Below, read the interleaved commentary of two of Penobscot Bay's fiercest defenders: Conservation & Environmental Attorney Kim Ervin Tucker's and Paul Bernaki licenced longtime wetlands, uplands and and intertidal and subtidal lands consultant for our area,
Here the two dissect the Army Corps of Engineers June 18,2020 Sediment Analysis Plan for Nordic Aquafarm's application to dredge mercury-tainted sediment from SW Belfast Bay from the intertidal to the gas crater field offshore, and lay bare the various anti-bay efforts that the Mills Administration has made to try to get the company's salmon tankfarm plan rubberstamped into approval. -RH
"Comments
for the record "of the Nordic combined applications before the
Maine DEP. It is also a comment for the record of the USACOE
applications for the Nordic /Cianbro project .
As
some of you know , the SAP (Sediment Analysis Plan) forwarded below produced by The USACOE was
" released " by the office of Council of the USACOE on
friday to the Parties { legal intervention parties, Towns and
NGO } of the BEP/DEP Nordic , multiple application ,
Major Project review to and through Kim Tucker ESQ council for Mabee
/Grace , the Maine Lobstering Union and the Friends of Harriet L
Hartley Conservation Area .
This
"release" , released now to everybody, is
approximately eight days after Ms Ransom received it from The
Project manager handling the USACOE application for Fill , Structure
, Dredging , Sidecasting { deposit into the waters }
{
Funny I am not familiar with the section of the CWA that details the
"temporary" side
casting , re Deposit into the waters of dredge spoils and the time
limit that qualifies or quantifies "temporary " and the
exact method and RIM requirements of the review of such "temporary
" activity . } ,Blasting
, Removing obstacles , filling depressions ,dewatering dredge spoils,
Transport / dewatering from Barges into the waters , speculative Mack
point dewatering facility or the resulting point source Discharge .
etc .
It
seems that according to the USACOE that the unknown persons with
suitable qualifications on staff of the Maine DEP
reviewed the "draft " of this SAP and then again someone
signed off on this draft on Behalf of the Maine DEP . [Included in the recent MGL FOAA Request to DEP , pending]
As
it is clear that this SAP is as of this point a critical and
repeatedly called for and then accepted part of the review by the
Maine DEP/BEP process , The Maine DMR , and the USACOE process
and that the results of this SAP testing are critical to this
review and constitute new evidence ;
I would like
you all to know that the record is now reopened on all of the
prematurely "closed " records of proceedings before each of
the Maine agencies that were and are required by law to review , and
to receive comments from the effected towns , citizens , fisheries
and NGO on such important and potentially destructive
industrial proposals . This is not a question of "if
" but a question of How the BEP, the Attorney Generals Office ,
and the Administration' s of the Maine DEP and DMR will legally
proceed with The Nordic /Cianbro comeuppance resulting in the
resetting of most if not all of the application review
process/ hearings / comment periods on multiple related subject
matter .
{Perhaps
the lack of Notice to the Town of Searsport and
Isleboro should be rectified at this point ?}
The
USACOE "record " is never "closed" until final
action is taken on a Rivers and Harbors Act and the Clean water Act ,
application to dredge /fill/deposit/ structure . The Maine DEP in
order to "review and accept" the SAP Draft , reopened the
record {albeit unknown to the parties } .
Likewise the formal
transmission to Mr Hiem's Agent for the various Maine DEP
applications and the USACOE application , Ms Ransom , constituted the
reopening of the record regarding every thing related to the
Construction , the Benthic effects , the fisheries impacts, erosion
and deposition of released sediments, the effect on structures
in the vicinity of the construction, the effects on the recreational
and commercial users of the Penobscot Bay in regards to all
aspects of water quality, fisheries, Critical Fisheries Habitat , the
Endangered Species act and the sediment and erosion control
measures , as well as all related aspects of review of the pipeline
and its construction and post construction environmental impacts .
The
subject matter of a SAP and its results are critical to many aspects
of the review in regards to NRPA , CWA , and a host of other
federal and Maine agency acceptance of expert and lay
comments and reviews thereof
{.Too
bad the Maine DEP and the Maine office of the USACOE didn't require
this SAP as a result of the TIER one desktop review last year
!.}
Having
a detailed analysis of the saturation , the grain size , the
contained contaminants , the actual stratifications and "suitability
for backfilling " the geotechnical properties of
these sediments along the proposed pipeline installation and the
specific locations and qualities to depth of the sediments
extraction , will create a new set of reviewable data that will
require the engagement of suitable experts . { replacing the
unacceptable " only an estimate of unsuitable materials
and an unknown level of contaminants in that unknown amount of
"unsuitable " dredge spoils , on the abandoned
location ,
We all will {including Ms Tourangoey} be looking at the
actual amounts to be dredged, side cast , re-dredged , dewatered ,
Blasted , " Hoe -Rammed" etc. This process of
review by the DEP/BEP ,DMR and Experts engaged by the towns and other
parties must not be rushed , and especially because of the disruption
to "business as usual " aspect of the national and state
emergency created by the Pandemic still raging across our country ,
and all resulting considerations of actual Due Process to
be regarded .
As
to the actual SAP , although the details of the sampling ,the
called for methods of extraction of samples and the
lab tests appear to be acceptable in regards to the RIM and Green
Book ; { Thanks Steve }
The
exclusion of the "resting on the seafloor" "suspended above the seafloor" intake pipe, 3OOO foot
extension across the Holocene Mud sediments, out to some 55
feet of depth, directly effecting Isloboro and
Northport/Bayside , and on the very edge of the Pockmark
locations and Methane deposits , { as commented on by Steve
Dickson to Maine DEP Land administration, and as shown on the
Brothers Graphic , USGS Staff } , from the test
locations requirements , despite the comments and questionings of the
parties and interested persons, is
unacceptable .
This
exclusion from the SAP Sediment Analysis Plan of this portion of the Cianbro/Nordic
construction involving unspecified , un-quantified , and
un-located sediment dredging and sidecasting , including
heavy barge mounted equipment "grading and filling " ,
minus
an actual to depth geotechnical and chemical contaminant content test
and analysis , is an unacceptable risk to the environment in light of
the already detailed and in the record of the various applications
to state and federal agencies , detailing the effects of scour
, sediment transport and redeposit ,on the surrounding benthic
habitat and the Beaches of Bayside / Northport and Beyond , {as well
as DR Petigrews commit that the current and circulations data are
insufficient for review of TSS transport and mixing/deposit and
contaminant mixing considerations }
Failing
to include this portion of large scale industrial installation
activity and the entire footprint of that activity in
the SAP will only result in further delay of the
resolution of the issues presented by the applicant’s
proposed activity and does not serve any ones interest or the
LAW .
I
am disappointed in the exclusion of these issues and locations in the
SAP in Spite of the expert comments in the record supplied by
myself and others to these records and directly to the US EPA and The
USACOE who have responsibility along with the Maine DEP of the
creation of the SAP before us . As the Drafting process was a secret
and Internal agency process not FOAA or FOIA accessible , found by
SCOTUS to be "chilling" on agency and intra
agency review process ;
We
are left with no recourse other than continue to comment on the
record that Cianbro heavy construction equipment should not be
let loose on the Bay without suitable detailed plans , showing
exact locations and amounts of displacement of marine soils
, geotechnical testing and contaminant testing of all areas of
the industrial construction process for the entire project .
Thank
you all for your attention to these detailed and lengthy
considerations of the newly “released”
SAP , I look forward to the next several years of thrashing this
through with you all .
Paul
Bernacki , Homeplace Team coordinator
