotiating with affected communities and stakeholders about the proposed cleanup, before the state approves or rejects the GAC cleanup plan
According to agency & company records, the site has leaked unsafe levels of acid and other pollutants into the beach and intertidal flats at the southwest end of Stockton Harbor since at least the 1960s.
It is time that this legacy waste site got dealt with. Come to the Belfast Free Library November 5th at 6pm and become a part of the bay-healing solution!
Together the people of the Bay can make sure the cleanup plan really does clean the worst of the acid wastes from the beach and intertidal flats.
If not you, who?
# # #
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2014
Stop Burning the Bay! GAC Chemical's Plumes of Shame
By Ronald Huber | Oct 24, 2014
Courtesy of: Google earthSite location of GAC Chemical Corp, upper Penobscot Bay
Will GAC CHemical Finally Stop Beating the Bay?
Here are photos and galleries of photographs of GAC Chemical and its eroding wastes. Taken by land and from the air See the plumes of wastes wending into Stockton Harbor.
GAC Chemical abandoned point with acid plant and polluted cove. Sears Island in background (Courtesy of: Project Lighthawk)
Polluted cove, GAC Chemical's abandoned acid factor & tank. Note plume leaving tank (Courtesy of: Project Lighthawk)
Waste plumes leaving GAC Chemical and entering the clamflat (Courtesy of: Project Lighthawk)
GAC's waste plumes & source: abandoned sulfuric acid plant (Courtesy of: Project Lighthawk)
GAC Chemical waste plumes, closeup from above. (Courtesy of: Project Lighthawk)
Closeup of plumes from above acid plant. (Courtesy of: Project Lighthawk)
Eroding waste dump below old acid plant. (Photo by: Project Lighhawk)
Ceramic debris in intertidal flat from old demolished factory onsite (Photo by: Ron Huber)
Old tarpaper from demolished factory's roof, embedded in tidal flats. (Photo by: Ron Huber)
Eroding shoreline with concrete dump below (Photo by: Ron Huber)
Location Map of GAC Chemical, Stockton Harbor (Source: MDEP
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2014
Plumes of Penobscot Bay
By Ronald Huber | Nov 06, 2014
Courtesy of: Project LighthawkFailed septic system along Northport shore
Plumes! We'll bring you plumes of the present and plumes past. A Plume History of Penobscot Bay.
Plumes are fluids from Away. Whether they emanate from a failing septic field, an overburdened sewage treatment plant, an eroding bank of industrial waste, a poorly maintained construction site, the vagaries of wind and tide or any other cause, most plumes don't belong in our natural streams, rivers, bay.
But plumes of many colors, shapes, size and durations come and go on Penobscot Bay and in her rivers and streams. Some are tattooed a foot keep into mudflats, seething tongues of acid ravaging diatoms and all calcium-shelled life encountered. Others ride the surface in iridescent sheens, while still others pass by furtively, down beneath the bay surface, dissolving in the deep darkness, Some are braided, or multi-headed, like hydra. Some are broad sheets. Others are like watery lances piercing the bay.
Got plumes? Let the Friends of Penobscot Bay know. We'll take a look, document the thing and see what's to be done if anything.
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2015
Maine legislator to explain Ocean Acidification Commission results January 7th, Belfast Public Library. Plus Fundy Baykeeper & GAC win.
Category
Community Happenings
Location
Belfast Free Library
Address
106 High Street, Belfast, ME
Contact
Ron Huber
coastwatch@gmail.com
Phone
691-7485
Website
www.penbay.net
Date
Jan 07, 2015
Time
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Other Info
Maine Ocean Acidification report 
Photo by: Ron HuberRepresentative Mick Devin
BELFAST, Maine — Coastal acidification, ocean acidification and remarks from the Fundy Baykeeper on the new Penobscot Baykeeper plan are on the agenda for the Jan. 7, 2015, meeting of Friends of Penobscot Bay.
The meeting will be held in the Belfast Public Library’s 3rd floor meeting room, from 6pm to 7:30pm. Free and open to all.
Representative Mick Devin will discuss and take questions on the new report by Maine’s Ocean Acidification Commission that crystallizes the thinking from across the spectrum of Maine governmental, academic, aquaculture fishery and and other living marine resources interests. See
Representative Devin is co-leader of the commission. He says that the Commission’s top priority is to institute regular acid testing of flats and waters along the entire length of the Maine coast.
Until then, Devin says, regulators have no idea what the hot spots of the Maine coast are that most need remediation. The commission also calls for several other initiatives. These include stricter enforcement of state pollution laws, hatchery production of softshell clams, growing them in that sheltered environment to a size that can successfully resist shell corrosion from acidic waters and from green crabs, before releasing them into Maine’s increasingly acidic and crab-infested flats, and more.
Before Representative Devin’s talk, Ron Huber of the Friends of Penobscot Bay will briefly describe his group’s success at getting longtime coastal acidifier GAC Chemical Corporation to agree to remove acidic wastes from its waterfrontand shore up part of an eroding bluff. Tons of spent bauxite ore and sulfuric acid have eroded and leaked directly into Stockton Harbor over the past 40 years. The group will commend GAC Chemical for taking this important first step in healing the harbor’s industrialized southwestern cove.
Fundy Baykeeper Matt Abbott will follow Representative Devin. Matt is one of two baykeepers of the Gulf of Maine (along with outgoing Casco Baykeeper Joe Payne).
Baykeeper programs vary widely. Each is custom-fitted to the unique environment ecology, sociology and economy of that bay, river or lake-keeper. Casco Baykeeper and Fundy Baykeeper have different but quite effective modus operandis reflecting their different circumstances.
Friends of Penobscot Bay leader Huber said his group envisions having the best of both programs: the research and agency/legislative interaction of the Casco Baykeeper’s program and the Fundy Baykeeper’s focus on advocacy and oversight of coastal industrialization & sprawl proposals large and small,
“With a little help from our friends, we’ll be able to carry out our missions and steward Penobscot Bay through the ongoing changes in acidity, climate and coastal development,” he said.
The event is free and open to the public. All interested in Penobscot Bay including students, bay-dependent businesses, and everyone who loves or cares about Penobscot Bay are urged to attend.
For more information contact the Friends of Penobscot Bay at 207-691-7485 or coastwatch@gmail.com
Friends of Penobscot Bay: people who care about Maine’s biggest bay
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2015
Rockweed! Top algae researcher/activist to describe the future of this irreplaceable live habitat. February 4th Belfast Free Library, 6pm.
