To be renewed, LPA licenses must continue to meet
the provisions of DMR Rule 2.90 and 12 M.R.S.A. §6072-C.
DMR Rule 2.90: https://www.maine.gov/dmr/
§6072-C:https://legislature.
A DOUBLE ISSUE. Maine's Limited Purpose Aquaculture 'Licenses' are expanding
Left image show LPA licensed sites as of October 2023. Right=outfalls( blue/white & red/white, wastewater plants, orange & black) landfills & other remediation sites (color circles w/centerdots.
(Not shown: oil and gas spills, as they would cover the map. Also not shown: standard aquaculture leases)
AT ISSUE DMR does not require toxics testing of the animals and algae typically grown in LPA cages or trays: oysters, mussels, nori, sugar kelp, other algae. Yet they are well known, well understood heavy metals bioaccumulators. DMR's biosecurity is focused on biological threats - bacterial and viral- and does it well. Chemical threats? Not so much.
Yet as the attached pair of images show, Penobscot Bay has well documented pollution hotspots associated with the mid19th to late 20th century era. Industry grew here, supplied by first sail, then steam then petroleum power . Departing companies left their industrial wastes behind, Demolished old factories were dumped into spent quarries or directly onto the shore to enlarge upland rea;l estate. covered with fill dirt. and and abandoned Remediation may have been state of the art at the time, (1940s-1980s) but time is one thing the remediation has not withstood.
PROPOSAL As DMR is being timid about metals testing, your BayCare project would purchase samples directly from each of the LPA aquaculture operations in the bay - they sell from home - and test them for the 4 heavy metals of Penobscot Bay waters concern: methylmercury, cadmium, lead & arsenic. Funding may be available for PFAS testing too though at present the state is still sorting out testing regimes for that set of chemicals
RESULTS. A scientifically credible snapshot of the heavy metals loading of the seaweed and shellfish species being raised and sold in Penobscot Bay - location by location. This allows hotspots to be detected and LPAs to be diverted from such locations. .
Suggestion: Contract with Maine Environmental Laboratory for bay wide* coordinated contaminants testing of sediments and aquacultured biota. MEL is among the certified testing labs of Main. Employee owned . I've used them a number of times, mostly to follow up on earlier waste spill reports from several chronic leaker locations from earlier decades GAC Chemical and the former papermill turned landbased aquaculture applicant. Here are two I will get into why doing it baywide is important
Here are two MEL reports I commissioned
A 2016 MEL report on GAC chemical waste sites
A 2019 MEL report on mercury in Bucksport sediment immediately below proposed Whole Oceans site
* Note: "Bay-wide" means at least one set of sediment and/or biota tests in waters/intertidal of every bay town)
