Penobscot Bay Blog: October 2020

Oct 24, 2020

Oct 23, 2020

Seafood & the US Election. Listen to 10/21/20 webinar on ocean windmills

On October 22, 2020, Undercurrent News senior reporter Jason Huffman hosted a webinar entitled Seafood and the American Election 2020 Below are three segments from the 1hr 45min webinar . More to come Full meeting video on youtube)

Excerpts

Sebastian Belle of Maine Aquaculture Assn on US politics of ocean aquaculture 16min 50sec

Leigh Habegger of Seafood Harvesters of America on Trump v Biden on marine national monuments 6min13sec

Saving Seafood group's Bob Vanasse on Ocean windpower impact on fisheries including scallop larvae 6min15sec

Oct 17, 2020

Nordic AQ Oct 14th Belfast Planning Board discusses outfalls, nitrogen

On October 14th Belfast's Planning Board got briefings from its environmental consultant, Mandy Oliver, on the proposed Nordic Aqua Farms land based salmon farm's pipeline and outfalls 9min30sec and the amount of nitrogen coming out. 13min 48sec Have a listen (mp3s)

The board asked what treatments the treated habitat water and slaughter-water would get before they reach the outfall pipe? Where will effluent plumes discharging from the outfall go? Where will the filtered out solids go? What if over-nitrification of the water causes algae blooms?

The state's bad idea is to wait until the project is built and operating for a year before using dye tests to figuring out if there will be too much waste in the wrong places in Penobscot Bay.

But if the answer turns out to be yes, then what? If cutting production makes it unprofitable, won't the fish company close down? Or will Nordic merely have to pay a Wergild for the injury to the bay, and go on polluting?

Stay Tuned.

Oct 14, 2020

Nordic's new intertidal gambit: Hartley v Hartley?

Six brief legal notices of land transactions between Belfast property owners and Nordic Aquafarms appeared the other day in the Belfast Republican Journal. PDFs of each, below.

Nordic is apparently attempting to show a new interpretation of Harriet Hartley's property transactions involving the shore and intertidal lands of the northern half of the Little River delta.

David Nelson Woods to Nordic Aquafarms Inc.

Marcia L. Woods to Nordic Aquafarms Inc.

Robert L. Burger II to Nordic Aquafarms Inc.

Thomas A. Burger to Nordic Aquafarms Inc.

Robert L. Burger to Nordic Aquafarms Inc.

Karen L. Stockunas, Sandra L. Bell, David Wesley Bell, Constance Daily and Barbara Bell to Nordic Aquafarms Inc

Crossroads landfill "expansion"? 3 critics call it a new landfill and a bad idea.

Below read comments on Waste Management Disposal Services of Maine’s application for Landfill Expansion, Crossroads Landfill, Norridgewock, Maine (Somerset County), #S-010735-WD-YB-N

Area outlined in map is proposed expansion area. Existing landfill is below and to left of expansion site

Hillary Lister of Don't Waste ME comments on Crossroads Landfill expansion plan

Sean Mahoney Conservation Law Foundation Comments on Crossroads Landfill expansion plan.

Kat Taylor comments on Crossroads landfill expansion plan

Oct 13, 2020

Maine's off-Monhegan prototype ocean wind project drops from two floaters to one.

Listen to the August 18, 2020 zoom presentation & QA concerning the latest iteration of Maine's floating offshore wind turbine project.

33 minute presentation and q&a (mp3) AND Lincoln County News story 8/25/20.

EXCERPTS FROM ARTICLE BY LCN's Evan Houk

"New England Aqua Ventus LLC,
a joint venture between Diamond Offshore Wind, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp., and German RWE Renewables, the second-largest company in offshore wind globally, has replaced the previous company behind the project, Maine Aqua Ventus 1 GP LLC, according to Jake Ward, vice president for innovation and economic development at the University of Maine."