Category
Education
Location
Belfast Free Library
Address
106 High Street, Belfast, ME
Contact
Ron Huber
coastwatch@gmail.com
Phone
207-593-2744
Website
www.penbay.org
Date
Feb 04, 2015
Time
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Other Info
Robin Hadlock Seeley on impacts to juvenile cod habitat of rockweed harvesting. 1/5/15. I min 14 sec 
Photo by: Ron Huber, FOPBRockweed in winter, Stockton Harbor
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Location: Belfast Free Library, 106 High Street, Belfast,, Maine
For more information: 207-593-2744;rockweedcoalition.org/
Rockweed researcher Robin Hadlock Seeley to speak February 4th, 6pm, at the Belfast Free Library, 3rd floor meeting room. Free & open to all.
BELFAST. Every low tide, thousands of tidy piles of olive green rockweed lay anchored at rest atop Belfast Bay’s (and almost all of Maine’s) myriad intertidal ledges, piers and other hard surfaces.
They arise with each incoming tide into six foot high marine groves teeming with fish, birds and invertebrates, then collapse once more with each outgoing tide, again becoming living pockets of seawater dotting a temporarily dry landscape.
But according to Dr. Robin Hadlock-Seeley, a 5th generation Mainer and Cornell University marine scientist at the Shoals Marine Laboratory, the decline of most traditional Maine coast fisheries has brought increased pressure to cut and process this brown algae into sellable seaweed meal, fertilizer and alginates. Yet the State of Maine’s regulations on harvesting Rockweed are weak.
On February 4th, 6pm, Dr. Hadlock-Seeley will be guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Friends of Penobscot Bay at Belfast Free Library’s 3rd floor meeting room.
She will describe the ecological importance of rockweed, the status of state and federal regulations on commercial cutting of this seaweed, more than a decade of efforts by the Rockweed Coalition to improve them, new legislation, and a plan to preserve intertidal habitat in Maine and protect rockweed beds from industrial-scale cutting. The meeting is free and open to all.
Robin Hadlock-Seeley assisted in the development of the “Rockweed Registry”,which allows landowners to register their shores as no-cut areas. Local governments, including the Passamaquoddy Tribe, have joined in placing their tidal shoreland off limits to commercial seaweed cutting.
Come to the Belfast Free Library February 4th at 6pm and learn about this critical part of our bay’s, our coast’s ecology and how you can make a difference, from Maine’s top rockweed expert, Dr. Robin Hadlock Seeley. This event is free and open to all.
The Belfast Free Library is located at 106 High Street, Belfast, ME 04915.
For more information, contact Friends of Penobscot Bay at 593-2744 or coastwatch@gmail.com
Friends of Penobscot Bay: People who care about Maine’s Biggest Bay. www.facebook.com/penobscotbay
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2015
Friends of Penobscot Bay meet Wed 2/4/15 at Belfast library: topics Grimmel scrap plan, Rockweed deforestation threat, Penobscot Baykeeper plan.
Category
Community Happenings
Location
Belfast Free Library
Address
106 High Street, Belfast Maine
Contact
Ron Huber
coastwatch@gmail.com
Phone
207-593-2744
Website
www.penbay.net
Date
Feb 04, 2015
Time
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Courtesy of: Working WaterfrontRockweed at high tide
Are you a friend of Penobscot Bay? Do you fish, study, paddle beachcomb dive or sail Maine's biggest bay? Want it to be as healthy and productive a bay as possible?
Then come down to the Belfast Free Library's 3rd floor meeting room on Wednesday February 4th from 6-730 pm. Join others who care about Maine's Biggest Bay. Learn about and discuss best responses to the threats and opportunities ever arise about Penobscot Bay.
ROCKWEED FORESTS AT RISK. The flexible forests rising & falling with the tides along much of our salt shores fuill an important ecological interface niche of alternating land and sea environments. Both up and while down at low tide. They are also an economically important commercially harvestable species living on public land.
Dr Robin Hadlock-Seeley, a leader in research and protection of Maine's intertidal rockweed forests, will give a discussion and lead a presentation
* the state of these forests,
* the affect of climate change and pollution on them
* the effect of deforestation on fish, fowl, and lobsters.
* the politics and ecopolitics of rockweed
Dr Hadlock-Seeley is a 5th generation Mainer and Cornell University marine scientist at the Shoals Marine Laboratory on the Maine NH marine border.
"Robin is a keen observer of and participant in, the ongoing political and regulatory struggles for this important flexible forest gracing our shores. If you care about your locaL intertidal zone, come learn from she has to say!"
BUT FIRST Searsport community activist Peter Taber will brief the meeting on Grimmel Industries' very-much-in-play plan to trUck in and pile shredded automobile steel on Mack Point for export. Taber, a former reporter for the Bangor Daily News and Waldo Independent, and now publisher of Wild Maine Times, is a long time Searsport resident who has kept a weather eye on the problems besetting Searsport Harbor and all of Penobscot Bay.
Many residents and some organizations oppose the Grimmel scrap steel export project because it will retoxify the upper bay through unavoidable chronic tainted runoff. Water and sediment -tinged with mercury, lead, PCBs and more.
Ron Huber of Friends of Penobscot Bay said that "If the company can't or won't prevent polluted runoff from their scrap piles from entering Penobscot Bay, then they don't deserve to be allowed to set up here."
We believe the Searsport Planning Board will agree" he said, "once they get a briefing by Maine DEP stormwater and outfall inspector Jana Wood."
Huber observed that "the scrap plan is yet another reason we need a Penobscot Baykeeper program to coordinate those who care about Maine's biggest bay. Come help us organize it."
The Belfast Free Library is located at 106 High Street, Belfast, ME 04915.
For more information, contact Friends of Penobscot Bay at 593-2744 or coastwatch@gmail.com
Friends of Penobscot Bay, POB 1871 Rockland Maine 04841
------------------------------------------------------
Time for a Penobscot Baykeeper, Casco Baykeeper emeritus tells Belfast.
By Ronald Huber | Mar 01, 2015
Photo by: FOCBJoe Payne the Casco Baykeeper Emeritus spoke in Belfast February 27th
On February 27, 2015 Casco Baykeeper emeritus Joe Payne gave a talk and took part in a discussion at the Belfast Unitarian Universalist Church on organizing a Penobscot Baykeeper program. Listen to the hour long event at these links. .Below the links, read a summary of the high points of the talk and Q&A
Part 1 14 minutes * Part 2 15 minutes * Part 3 16 minutes * Part 4 17 minutesFull talk 61minutes
Payne described his two decades-plus career as keeper of Casco Bay and gave his strong support to organizing a Penobscot Baykeeper. A LONG overdue event, he says.
