Penobscot Bay History September 1 1994: A plume is a plume is a ...BLOOM?

Conservation pilot Rudy Engholm took this photo of a plume emanating from Delta Chemical  September 1, 1994, while on a routine mission. When the photo and a report was  forwarded to Maine DEP, the agency inquired of the company.  Based on Delta Chemical's response. DEP concluded the plume was from  the "drainage of 2 old facility ponds (marsh sheens/algae)." See below

Bureau of Remediation and 

Waste Management

Spill Report Info. Source: HOSS Hazardous & Oil Spill System

Spill Number: B-567-1994
Report Status: Final Report
MCD Town: SEARSPORT

Primary Responder: ROBERT RANDALL

Subject/Owner: DELTA CHEMICALS, INC. 

I. EVENT

SPILL INFO
Type: Non-Oil, Non-Hazardous Incident
Source:  Cause: Discharge - Deliberate/Other
Spill Date/Time: 09/21/1994

Reporter Type/Detection Method Citizen Complaint
Reported Date/Time: 09/22/1994

Subject/Spiller
DELTA CHEMICALS, INC.
KIDDER POINT ROAD
SEARSPORT ME 04974

Primary Responder and Other Employees
Contact(s): ROBERT RANDALL (Primary Responder)
Comment: No Further Response Action Expected

II. SITE
Location Type: Business - Industrial {ID}
Name: DELTA CHEMICALS, INC.
Street Address: KIDDER POINT ROAD
MCD Town: SEARSPORT
Spill Point: UTM North 4923482.00  UTM East 509722.00
Wells and Media Affected : 0 
Media Affected: Land {L}
Tanks Involved: NONE

III. CLEANUP
Product Reported: Unspecified Oil {80}
Products Found/Amount Spilled: Algae Blooms/Plant Pollen Sheens {52} - 0.00
Material Recovered: NONE
Recovery/Treatment Method: NONE
Cleanup DTREE:
Disposal Information: Drainage of 2 old facility ponds (marsh sheens/algae).

IV. NARRATIVE   
V.ATTACHMENTS 

Two NGOs petition for BEP review of Nordic Aquafarms, interested party status, public hearing.

Below read  petitions by two  organizations sent Maine Department of Environmental Protection in late November. The Maine Lobstering Union and Upsteam Watch asked to be recognized as interested parties regarding the Nordic Aquafarms application to build a salmon tankfarm in Belfast and discharge effluent into Belfast Bay.  They also requested that Maine Board of Environmental Protection take over review of the project and that a public hearing be held.

MLU Petition to Intervene 11/26/18

MLU Request for public hearing on Nordic application 11/26/128

Upstream Watch petition for Maine Board of Environmental Protection to assume Jurisdiction over NAF application 11/26/18

Upstream Watch Request for Public Hearing 11/26/18

Upstream Watch Petition for Interested Party Status 11/26/18

six

Maine site law. Big changes proposed by outgoing DEP Commissioner.

Bay friends, these changes could have huge repercussions.. Millions of (wild) lives at stake.

Dumping dredge spoils. Creating a plume.

WHAT:  Maine DEP is revising several parts of its Site Location of Development  Act.(link to background, law and more) 
This is the law that requires a look not only at the direct impact of a development project on its immediate eco-footprint, but also: (1) the indirect impacts the development could have on nearby or connnected environments & ecosystems,  and  (2) the cumulative impact it would have when added to already existing developments. 

Changes to the rules implementing this important law need close examination!

DEP proposes changes to Chapters 373, 375 & 380 rules

Commissioner Aho: See no evil.

Existing wording  Chapter 373  ** Chapter 375 ** Chapter 380  (pdf)
Proposed Changes
Ch 373 Financial Capacity and Technical Ability.8pg   Almost complete replacement
Ch 375  No adverse effect on the natural environment  39pgs Replaces sec 16,17,18 
Ch 380: Long term construction projects 5pgs Completely replaces "Planning Permit"
All three chapters in one pdf

MDEP factsheet on the proposed changes (pdf)

FOPB Prelim Observations
Chapter 373   
Every reference to "Board of Environmental Protection" is removed.
Every mention of "pollution" is removed except once: "pollution abatement" is mentioned 

Chap 375   Replaces most of the solid waste, odor and water supply sections of the chapter
16.  Adequate Provision for Solid Waste Disposal  
17.  Adequate Provisions for the Control of Odors
18.  Adequate Provision for Securing and Maintaining Sufficient and Healthful Water Supplies

Chap 380 replaces Planning Permit" wording with  "Long term construction projects" 

Lobsterman speaks to Board of Environmental Protection  earlier this year

BACKSTORY In 1970, the federal government enacted the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which required federal agencies to evaluate the environmental effects of  federal undertakings and permitting. Many states followed suit with so-called ‘‘mini NEPA’’ laws, requiring evaluation of the environmental impacts of state and local actions. Maine's Site Location of Development Act  is the state's mini-NEPA law.

