Maine Guide to Federal Consistency Review October 2020
THE STATE/ FEDERAL CONSISTENCY PROCESS
APPENDIX A CORE LAWS OF THE MAINE COASTAL PROGRAM This details which parts of each of these laws applies to coastal permit reviews
APPENDIX B LIST OF COMMUNITIES IN MAINE COASTAL ZONE
Full 30 PAGES
Check out below the just released proposed consent agreement and supporting documents responding to the December 2, 2020 spill of bales of (plastic) solid recovered fuel by Sprague personnel operating the crane on the M/V Sider London. Then let DEP know what you think 
"Once the public comment period has ended, the Department will respond to all relevant comments and include those responses in the information provided to the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) 2 weeks prior to the meeting where this action will be heard.
"The BEP meeting provides another opportunity for public comment.
"After deliberation the Board will vote to approve the agreement or direct staff to amend the document and renegotiate with Sprague.
"You will note that this agreement does not require further remediation of the spilled plastic, after much deliberation, the Department concluded that additional cleanup actions would do more harm than good.
"You will also note that Sprague did not propose a supplemental environmental project, this is always an option for the violator but Sprague chose not to pursue that option as it may have significantly delayed settling this matter.
"If you have comments, please do not hesitate to send them to me."
Pamela Parker
Water Enforcement and Boat Pumpout Program
Division of Water Quality Management
Maine Department of Environmental Protection
(cell) 207-485-3038
Upstream Watch 80-C Superior Court appeal 12/16/20 28 pages.
From the December 16, 2020 edition of The Guardian, UK
''We're getting Europe's waste?' US hit by plastic debris lost from UK ship
Environmentalists question why waste washing up on Maine coast was being imported from Northern Ireland for energy production
Brightly coloured plastic debris from the UK has been washing up along the coast of Maine in the US after a shipment bound for incineration fell into the sea.
The plastic debris, part of a 10,000-tonne consignment from Re-Gen Waste, a company based in Newry, Northern Ireland, has infuriated environmentalists and locals surprised to learn that the north-eastern state of Maine is importing plastic from almost 3,000 miles away.
Volunteers struggling to clear the waste from the shoreline of Sears Island, alongside a company employed to tackle it, fear they are fighting a losing battle as more plastic washes up with every tide.
Politicians and environmentalists say the US, which is the world’s biggest producer of plastic waste, should not be importing more plastic. They are concerned about the potential effects on wildlife in Penobscot Bay, home to one of Maine’s first commercial lobster fisheries.
“This event was an unfortunate and preventable accident and speaks to a larger issue, that is, how we process trash,” Genevieve McDonald, a Democratic representative in the Maine legislature, said.
“We should not be in a position where any facility needs to import trash. This came as a surprise to me because I know how much plastic we create in the US.”
McDonald, who is a commercial lobster boat captain and sits on Maine’s marine resource committee, said she was also concerned about the effect of the waste on the area’s wildlife, as well as on the lobster fishery, “a cornerstone of our marine economy here in Maine”.
In a statement, Re-Gen Waste said it was “distressed” to learn of the “unacceptable and entirely preventable” incident. The bales of what it called “waste to energy fuel”, which is diverted from landfill, were being transferred from the MV Sider London cargo ship to Mack Port in Searsport during a storm on 2 December.
During the transfer, by Sprague Energy terminal, two bales fell into Penobscot Bay. One of the bales could not be retrieved, it said, and high winds blew the plastic on to the north-west side of Sears Island. The rest of the consignment was transferred to Penobscot Energy Recovery Company (Perc) in the town of Orrington, to be used to generate electricity.
The Re-Gen Waste statement said: “We have been active in the interim, working closely with Searsport’s town manager, Sprague Energy terminal and Penobscot Energy Recovery Co, to ensure that every measure possible is employed, to redress the situation.
“A crew from Clean Harbors in Hampden was deployed to clean up the plastic that accumulated on the north-west corner of Sears Island, and students from the Maine Ocean School were mobilised to do a further sweep of the shoreline last Friday.
Re-Gen Waste said it had shipped between 80,000 and 100,000 tonnes of waste into Europe and across the world and this was the first time an “offloading incident” had been reported by a port. The Guardian contacted Sprague Energy and Perc for comment but neither has yet responded.
Ron Huber, a conservationist and executive director of Friends of Penobscot Bay, said he had already been concerned about waste from New York and other parts of New England coming to Maine. “Now we’re getting Europe’s waste as well? This is a real disincentive to reduce waste: ‘Oh we’ll just take your waste and burn it.’”
He said the area was important for wildlife, including moose and deer, and that the bay was host to fish nurseries.
“So many citizens are out there picking up the waste. But the whole thing is a comedy of errors. It shouldn’t have been a week before the agencies responded. They should have nets to make sure waste bales don’t fall into the sea.”
Jim Valette, an anti-waste campaigner who runs Material Research, a “low-profit” company, said the consignment was the biggest export to the US he had seen: “It’s usually going the other way. It’s outrageous it has come to us to clean up Europe’s mess.”
On average, 1,300 containers are lost at sea every year, according to the World Shipping Council.
From 1 January, controls on transboundary waste will be tightened under the Basel convention, a treaty covering waste shipments between nearly 190 governments, including the UK. The US has signed but not ratified the convention, but the regulations are expected to affect how it trades in plastic waste.
As printed in the Bangor Daily News 11/22/2020
Landfill and leachateOn November 3, 2020, Maine Board of Environmental Protection released its amended final draft of its MEPDES Pollution Permit and its Waste Discharge License. Here is the 5 page draft approval decision followed by 15 Special Conditions that the company must meet.
DRAFT Final BEP Order of Approval 5pgs
DRAFT Order's Special Conditions A thru O.
* A. Effluent Limitations & Monitoring Requirements 2pgs .
* B. Narrative Effluent Limitations C: Authorized Discharges, D: Notification Required 1pg
* E. Monitoring / Reporting. F: Dye Study 1pg
* G: Ambient Water Quality Monitoring; H Operation & Maintenance Plan 4pgs
* I: Disease Control & J: Spills 3pgs
* K: Protection of Atlantic Salmon 3pgs
* L: Fish Feed; M: Reduced Waived Testing; N: Commencement of Operations 1pg
* O: Reopening Of Permit For Modification; P: Severability 2pg
END SPECIAL CONDITIONS
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 50secSaving Seafood group's Bob Vanasse on Ocean windpower impact on fisheries including scallop larvae 6min15sec
"Wissemann said a central concern is researching the impact that the turbine will have on the ecosystem of the area, particularly on fishermen."
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
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