The now retired Casco Baykeeper suggests a unique affiliates-styles Penobscot Baykeeper program that reflects the enormous size of the bay and and the diverse societies, economics and ecology of the different reaches. This could be whichever divisions make sense: for example: East Penobscot Bay, west Penobscot Bay and the Fox Islands & Islesboro. Or upper bay/outer bay. Or even single harbors like Belfast Baykeeper
Joe described his two decades-plus career as keeper of Casco Bay and gave his strong support to organizing a Penobscot Baykeeper. A LONG overdue event, he says.
The now retired Casco Baykeeper suggests a unique affiliates-styles Penobscot Baykeeper program that reflects the enormous size of the bay and and the diverse societies, economics and ecology of the different reaches. This could be whichever divisions make sense: for example: East Penobscot Bay, west Penobscot Bay and the Fox Islands & Islesboro. Or upper bay/outer bay. Or even single harbors like Belfast Baykeeper.
Whichever it is, Joe said, each would benefit by being organized around people with great knowledge of and devotion to, their reach of Penobscot bay, Eventually a baywide leader will arise among the affiliates, he said, and a bay wide Penobscot Baykeeper might emerge. Or the affiliate system may prove to be an effective system on its own.
On raising money, Joe said, and all agreed, the money is out there. the businesses the philanthropists all the entities that would have or havig a voice for the ecology and environment of their bay or their reach of Penobscot Bay.
In the discussion part of the meeting, Joe took questions from pesticide activist Jody Spear, right whale defender Mark Dietrich, retired school teacher David Smith a critic of the new hardrock mining rules of the Lepage administration, educator-on-sabbatical Linda Bowie on project-based teaching, deep ecologist Hugh Curran of Morgan Bay, a critic of excessive aquaculture and meeting host Ron Huber of Friends of Penobscot Bay.
However it is done, all agreed, a Penobscot Baykeeper is LONG overdue!
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2015
BAYKEEPER CLF-Style. TONIGHT BELFAST LIBRARY, Jeff Barnum speaks 6-7:30 on "keeping" the Piscataqua River.
Category
Community Happenings
Location
Belfast public library
Address
Belfast Maine
Contact
Ron Huber
coastwatch@gmail.com
Phone
207-593-2744
Website
www.penbay.org
Date
Mar 04, 2015
Time
6:00 PM - 7:45 AM
Courtesy of: Google earthPiscataqua River. Maine's Border with Away
Wednesday March 4th come meet, listen to, question and brainstorm with, Jeff Barnum, the Great Bay-Piscataqua River Waterkeeper,
The meeting is TONITE MARCH 4TH from 6 to 730pm in the Belfast Free Library's 3rd floor meeting room. Free and open to all
An employee of the Conservation Law Foundation, Jeff has been waterkeeper since August 2013. He'll explain how he acts as steward of his waterbody. Jeff gave Searsport citizens input about the Grimmel Corporation's scrap steel export facility that left the Piscataqua shore and now may restart in Searsport. The town has given the scrap company conditional approval , provided they meet the pollution investigation and prevention standards environmentalists demanded be made part for the approval
We'll also learn how, just as we heard from the the Fundy Baykeeperand Casco Baykeeper,(audio recordings) how his job is custom-tailored to his waterbody Piscataqua River and its Great Bay. To tend to its natural and human users, and to historic pollution and waste spills, and development projects and otnher habitat changes. Recent news story
This meeting is from 6 to 730pm in the Belfast Free Library's 3rd floor meeting room. Free and open to all
----------------------------------------------------
2015
Waterkeeper Alliance signs Friends of Penobscot Bay as new Maine affiliate.
By Ronald Huber | Jun 06, 2015
Artwork by: Debby AtwellFriends of Penobscot Bay, watching over the bay.
Maine group to coordinate eco-protection of ‘America’s Lobster Basket’.
ROCKLAND. The Friends of Penobscot Bay organization has officially joined the Waterkeeper Alliance. The Waterkeeper Alliance is a national and international organization dedicated to promoting fishable, swimmable and drinkable waters everywhere, through grassroots advocacy.
Coming event On June 12th, Friends of Penobscot Bay will hold a press availability from 11am till 2pm at the midpoint of the Sears Island Causeway in Searsport. ALL ARE WELCOME
The Friends of Penobscot Bay (FOPB) is only the second Maine organization to be granted a license by Waterkeeper Alliance. The Friends of Casco Bay employed waterkeeper Joe Payne more than two decades, until his retirement earlier this year. Cathy Ramsdell is Casco Baykeeper Pro Tem.
Waterkeeper Alliance executive director Marc Yaggi signed the license recognizing Friends of Penobscot Bay as an official Waterkeeper affiliate on June 3rd.
FOPB is tasked with focusing especially on West Penobscot Bay, where development pressure is on the upswing.
Ron Huber is executive director of Friends of Penobscot Bay. He said affiliation with the Waterkeeper Alliance is “very timely.”
“Waterkeeper Alliance is a perfect fit for us,” he said. “Penobscot Bay is facing unprecedented industrial, commercial and residential development pressures, as well as unexpectedly good opportunities for increasing abundance of bay fishes due to the Penobscot River dam openings. "
“Penobscot Bay is America’s Lobster Basket.” Huber said. “The shores and shallows are an irreplaceable part of the lobster life cycle. Any new pollution license, or new development application that would transform this land -bay interface will have to meet incredibly stringent standards.”
He said that many developers won’t be able to meet those standards.
"If forestalling such growth is the price of keeping our lobsters thriving, and our urchins, scallops,worms and clams, so be it.”
The baykeepers, streamkeepers, soundkeepers around the US and the world that make up the Waterkeeper Alliance are all fighting similar battles on behalf of the water bodies they are sworn to protect, he said.
This includes sewage plant operators, who sometimes can’t meet their outfall waste limits; and chemical and fertilizer companies whose coastal properties can contain spilled or dumped mercury, dioxin, acids, coal tar and other legacy wastes, from the 19th and twentieth centuries.
“These harm fish and wildlife in similar ways everywhere,” Huber said. “Finding out from other Waterkeepers how they have taken on similar challenges to ours, can help us avoid lengthy re-inventing the wheel and avoid going down a wrong path of investigation,”
Bottom line, he said: “Anyone who wants to add pollution to Penobscot Bay or degrade her coastal habitat above or below the tideline, has got to get past us first.”
