The violent storms of our recent Maine winters both flooded and destroyed many coastal structures vital to businesses and communities above those shores.These have triggered state and federal responses. to repair bridges, docks, bait and lobster sheds and more
But lacking from the categories of storm-vulnerable coastal sites needing attention are Maine's coastal shoreland legacy waste dumps. Then we'll look at one well documented coastal legacy waste site that these recent storms have significantly damaged.South western Stockton Harbor
We'll also look at the failure by state and federal agencies to require action to stabilize and remove to upland these shoreline waste deposits now being exposed as powerful storms erode poorly maintained industrial shore of Stockton Harbor, first embayment at the mouth of Penobscot River.
These are where the buried waste byproducts of numerous 19th and 20th century coastal industrialoperatoins feedstock chemical including phosphate fertilizer production , along with demolition debris from outdated factories onsite were actually used to expand and heighten indjustirally useable shore land over existing beaches Those aging filled shores that have not received regular maintenance and were not part of local sealevel rise planning priorities have not weasthered well .
These are Maine DEP's staff from field investigators to bureau chiefs involved in the Dec 2023-Jan 2024 response to a BayWatch report of a failing industrial filled industrial shoreline, harmed by powerful midwinter storms and storm surges in these agency emails extracted fro a much larger, but from two FOAAs filed 12/2723 and 01/09/24 with Maine DEP
Karen Knuuti. Env specialist Remediation &Waste Mgmt karen.knuuti@maine.gov 941-4561
Susanne Miller, director, DEP Waste Bureau 557-2700 susanne.miller@maine.gov
Nicholas J. Hodgkins, Director, Division of Remediation
(207) 592-0882 nick.hodgkins@maine.gov
Bob Shannon Remediation, Eastern Maine Regional Office Robert.F.Shannon@maine.gov
Chris Redmond, Voluntary Remediation Reporting: (VRAP) Chris Redmond 215-8597
David Chapman. Oil & HAZMAT Spec David.Chapman@maine.gov 287-7688 (DEP main #)
"[O]ver 14 years of experience in environmental investigation and remediation."
Christopher Hopper, Director, Response Services, Central ME Reg Office 816-0133 Christopher.Hopper@maine.gov
John Bucci, Inspector, Remediation & Waste Management John.A.Bucci@maine.gov 557-1194
Carla Hopkins Chemical Contaminated Soil Cleanup. Carla.J.Hopkins@maine.gov 446-4366
David Madore MDEP Deputy Commissioner 207-287-5842 David.Madore@maine.gov
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