PLEASE READ AND RESPOND.

Maine DEP proposes going paperless with applications appeals and petitions Pub hearing May 21st Augusta.

Going digital?  DEP holds public hearing May 21, 2015, Augusta Civic Center on whether or not to "eliminate the requirement to submit an original paper document within five working days of an electronic submission." 

This would be a change to DEP's  Chapter 2 Rules Concerning the processing of Applications and Other Administrative Matters 


The great Libraries of the past are for most part, no more. The insights, observation and wisdom  of ages, stored on cellulose & parchment  are long since gone up in flame, accidental or intentional.  

Maine DEP proposes to reduce  the amount of such potential tinder in its offices.  
Here's the detailed fact sheet and the draft rule with the proposed changes marked in .  If you take part in reviewing agency decisions on behalf of Nature of the People, you should take a look at these two documents and act accordingly
 Fact Sheet (PDF) :: Draft Rule (PDF)

Concise Summary:

The proposed amendments to Chapter 2 will facilitate the electronic submission of applications, appeals and petitions, and eliminate the requirement to submit an original paper document within five working days of an electronic submission.

New

Since initially posting this rule to public comment, the Department has identified additional changes to Chapter 2 that will help to ensure the protection of human health and the environment. 

The Department is now proposing to clarify the transfer of ownership provisions in this rule to allow for a more complete assessment of both the financial and technical capacity of a prospective licensee, before any license for a hazardous waste facility, solid waste disposal facility, waste oil facility, and biomedical waste facility license is transferred.

Public Hearing

Since the Department received at least five requests that a public hearing be held on this proposal, pursuant to 5 M.R.S.A. §8052(1), the Department is scheduling a public hearing to be held on May 21, 2015.

Agency contact:
Jeff Crawford
17 State House Station
Augusta, Maine 04333
207-287-7647

Public hearing: May 21, 2015
Augusta Civic Center
Augusta, Maine 04330

Public noticed: February 19, 2015

Comment deadline: June 1, 2015

Searsport Hbr Dredge Meeting Belfast 4/8/14. AUDIO ONLINE

Complete audio recordings from April 8, 2014 Public Information & Water Quality Certification meeting, Hutchinson Ctr, Belfast, Maine.Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) and state officials gave presentations and got grilled by the audience.  (36 speakers )