# # #
About the Friends of Penobscot Bay www.penbay.net
“FOPB’s board of directors is made up of people of long experience sustainably exploiting Penobscot Bay’s coasts, waters and species,” says Ron Huber, the group’s executive director.
“We as individuals all have legal standing to intervene when it comes to threats to Penobscot Bay’s natural resources. We are people who farm oysters, dig marine worms, manage clamflats, dive for urchins, trap lobsters, run work boats, sail, fish recreationally, host nature based-resorts, or simply enjoy scenic wild Penobscot Bay. We all have in common a commitment to keeping the water quality and essential habitats of Penobscot Bay at their most seafood-friendly, naturally scenic levels.”
Huber’s role is to carry out or organize FOPB’s missions. “This means that when examining a discharge permit or a coastal development proposal, being just as concerned about the effect it could have on our bay’s microplankton as how it could affect the fish,shellfish, baybirds other wildlife.”
Another part of his mission is to share what he learns with citizens and groups fighting pollution and sprawl on their own around Penobscot Bay. An informed group is an effective group,” he says.
For more information about Friends of Penobscot Bay, contact them by phone or email: 207-691-7485 and coastwatch@gmail.com or message them on facebook https://www.facebook.com/penobscotbay
Friends of Penobscot Bay: “People who care about Maine’s biggest bay.”
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Bay Day! Bay Day! Meet Maine's biggest bay. Up front & personal.
Category
Community Happenings
Location
Rockland Breakwater
Address
Rockland Maine
Contact
Ron Huber
coastwatch@gmail.com
Phone
207-593-2744
Website
www.penbay.net
Photo by: Friends of Penobscot BayAn urchin encounters a starfish on a Rockland harbor pier.
Want to help document our Penobscot Bay of today? Joining in the Friends of Penobscot Bay's summerlong mosaic of underwater videography from docks, boats and by divers, aerial overflights of our waters and shores by kite and by plane. Kayak level photography, mud walks and more. Much more.
The Friends of Penobscot Bay are celebrating their new affiliation with the Waterkeeper Alliance with this series of getting-to-know you summer happenings around Maine's biggest bay. Come take mug shots of the fish and shellfish of your favorite cove. Curious as to the vigor of our bay's natural micro-ecosystems of native protozoa and bacteria?
The Friends of Penobscot Bay have got the underwater cameras, microscopes and other gear. If you've got the time, Penobscot Bay will be the better for it!
Want to be involved? Contact the Friends of Penobscot Bay and help us help our beautiful and immensely productive bay - at whatever level of activity you are comfortable with.
Volunteers now accepted for Rockland Harbor, Rockport Harbor & Searsport Harbor "bay days". Got your own fave harbor? Let us know!
email coastwatch@gmail.com Phone 207-593-2744 FB https://www.facebook.com/penobscotbay
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2015
Friends of Penobscot Bay: Belfast Library TOMORROW August 5th: 6-730 Cool Waterkeeper vids! Maine's worst ocean acidification site to be mended! Plus Big Gas=Big Sprawl=Lobsterkills
Category
Community Happenings
Location
Belfast Public Libryary
Contact
Ron Huber
coastwatch@gmail.com
Phone
206-593-2744
Website
penobscotbay.blogspot.com
Date
Aug 05, 2015
Time
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Courtesy of: Maine state planning officePenobscot Bay 2050?
For immediate release 2/23/15
Contact Friends of Penobscot Bay at 207-691-7485
Cool Waterkeeper vids! Dredge madness! Maine's worst ocean acidification site to be mended! Plus Big Gas=Big Sprawl=Lobsterkills!
BELFAST. On August 5, 2015 the Belfast Free Library hosts Friends of Penobscot Bay's monthly video shorts and public meeting in the Library's 3rd floor meeting room.
All are welcome to enjoy the videos - dramatic films of baykeepers around the world fighting the same fights as us - and then get and give updates on Penobscot Bay's top issues. Three issues top the agenda
Maine's Top Ocean Acidifier Set To Mend Ailing Shoreline
'By the end of 2015' is GAC Chemical's latest promise. We';ve heard that before. Maybe
Searsport Megadredge: BEP won't take it up. DEP's Ahois now the state's decider. Eeek! Learn how to join the fight to keep the bay's shoals in place and not dug up and dumped.
Sprawling the Bay?
Plan to run gas pipelines along the west Penobscot Bay coast risks
triggering a residential, commercial and industrial landrush - setting Maine's top lobster fishery on a downward spiral
Penobscot Bay's Waterkeeper affiliate: the first 60 days.
Every waterkeeper's different. How is Penobscot Bay's shaping up. and shaking out?
Join the Friends of Penobscot Bay at the Belfast Library August 5th and get the amazing details
6-7:30pm and are free. All who care about Maine's Biggest Bay are urged to attend! Let's combine what we all know into the baywide perspective Penobscot Bay needs in these perilous (to the bay) times.
All interested in Penobscot Bay are urged to attend!
It's YOUR bay.
Deal with it.
Friends of Penobscot Bay
People who care about Maine's biggest bay.
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Kendall Merriam, Rockland poet laureate, on Rockland's current situation. Listen.
By Ronald Huber | Aug 22, 2015
On August 22nd. Rockland's poet laureate visited WRFR Community Radio, read from his works, and spoke about how his beloved city of Rockland is being governed. Listen to him count the ways. http://tinyurl.com/kmerriam-082215 23minutes
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2015
Climate Change & Religion in Maine. Audio from 10/8/15 forum in Rockland
By Ronald Huber | Oct 09, 2015
On October 8, 2015 Adas Yoshuron Synagogue in Rockland, Maine hosted an interfaith community forum called "Climate Change & Religion". The forum's panel and attendees focused on the factors that have created the global climate crisis, and on solutions great and small.
The panel consisted of Rabbi Natan Margalit, Kathleen Meil, Marketing & Customer Relations Manager at Evergreen Home Performance, and Laurie Osher, PhD, President of Maine Interfaith Power & Light. Rabbi Margalit spoke first, followed by Osher, then Meil. This was followed by a wide ranging question and answer session on everything from solar power to the controversial gas plant proposal facing Rockland
RECORDINGS
* Rabbi Natan Margalit 2minutes 42 seconds
* Laurie Osher, PhD, Maine Interfaith Power & Light.