"Wissemann was joined in the Zoom call by two colleagues at Diamond Offshore Wind, David Deutsch and Duncan McEachern, as well as a consultant recently hired by the company, Genevieve McDonald."

"$100 million in funding for the project, dubbed New England Aqua Ventus I."

"New England Aqua Ventus LLC will lead construction, deployment, and operations for the single 10- to 12-megawatt wind turbine..."

"The university’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center will handle design, engineering, and research and development for the project, and will monitor it once it is operating."

"Chris Wissemann, CEO of Diamond Offshore Wind, spoke for the joint venture and said he hopes to identify a landing site where the underwater cable from the wind turbine can tie into the power grid by the end of 2020:.

"The route of the cable and where it will make land, both points of contention in mainland communities since the initiation of the project several years ago, are not yet clear."

"Wissemann said a central concern is researching the impact that the turbine will have on the ecosystem of the area, particularly on fishermen."

"We think it would be prudent to build only on research that demonstrates how people can operate around these things — how right whales can operate around these things, how fisherman can fish,” Wissemann said."

"New England Aqua Ventus LLC hopes to begin submitting permit applications early next year and start building the foundation in 2022, said Wissemann."

END OF EXCERPTS

Oct 2, 2020

Penobscot Bay Dredging History 1988 -2007

Dredging articles and audio about Searsport, Belfast, Rockland and Brewer proposals 1988 - 2007

1988 Sears Island Dredge
BDN Dredging in Sears Island Channel causes major losses for many Maine Lobstermen

2000 Mack Pt Dredge
BDN: Mack Pt dredging to be reduced June 21, 2000

2002 Baywide Dredge
Working Waterfront: Dredge committee wraps it up[on Mack Point & Rockland Disposal Site]

2002 Belfast Harbor Dredge
BDN: Belfast Harbor Set For Dredging

2003 Belfast Harbor Dredge
BDN: Belfast dredging nears completion

2007 Lower Penobscot River Dredge (audio)
DMR's Brian Swan opens meeting on dredge plan for Penobscot River site in Brewer (mp3) 9/1107

Maine Dredge Team meets October 6, 2020. Plus: what was decided at 3/3/20 mtg

On October 6, 2020, from 10am to noon, Maine Dredge Team will meet virtually using the Microsoft Teams technology. AGENDA Click here for info on joining the meeting.

At dredge team meetings, navigation projects large and small that involve excavating out an area of our bay floors, GOM-floor or river floors - and moving the "spoils" to another location - come under discussion by municipal, state and federal officials with dredging part or all of their mandates. Along and with environmentalists and others joining in as the interested public, presenting as well.

The dredge team also reviews proposed or ongoing ecological restoration projects - often more of them than navigation projects. As the minutes of the March 3, 2020 meeting and the October 4, 2019 bear witness to .

At the March 13 meeting, ACOE 's Mark Habel said there were no large scale dredging projects underway in Maine. He then gave updates on the status of small-scale navigation improvement projects presently under consideration in Blue Hill Harbor, Great Chebeague Island. Surry and Brooksville

Non-navigation projects considered at the March 13, 2020 meeting included Pleasant Point (shore protection riprap), Cherryfield Dam on the Narraguagus River (modelling fish passage options), Stratton Island (Proposed shorebird habitat enhancement,) Meduxnekeag River (investigating fish passage& habitat improvement); Pleasant River (culvert replacement and marsh restoration); New Meadows River (improving water quality and enhancing inter-tidal and salt marsh) and Royal River marsh remediation project and fish passage options at the dam and falls on the lower river.

SUMMARIES & AGENDAS & AUDIO OF EARLIER MAINE DREDGE MEETINGS

2019 10/4/19 meeting summary

2018 10/1/2018)_Maine Dredge Team

2016 October 11, 2016 meeting summary March 7, 2016 (meeting audio)

2000 NYT 8/6/2000 Lobstermen Protest Dumping of Dredge By Paul Molyneaux