Maine Legis' Environment and Natural Resources Comm gives ONTP to Pen Bay dredge sampling reform bill

LD 1287 An Act To Protect the Penobscot River and Penobscot Bay from Mercury Contamination  had its hearing  before the  state Legislature's Environment and Natural Resources  Committee on April 11th and its worksession April 17, 2019.
Listen to the 21minute  worksession

While supporters left the public hearing feeling they'd gotten some traction, six days later  the committee spent 21 minutes considering  LD 1287 and the testimony they'd received, and  a DEP official give a clarification before voting unanimously Ought Not To Pass, effectively killing the bill.  

A last minute flurry when a late arriving letter from the Penobscot Nation was read  silently by  the  Environment and Natural Resources  Committee chair, just before the ONTP vote.  The letter wasn't described audibly, but will shortly show up on the committee website

Read testimony submitted concerning LD 1287 An Act To Protect the Penobscot River and Penobscot Bay from Mercury Contamination.   Click on names for pdf files.

Bennett, Nick Natural Resources Council of Maine (55 KB)

Bergeron, Mark	Department of Environmental Protection	(112 KB)
Brophy, Sally	Belfast	(32 KB)
Capwell, Deborah	Belfast	(41 KB)
Charles, Natalie	Belfast	(23 KB)
Cooney, Amanda	Resident	(32 KB)
Cotter, Edward	Nordic Aquafarms	(70 KB)
Davis, Dan	Porter	(79 KB)
Dodge, Janice	Maine State Legislature	(87 KB)
Gideonse, Hendrick	Brooklin	(58 KB)
Gillies, Archibald	Town of Islesboro	(79 KB)
Gillway, James	Searsport	(72 KB)
Hatch, Conny	Belfast	(30 KB)
Kittredge, Thomas	Belfast City Council	(129 KB)
McCarron, Patrice	Maine Lobstermen's Association	(76 KB)
Miller, Stephen	Islesboro Islands Trust	(159 KB)
Morrison, Kaitlin	Natural Resources Defense Council	(51 KB)
Olsen, Virginia	Maine Lobstering Union	(73 KB)
Schlueter, Erica	Belfast	(48 KB)
Shagas, Kathryn	Belfast	(48 KB)
Shankle, Patsy	Surry	(32 KB)
Tucker, Kim	Lincolnville	(1031 KB)
Walton, Tim	Cianbro	(58 KB)

Will development of the Bicknell Property violate its environmental covenants.

Site in 1945: coal gasification plant, Rockland .

The city of Rockland proposes changing the zoning of an acre of vacant land adjacent to Lermond Cove that has at least two known partially cleaned up toxic industrial waste sites with strict covenents on them. These severely limit their further redevelopment.

Each has been treated but the result was a perpetual set of conditions severely restricting use of the land, detailed in with a legally binding Environmental Covenant signed in 2008, (dubbed the Protected Parcel. Chief among the agreements:

"No excavation, digging, exploration, drilling or other subsurface disturbance of soil shall be conducted on or beneath the Protected Parcel in excess of 24 inches."

Below those 24 inches, residues remain of the coal tar and other carbon wastes from the now vanished coal gasometer that occupied that site, and lit city lights, and city stoves and ovbens "cleanup in place" has been done with wastes capped onsite, so that light construction can take place

Environmental Covenant  Sections 1 through 8. Signed 12/15/08

1. The Protected Parcel shall only be used for commercial and industrial purposes in accordance with the City of Rockland Zoning and Planning Ordinance (Chapter 19)

2. The installation of wells  for the purpose of water usage (i.e domestic, irrigation) on the Protected Parcel is prohibited

3. No excavation, digging, exploration, drilling or other subsurface disturbance of soil shall be conducted on or beneath the Protected Parcel in excess of 24 inches.

4. The riprap slope contained within the property limits adjacent to Lermond Cove shall be maintained against erosion that would cause degradation of the final cover system.

5. The manufactured gas plant MGP)-related material shall be addressed as presented in Exhibit B-2

6. The Declarant and all future owners and land users shall provide, upon reasonable advance notice, without cost, access to the Protected Parcel  to the DEP, including its authorized  employers, agent, representatives and independent contractors, upon presentation of credentials, for purposes of monitoring and enforcing this Declaration.

7.The terms and conditions herein may not be terminated, altered or modified except by a written instrument duly executed by the Declarant or its successor in interest in the Protected Parcel and approved by DEP, or its successor in legal function, in writing, which instrument is duly recorded in the Knox County register of Deeds.

8. This  Declaration and each and every covenant herein shall be a covenant running with the land in perpetuity and shall bind the Protected Parcel, the Declarant, its successors and assigns and all those acting by, through or under any of them, forever.