* Kathleen Meil Evergreen Home Performance. 6min
* QA 1 Intro Margalit 9min 27sec *** QA 2. 8min 41 sec *** QA 3. 5min 5sec
* QA 4. 6min 24sec *** QA 5. 4min 47sec***QA 6. 5min 54 sec
* QA 7. 6min 36sec *** QA 8. 10min 2sec *** QA 9. Gas plant. 6min 21sec
* QA 10. 5min 7sec *** QA 11. 4min 48sec END
Rabbi Natan Margalit praised Pope Francis' encyclical letter "On Care For Our Common Home" for its depth of review of the issue. Describing the moral and ethical reasons that people of faith should be working to address climate change, he asked, then along with the other panelists and audience, answered the question "What does Judaism say about our responsibilities and responses to climate change?"
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2016
Bay acidification, deforestation to top FOPB's agenda at Saturday's Penobscot Watershed Conference
By Ronald Huber | Apr 08, 2016
Courtesy of: Maine Coastal Program
Conference images
View More...
Map data ©2018 Google
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Satellite
On April 9th, gains in reducing bay acidification and losses in bay coast forests will top the Friends of Penobscot Bay's issues at the 2016 Penobscot Watershed Conference.
NORTHPORT. On Saturday April 9th, the Point Lookout Resort on Ducktrap Mountain will fill with people around Penobscot Bay's 8,500 square mile watershed - and from the cities and towns around around 1,000 square mile Penobscot Bay itself.
Bay & river activists and professionals including commercial fisherman Richard Nelson, the Penobscot Indian Nation's Director of Natural Resources John Banks, Penobscot Bay & River Pilots leader David Gelinas , Friends of Penobscot Bay head Ron Huber - and many more - will come together at the 2016 Penobscot Watershed Conference and discuss the myriad threats to Penobscot Bay and its River watershed. They will reports on recent gains & losses in conserving the River's and Bay's scenic and living natural resources, and hatch plans for future action.
"Penobscot Bay and its 8,500 square mile watershed are an incredible combination of renewable resources." said bay conservationist Huber. "We need to be careful how we exploit them, whether for lumber, for seafood or for scenic beauty." He said Friends of Penobscot Bay is focusing this year on coastal acidification and shallow water bay fish habitats.
"We've had some victories, but there's still a long way to go. We're glad so many people are taking on bettering their pieces of this immense watershed that nourishes Maine's biggest bay."
END
Friends of Penobscot Bay: a Waterkeeper Alliance affiliate
FOPB, POB 1871 Rockland, Maine 04841 www.penbay.net @penobscotbay (207) 593-2744 coastwatch@gmail.com
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2016
Love that Bay! Stockton Harbor Yacht Club hosts July10th fundraiser for Friends of Penobscot Bay.
Category
Benefits / Fundraisers
Location
Stockton Harbor Yacht Club
Address
12 Cape Docks Road, Stockton Springs, ME
Contact
Ron Huber
coastwatch@gmail.com
Phone
207-593-2744
Website
www.penbay.net
Date
Jul 10, 2016
Time
11:30 AM
Courtesy of: Stockton Harbor Yacht Club
On Sunday July 10, at 11:30 am The Women of St. Margaret's and the Stockton Harbor Yacht Club will co-host:"Love That Bay! A Fundraiser for Friends of Penobscot Bay."
The gala event will be held at the Stockton Harbor Yacht Club, located at 12 Cape Docks Road on Cape Jellison in Stockton Springs.
Proceeds include brunch, a silent auction, a knit fashion show, live music, and updates on what Penobscot Bay's Friends are accomplishing, where things stand in Maine's biggest bay and what's next.
Got an item or service to contribute to our silent auction? Contact Jim Grossman at 322-2825.
Tickets are $25 at Heavenly Socks Yarn, Main Street, Belfast, and the Good Kettle, Stockton Springs. The Women of Saint Margaret's and Stockton Harbor Yacht Club.
Friends of Penobscot Bay is a Waterkeeper Alliance affiliate
FMI 207-691-7485 or coastwatch@gmail.com
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2016
Stockton Harbor: Linchpin of the Penobscot Bay/River ecosystem. Talk, July 28 5pm., Stockton Harbor Yacht Club
Category
Community Happenings
Location
Stockton Harbor Yacht Club
Address
12 Cape Docks Road, Stockton Springs, Maine 04981
Contact
Friends of Penobscot Bay
coastwatch@gmail.com
Phone
207-593-2744
Website
www.penbay.net
Date
Jul 28, 2016
Time
5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Courtesy of: google earthUpper Penobscot Bay and Lower Penobscot River. Color indicates depth. Stockton Harbor in center
On Thursday, July 28th at 5:30pm, the Stockton Harbor Yacht Club on beautiful Cape Jellison will host a multimedia presentation "Stockton Harbor: Linchpin of the Penobscot Bay/River ecosystem" by the Friends of Penobscot Bay,
Free. All are welcome.
Stockton Harbor is the first embayment of Penobscot Bay below the mouth of Penobscot River. Twice daily it receives the waters, nutrients and aquatic life of both river and bay.
This sheltered, scenic and shallow brackish water harbor, perched between the Penobscot River's increasingly undammed 8,000 square mile watershed and thousand square mile Penobscot Bay. is both a transition zone between the freshwater and saltwater ecologies of river and bay and a fish and shellfish nursery area.
Experts say the these river reopenings will boost tonnage of fishes passing between bay and river. But, according to Friends of Penobscot Bay executive director Ron Huber, Stockton Harbor, too, has been dammed, and fish & shellfish restoration requires this dam be pierced, too.
The Sears island Causeway is that dam, completely blocking historic flows of water between Stockton Harbor and Searsport Harbor since the 1980s. Water flows that local clammers say were critical transporters of planktonic prey, powering the ecology of their once lucrative, now lost commercial shell fishery.
Huber say he's heard from the Army Corps of Engineers that piercing the causeway with several large box culverts is technically simple to do. "The challenge will be convincing the other agencies and the Maine legislature that doing this will benefit bay fisheries," he said.
The economic importance of preserving and enhancing Stockton Harbor's scenic beauty - both the view from the land and from the harbor will also be examined.
For more information, message us on facebook @penobscotbay or call/text 593-2744.
The Stockton Harbor Yacht Club clubhouse and dock is located at 12 Cape Docks Road on Cape Jellison in Stockton Springs.
About the Stockton Harbor Yacht Club
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2016
Saint George: controversial ramp & float application goes back to Planning Board - for 3rd time. AUDIO
By Ronald Huber | Dec 17, 2016
Courtesy of: Google EarthWatts Cove at bottom of image. Saint George River at top. Looking south.
