Ron Huber activism History in maine

 Subject: Ron Biographica 

A draft timeline  of the  biographic info of Ron Huber in Maine

Since 1993 Ron Huber has been carrying out water quality and natural resource oversight of Penobscot Bay and the adjacent central Gulf of Maine, intervening as stakeholder in matters coming up before agencies and municipalities that could affect the living marine resources of these combined water bodies, since 1993. These actions have included investigation, advocacy, litigation and public education.

Success Stories

Under the rubric of, first, Coastal Waters Project, then Penobscot Bay Watch and presently Friends of Penobscot Bay, Huber has played important roles in

* Pressuring the Department of Defense into testing the shore adjacent to their closed down Defense Fuels Supply Point Searsport before DEP's decision  on approving relicensing. 1993-1994 BDN article

* http://www.penbay.org/searsisland/si_cargoport.html in Searsport, that would have required destruction of one of the upper Penobscot Bay's most important nursery shoals and eelgrass areas. 1993-1996

* Stopping expansion of development on Ducktrap Mountain by the MBNA credit card company of expanding  guest cottage encroachment into an important deery wintering yeard 1996 – 200

0 https://penbay.org/pbarchive/mbna/mbna_deeryard_bdn_dec03_1999.jpg

* Preventing development of a salmon farm in Penobscot Bay off Deer Isle. 2001-2003

* Preventing development of a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) port on Sears Island in Searsport 2002-2004

* Pressuring Dragon Products to cap its eroding Cement Kiln Dust piles in Thomaston. 2004- 2005

* Preventing development of a marina in lobstering grounds alongside the Rockland Breakwater that would also have severely degraded an important scenic viewshed. 2000-2006

* Preventing development of a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) tank and terminal on Mack Point in Searsport 2011 - 2013.

* Forcing remediation of New England's worst coastal acidification site- GAC Chemical's southwest Stockton Harbor shore. The company has agreed to remove sulfuric acid laden wastes from a shoreline dump site adjacent to an abandoned sulfuric acid manufacturing plant - sulfuric acid wastes to be excavated from leaking from wastes dumped along the shore of Stockton Harbor. 1995 to 2015.

Litigation

• Huber filed pro se litigatiom against the Maine Department of Environmental Protection concerning a state approved plan to divide natural Sears Island into a protected area and a "marine transportation zone". Suit denied as premature.

* Huber et al filed pro se litigation against the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands over its selection of waters off scenic Monhegan Island for the state's offshore wind test center. http://www.penbay.org/monhegan/court/monh_litigation.html

Education & Outreach

* Huber has transcribed and uploaded a portal of 19^th and earlty 20^th century fisheries science reports

* Huber has hosted a weekly radio show "Penobscot Bay Report & Gulf of Maine Monitor" at WRFR lpfm Community Radio in Rockland Maine from 2003 to the present.

* Huber has hosted a monthly public meeting on Penobscot Bay issues at the Belfast Library and/or Stella Maris House in Rockland from January 2013 to the present.

* Huber has run the Penobscot Bay webportal www.penbay.org since 2000. Huber has written and posted 100s of press releases informing the citizenry of Penobscot Bay related issues since 1995.

* Op-Ed on scallop dredging http://web.archive.org/web/20000229212338/http://www.efmedia.org/scallop.html

Documenting

Makig information about the bay available via the internet

Huber has recorded and posted documentary audio of many Penobscot Bay-related events: He has also transcribed many government documents into searchable text

Example: http://penbay.org/dcp/dcp_mdep_docs_2010_11.html *** http://penobscotbay.blogspot.com/2015/01/searsport-planning-boards-121615.html **

* http://www.penbay.org/monhegan/audio/021610/monhegan_dcwtalk_021610.html * http://penbay.org/dcp/dcp_hearings_nov_2012.html

FOIAs and FOAAs

Huber has filed Freedom of Information Act and Freedom of Access Act requests with Maine DEP, Maine Dept of Conservation, Maine Governors Angus King and John Baldacci, US Army Corps of Engineers, and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. and made the results available on the web to the public and stakeholders - sometimes to great effect.

Examples http://www.penbay.org/searsisland/si_cargoport.html http://penbay.org/wind/ocean/boemre/foia_boemre_2010/ http://penbay.org/searsisland/si_foa_foia.html

Also involved with oversight of the 2003-2004 Maine Aquaculture Task Force which issued its Report and Recommendations. January 30, 2004

From Pg 129 of that report

“Public Participation.

"Ron Huber, Pen Bay Watch – public trust issue – add aquaculture into the list of those moorings that towns license. Shoreline zoning. Support Josie’s proposal on bay management. Supports Dave Schmanska’s proposal. Look at other aquaculture niche items. Look to DEP expertise on scenic impacts. Careful looking at economic data. Complemented Scott Tilton on aquaculture operation."

* Maine Ocean acidification at legislature. http://penobscotbay.blogspot.com/2015/04/maine-ocean-acidification-bill-state.html

* Effort to establish a Hague Line marine protected area 1998-2000. http://www.gulfofmaine.org/times/summer99/hague_line.html

• Stakeholder in Sears Island port plan state & fed review 1995-1996 http://www.penbay.org/searsisland/sislandseiscmt995.html

• * Maine atlantic Salmon listing process Politicians scramble to sell out eastern Maine's wild salmon rivers to absentee corporations.

* MDEP Oil Terminal Rules Task Force

* Mock Oil spill training events in Eastport, Portland and Searsport