Watts Cove Appeal Board hearing December 15, 2016
View More...
SAINT GEORGE. On December 15th, the Saint George Board of Appeals voted to send back to the town's planning board for reconsideration, an application by two property owners to put a ramp and float into Saint George's biodiverse Watts Cove.The appeals board heard from attorneys for appellant applicants Bryce and Gail Molloy and Watts Cove landowner Matt Stern
Listen to Audio of the 12/15/16 Board of appeals meeting:
1. Presentations by attorney for applicants Bryce & Gail Molloy 31min and by atty for Matthew Stern & other interested parties 22min Both: Full:60min mp3). *
2. Board Discussion & Vote. Part 1. 14min, Part 2. 13min, Part 3. 14min and Part 4. 19min
Public attendees
The appeals board told the planning board to take a second look at the November 17, 2016 appealby Bryce & Gail Molloy of the rejection of their October 4th application to build a ramp with chained floats extending out from the shore of Watts Cove, a small intertidal embayment of the tidal Saint George River. The cove is well documented by conservation agencies and consultants as high quality, highly productive estuarine bird and shellfish habitat.
The October 4th application was a reduced version of an earlier application made by the Molloys. In their October 25th rejection of that application, the Planning Board's Motion to Deny stated:
"The facility is not consistent with the surrounding character and uses of the surrounding area because:
1. of the unique character beyond Watts Cove beyond the dam
2. the existing conservation easement and resource protection in the cove
3. the tidal waterfowl and wading bird habitat
4. the absence of existing floats in the water "
CONTROVERSY
After deciding in the Molloys' favor to send the application back to the Planning Board, controversy arose as Appeals Board members and the two attorneys sparred over what the scope of the Planning Board should be in its review of the newly sent back application.
* They disagreed over whether the float would unlawfully intrude into an area identified by the Department of Inland Fish and Wildlife as Significant Wildlife Habitat for shorebirds and other species.
James Katsiaficas, the Molloy's attorney, said that as a seasonal ramp and float, the proposal fell outside Maine DEP's purview. The Dept of Inland Fish and Wildlife's involvement would have been contingent on Maine DEP seeking IFW's expertise. With DEP not involved, there was nothing for IFW to review. The findings of the Department of Inland Fish and Wildlife need not be factored in. LISTEN TO KATSIAFICAS 31MIN MP3.
Paul Gibbons, attorney for Watts Cove shoreowner Matthew Stern and other interested parties, held to the opposite opinion. He said that the Planning Board was entirely free to use all of the evidence and information it had put into the official record, and discussed during its deliberations, when looking at the application again, and determining if it would : "have an adverse impact on spawning grounds, fish aquatic life, bird or other wildlife habitat." . LISTEN TO GIBBONS TESTIMONY 22MIN
Watts Cove lower. Saint George River, upper .
Gibbons said the documented facts of the unacceptable impacts to wading birds other wildlife should compel the Planning Board to reach the same conclusions as before.
He noted that the float would intrude into an area identified by the Department of Inland Fish and Wildlife as Significant Wildlife area for shorebirds and other species.
These concerns were about Section 16 D-4 of the Saint George shoreland zoning ordinance which requires a positive finding that a project "[w]ill not have an adverse impact on spawning grounds, fish aquatic life, bird or other wildlife habitat."
Atty Paul Givens
However, the planning board did not specifically include these Section 16 D-4 related issues in its list of "findings" in the final wording of their rejection of the Molloy's plans.
Thus, said the Appeals board chair and the Molloys' attorney. the planning board could not consider those Section 16D-4 issues in its new review. Only Section 15 C-5 standards on the size and shape of the proposed ramp and floats should be reviewed *
Members of the Board of Appeals were initially mixed on whether the Planning Board should be directed to review the project under 16 D-4 In addition to Section 15 C-5 of the shoreland zoning ordinance, but ultimately voted to request only that they review the project under the latter.
Stay Tuned...
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2017
Maine bill to ban towns from having pesticide ordinances - committee holds final vote Wednesday.
By Ronald Huber | May 09, 2017
AUGUSTA. LD 1505: “An Act To Create Consistency in the Regulation of Pesticides“ had a worksession by the Maine Legislature's State and Local Government committee on May 7th. Listen to it below.
The bill would both kill all existing town pesticide related ordinances in Maine, and forbid creation of new ones. The state offered an amendment that would still kill the ordinances but would allow towns to apply to the Board of Pesticides Control for approval of new plans. Rockland, Owls Headand Castine have such ordinances, as do 26 other Maine towns
Part 1. Introduction; summary of public hearing comments. 9min 19sec
Part 2, Gary Corbin ME Municipal Assoc 8min 24sec
Part 3. Lebelle Hicks, State Toxicologist 6min 25sec
Part 4. Deven Morrill, chair Board of Pesticides Control 12min 12sec
Part 5. Mary Ann Nahf, Harpswell Conservation Commission. 6min 11sec
Part 6. Discussion and decision to hold another mtg 5/10/17. 3min 51sec
Many in the committee remain opposed to the bill, especially as an infringment on municipal Home Rule which allows towns to pass ordinances that are stronger than certain state laws.
The committee voted to hold another worksession Wednesday before voting on the controversial bill.
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2017
Me legislators held hearing & worksession on bill to revamp state laws on archives & records-keeping. Voted OTP. Listen to hearing.
By Ronald Huber | May 09, 2017
Augusta. Did getting govt records just get easier or harder? On May 8th, Maine's State & Local government committee heard testimony on LD 1567 "An Act To Amend the Archives and Records Management Law" Then they held a short worksession and voted the bill Ought To Pass. Listen to the hearing and worksession here.
Official summary of the changes the bill brings to state and local records management
"This bill makes the following changes to the archives and records management laws:
1. Adds language to specify that it is the policy of the State to ensure that nonpermanent records are preserved for the time required by an approved records retention schedule;
2. Adds language to include the advice from the Archives Advisory Board in the State Archivist's consideration of what constitutes an archival record, to change the definition of state agency or agency to include all government agencies that transmit records to the Maine State Archives and to change the definition of electronic records;
3. Adds language to specify the 2nd organizational unit within the Maine State Archives is records management and adds language to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 5, section 94 that was stricken from Title 5, section 95 regarding powers and duties of the State Archivist;
4. Changes the laws governing the State Archivist to reflect the 2 organizational units of the Maine State Archives: archives services and records management. It adds language to strengthen the records management practices for all state and local government agencies by using 4 criteria in the development of a guiding records retention schedule: administrative use, legal requirements, fiscal and audit requirements and historical and research value;
5. Specifies when local government records may be destroyed;
6. Repeals and replaces the laws governing the Archives Advisory Board to change the expertise required of members, to provide that members are appointed by the Secretary of State and to provide 3-year terms for members; and
7. Removes the requirement that the Maine Historical Records Advisory Board report to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over education and cultural affairs but retains the requirement that the board report to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over state and local government matters, which is the committee of oversight for the Maine State Archives. It also removes a reference to funding a full-time position that was eliminated in Public Law 2015"
End of summary
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2017
Care about Penobscot Bay? Be a Kayaktivist!
By Ronald Huber | Jul 06, 2017
Do you love Maine's biggest bay?
Take part in Friends of Penobscot Bay's Summer Fall 2017 paddling initiatives.
Next bay event coming up Saturday (July 8th) afternoon at the Rockland Breakwater Be there on the water against global warming and in oppo to the Trump gutting of EPA and other nature-protecting agencies. More info look up midcoast maine indivisible on facebook
ONGOING:
* Join our on-the-water presence at shoreside events & demos around Penobscot Bay
* Collect water samples from the bay's plumes and above submerged outfalls.
* Gather sediment samples from suspect bayfloors
* Document the bay's shallow underwater viewshed & habitats with towable videocams
* More!
Interested? Contact us today
Call or text 207-691-4634
Email coastwatch@gmail.com
facebook.com/penobscotbay * twitter.com/penobscotbay
Penobscot Bay needs YOU.
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AUDIO: Rockland cruise ship fees discussed by city council, harbor mgmt commission & interested parties
By Ronald Huber | Oct 03, 2017
Rockland cruise ship fees discussed by city council, harbor mgmt commission & interested parties 10/2/17
Joining the council & harbor commission were representatives of Penobscot Bay & River Pilots, Penobscot Bay Chamber of Commerce & Friends of Penobscot Bay.
Part 1 Intro , Louise M Ruf, David Leon, Matt Ondra 11min
Part 2 Vallee Geiger, Q&A , discussion 7min 2sec
Part 3 Tom Peaco, Ruf & QA 9min 20sec
Part 4, Ed Glaser, Tom Peaco (Penbay Chamber of Commerce), Matt. 10 min
Part 5. Tom Luttrell, discussion of grants 8min 3sec
Part 6 Discussion Bar Harbor & Rockland fees 8min 12 sec
Part 7. Ed Glaser on his amendments, discussion, to end of mtg 4min 30sec
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2018
Yachting Solutions? Or Problems?
By Ronald Huber | Feb 12, 2018
Source: City of RocklandRockland Inner Harbor. Red = additions proposed by Yachting Solutions. Thick red lines = wave & view blockers.
By Ronald Huber
All Rockland is a’roar over Yachting Solutions LLC’s well-intentioned, but overambitious initiative to expand its presence in the city’s inner harbor.
The plan’s gradual unveiling during recent Harbor Management Commission and City Council meetings will culminate at City Council chambers on February 14th at 5:30 pm with public comments and a full bore presentation by Yachting Solution LLC and its consultant Mike Sabatini, followed by a question & answer session. (This schedule according to City Councilor/Mayor Valli Geiger.)
The city council chambers promise to resound with the ire of a cross section of harbor users adamantly opposed to their displacement and to the degradation of the harbor as a whole.
Who benefits? Who loses? Numerous opinions have arisen. These stand out:
State of Maine? Submerged lands lease payments, corporate income taxes.
Federal Government? Taxes on fuel sales (Mega yachts are thirsty beasts!)
City of Rockland? Gains nothing. Loses much
Public? Nope. Let’s count the ways:
1. Reduced access between inner harbor and bay.
2. The public’s scenic vista out to the Fox Islands would be significantly reduced.
3. The annual Parade of Sail would lose its access into the inner harbor via the South Channel, providing spectators with stunning, close-up views of Maine’s fleet.
4. Amount of public fishing bottom historically open in winter, would be reduced, both directly and by the reshuffling of moorings.
5.Rockland’s South Channel would be turned into mooring sites, and closed to the windjammer's Parade of Sail and many small boat users, and ,
6. Inner harbor entry and exit routes would be limited to the federal channel, which would force paddle, sail and power small pleasure craft to thread their way in and out of the inner harbor amongst ferries, Coasties, fishing boats, cruise ships and other commercial vessel traffic.
What does Yachting Solutions get? Revenue from slips, from servicing megayachts and prestige in mega-yacht circles, thanks for federal tax dollars that will pay for 2,200 feet of new dockage at the facility, solely for eligible transient vessels,100-amp and 480V 3-phase power, in-slip fueling, and conversion of the existing gazebo into a private transient boaters’ lounge. YS is doing just fine.
What’s to be done? Number one goal: Ensure that South Channel aka the mooring channel remains open as an officially recognized municipal navigation channel. This is a matter of public safety and public convenience. An historic route must not be closed off. Extinguished. But it well could as plans proceed.
Keeping the South Channel open: Maine state law MRSA 38 §2. Rules for channel lines; enforcement lays it out in one paragraph:
The municipal officers of all maritime towns and plantations, other bodies empowered to regulate municipal harbors and the county commissioners in the case of maritime unorganized townships may make rules and regulations, with suitable provision for enforcement, to keep open convenient channels for the passage of vessels in the harbors and waterways of the towns or townships for which they act, and may establish the boundary lines of those channels and assign suitable portions of their harbors and other coastal and tidal waters within their jurisdiction for anchorages.
Rockland, like all Maine coastal towns, can designate - or un-designate harbor channels that are not part of the federal navigation channels. South Channel is not a federal navigation channel. Hence it opens or closes via decisions made with the consent of the Rockland City Council in consultation with the People
Yachting Solutions can be a good harbor citizen while still enjoying rising revenue by deepsixing at least half of its plan and focusing on the rest. Forget the wave attenuators/megayacht piers and other piers that would reach across the inner harbor, choking South Channel and blocking irreplaceable scenic bay views out to the Fox Islands from the public landing.
Closing the scenic commons would place Rockland be on the wrong side of, among other things, Maine’s scenic laws, which, refined by years of litigation, make such a viewshed degrader as the Yachting Solutions proposal legally untenable, as Samoset learned to its chagrin some years ago. Any wave attenuators should be well out in the harbor and of a scale that benefits all the harbor, not only one privatized corner.
If Yachting Solutions grows within its footprint – and a smidgeon beyond – and supports keeping South Channel open, then doubtless it will earn the respect and trust of many Rocklanders. YS can pursue its growth goals without stamping on the goals of others, including those of us whose goal is simply to take in the bay in its scenic majesty from the shore and on board, whether with family, friends or solo.
A little give and take will go a long way, Yachting Solutions!
- by Ron Huber, Friends of Penobscot Bay
-Reprinted from "The Buzz", Rockland, Maine
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2018
Bipartisan support for Maine Public Bank at May 21, 2018 Midcoast Clean Elections Candidates Forum. Listen to 7minute audio Q&A.
By Ronald Huber | May 26, 2018
Courtesy of: Randall ParrCandidates at the Clean Elections Candidates Forum Thomaston Maine 5/21/18. Emcee O'Brien on right.
Candidates at Clean Elections Forum.
View More...
On May 21 seven Clean Elections candidates for state and federal political office- one Republican, one independent and 5 Democrats, met at Watts Hall in Thomaston, Maine. Andy O'Brien, managing editor of the Free Press emceed the event. Listen to audio excerpt, below
Among the questions raised, Randall Parr of Appleton asked the candidates for their position on the proposed Maine State Bank. Every candidate expressed support for the idea of Maine pursuing such a Public Bank, that would invest in Maine businesses and industrial sectors, rather than Anninvest in those of other states, and even nations.
Randall Parr
Click here to listen to Parr's question and their responses
Q: Randall Parr, Maine Public Banking Coalition
Candidates in order of statements
* Bill Pleuker Warren Appleton Hope Union
* Jeff Evangelos, House Friendship, Waldoboro Former legislator)
* Dave Miramant State Senate (Incumbent)
* Ann Matlack. House St George SouthThom/ Thomaston
* Zak Ringelstein. US Senate
* Vicky Doudera, House Camden
*Abden Simmons, House Waldoboro (Incumbent)
(Randall Parr is a member of Maine Public Banking Coalition, and author of Occupying a new Maine Economy. The coalition has worked with Maine legislators on establishing a Maine Public Bank, including two candidates at the Clean Elections forum Dave Miramant and Jeff Evangelos
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What does Yachting Solutions get? Revenue from slips, from servicing megayachts and prestige in mega-yacht circles, thanks for federal tax dollars that will pay for 2,200 feet of new dockage at the facility, solely for eligible transient vessels,100-amp and 480V 3-phase power, in-slip fueling, and conversion of the existing gazebo into a private transient boaters’ lounge. YS is doing just fine.
What’s to be done? Number one goal: Ensure that South Channel aka the mooring channel remains open as an officially recognized municipal navigation channel. This is a matter of public safety and public convenience. An historic route must not be closed off. Extinguished. But it well could as plans proceed.
Keeping the South Channel open: Maine state law MRSA 38 §2. Rules for channel lines; enforcement lays it out in one paragraph:
The municipal officers of all maritime towns and plantations, other bodies empowered to regulate municipal harbors and the county commissioners in the case of maritime unorganized townships may make rules and regulations, with suitable provision for enforcement, to keep open convenient channels for the passage of vessels in the harbors and waterways of the towns or townships for which they act, and may establish the boundary lines of those channels and assign suitable portions of their harbors and other coastal and tidal waters within their jurisdiction for anchorages.
Rockland, like all Maine coastal towns, can designate - or un-designate harbor channels that are not part of the federal navigation channels. South Channel is not a federal navigation channel. Hence it opens or closes via decisions made with the consent of the Rockland City Council in consultation with the People
Yachting Solutions can be a good harbor citizen while still enjoying rising revenue by deepsixing at least half of its plan and focusing on the rest. Forget the wave attenuators/megayacht piers and other piers that would reach across the inner harbor, choking South Channel and blocking irreplaceable scenic bay views out to the Fox Islands from the public landing.
Closing the scenic commons would place Rockland be on the wrong side of, among other things, Maine’s scenic laws, which, refined by years of litigation, make such a viewshed degrader as the Yachting Solutions proposal legally untenable, as Samoset learned to its chagrin some years ago. Any wave attenuators should be well out in the harbor and of a scale that benefits all the harbor, not only one privatized corner.
If Yachting Solutions grows within its footprint – and a smidgeon beyond – and supports keeping South Channel open, then doubtless it will earn the respect and trust of many Rocklanders. YS can pursue its growth goals without stamping on the goals of others, including those of us whose goal is simply to take in the bay in its scenic majesty from the shore and on board, whether with family, friends or solo.
A little give and take will go a long way, Yachting Solutions!
- by Ron Huber, Friends of Penobscot Bay
-Reprinted from "The Buzz", Rockland, Maine
--------------------------------
2018
Bipartisan support for Maine Public Bank at May 21, 2018 Midcoast Clean Elections Candidates Forum. Listen to 7minute audio Q&A.
By Ronald Huber | May 26, 2018
Courtesy of: Randall ParrCandidates at the Clean Elections Candidates Forum Thomaston Maine 5/21/18. Emcee O'Brien on right.
Candidates at Clean Elections Forum.
View More...
On May 21 seven Clean Elections candidates for state and federal political office- one Republican, one independent and 5 Democrats, met at Watts Hall in Thomaston, Maine. Andy O'Brien, managing editor of the Free Press emceed the event. Listen to audio excerpt, below
Among the questions raised, Randall Parr of Appleton asked the candidates for their position on the proposed Maine State Bank. Every candidate expressed support for the idea of Maine pursuing such a Public Bank, that would invest in Maine businesses and industrial sectors, rather than Anninvest in those of other states, and even nations.
Randall Parr
Click here to listen to Parr's question and their responses
Q: Randall Parr, Maine Public Banking Coalition
Candidates in order of statements
* Bill Pleuker Warren Appleton Hope Union
* Jeff Evangelos, House Friendship, Waldoboro Former legislator)
* Dave Miramant State Senate (Incumbent)
* Ann Matlack. House St George SouthThom/ Thomaston
* Zak Ringelstein. US Senate
* Vicky Doudera, House Camden
*Abden Simmons, House Waldoboro (Incumbent)
(Randall Parr is a member of Maine Public Banking Coalition, and author of Occupying a new Maine Economy. The coalition has worked with Maine legislators on establishing a Maine Public Bank, including two candidates at the Clean Elections forum Dave Miramant and Jeff Evangelos
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