1. Introduction by Army Corps public relations mgr Larry Rosenberg 38 sec

2. Introduction by Patrick Arnold,  Maine Port Authority   3min 11sec 

3. Barbara Blumeris Army Corps, study mgr. introd by Rosenberg 18min 30sec

3a.Rosenberg observes (excerpt of above) that this is a meeting for DEP 22sec

4. ACOE Steve Wolf  DAMOS 35 min

.5 Rosenberg: This is a DEP mtg 4sec

6.  Mike Dassatt, DELA & reply by ACOE 8min 36 sec

ACoE's Blumeris lasering eelgrass map

7. Doug Hufnagel of Belfast discusses tides w/the Corps 7min25sec

8. Ann Crimaudo & Barbra Blumeris 2min40sec

9. State Rep Joe Brooks, Searsport 56 sec

10 Pemaquid Mussels, 1 min 49sec

11. Ridgely Fuller, Belfast

13. Will Neils, Appleton, 3min 44sec

14. David Laing, geologist from Stockton Springs & reply. 3min 46sec

15 Unidentified questioner and reply 3min 32sec

16. Julie Eaton, Lobster captain Deer Isle 1min 31sec

17 Dana Barry fisherman & QA he & Capt Eaton 1min 17sec

18. Unknown Belfast resident 50sec

19. Rob Iserbyt Rockport & QA 2min 30sec

20 Chloe Chunn  and QA 2min47sec

20. Suzy Dexter, Belfast Transition Group 2min 13sec

21.Suzy Dexter &  replies by Arnold & Blumeris 4min 19sec

22 Blumeris reply to Dexter on mercury 2min 9sec

22. Peter Wilkinson, Belfast 1min 52sec

23. Additional reply to Wilkinson 1min 31sec

24. Dave Miramont, Candidate for state senate 1min 28sec

25. B. Blumeris: why Army Corps is holding a DEP state meeting. 1min 3sec

26. Phyllis Coelho Belfast 2min

27. Kim Ervin Tucker 4min10sec

28. Reply to K. E. Tucker  1min 54sec

29. Kim Ervin Tucker & reply 6min3sec

30. Diane Messer 1min27sec

31. Two replies to D. Messer. 1min 28sec

32. Harlan Mclaughlin, FOPB & reply 5min 2sec.

33. "Let Ron speak!" pleas go unheeded. 5 seconds

34. David Tannhauser 2min

35.  Joel Woods, MLU. 44sec 

36. Faith Garrold to end of mtg 2min50sec

Penobscot Bay's sewage plants dump 2.4 billion gallons of treated wastewater into the bay every year

What do the people of Rockland, Camden, Belfast, Searsport, Castine, Islesboro and North Haven have in common? Our sewage treatment plants discharge about 6.5 million gallons of treated wastewater into the bay per day, or 2.4 billion gallons per year. 

Operating a sewage treatment plant is both an exacting technological process and a demanding art. Maine DEP monitors the outfall reports from these operations, praising those which stay within their discharge limits and prodding those that don't into bettering their ways. 

Here are  links to each of these towns' most recent DEP wastewater treatment licences and their DEP ID numbers

Note MGD = million gallons per day
Rockland

Rockland   3.3 MGD  5.7bypass	Rockland POTW, City of (PDF) (25 pp, 216K)	ME0100595	11/21/2009
Rockland (Atlantic Ocean)	Rockland POTW, City of (PDF) (84 pp, 229K)	ME0100595	12/21/2007
Rockland(RocklandHarbor)	Rockland POTW, City of (PDF) (13 pp, 102K)	ME0100595	01/31/2008

Camden (Camden Harbor Watershed) 1.21MGD

Camden, Town of (PDF)(32 pp, 3MB)

ME0100137

07/18/2003

Belfast (Belfast Harbor)  1.49 MGD	Belfast POTW, City of (PDF) (81 pp, 3.2MB)	ME0101532	02/18/2011

Belfast

Moore’s Septic, Inc. (PDF)(40 pp, 3.2MB)

MEU508259

10/03/2012

Searsport  0.20 MGD

Searsport, Town of (PDF) (79 pp, 1.4MB)

ME0101966

11/12/2008

Islesboro  (East Pen Bay)   0.0637 MGD

Islesboro, Town of (PDF) (11 pp, 1.8MB)

ME0100269

01/20/2012

Castine	Castine POTW, Town of (PDF) (15 pp, 55K)	ME0101192	03/12/2008
0.126 MGD (Castine Harbor)	Castine POTW, Town of (PDF) (77 pp, 2.3MB)	ME0101192	12/29/2009

North Haven Drinking H2O filter plant  MGDday (Fresh Pond)	North Haven DWTP, Town of (PDF) (34 pp, 1.1MB)	ME0102482	08/02/2012
2,000 GPD (0.002 MGD)	North Haven DWTP, Town of (PDF) (22 pp, 1.1MB)	ME0102482	06/15/2007

Vinalhaven(Atlantic Ocean) 0.129 mgd

Vinalhaven POTW, Town of (PDF) (49 pp, 2.1MB)

MDEP pollution team postpones GAC shore inspection FOR THIRD TIME.

Curiouser and curiouser....
Our Friday visit to Maine DEP's Bangor office to look at the pollution history of GAC Chemical  and polluters past on Kidder Point  had its highs and its lows.

The bad news: The agency has for the third time cancelled its site visit to examine GAC's shore in light of our complaints.  A sudden scheduling conflict; the field investigative team is needed elsewhere.  Improbable, given the number of times the agency visit to this polluted site has already been delayed. Did our unexpected introduction of the fertilizer waste problem into the Kidder Point cleanup discussion freak DEP out?

Was this a political postponement of the investigation? I.e. did a call from the head of "Maine's Chemical Company" to Governor Lepage lead to ruthlessly pro-industry Patty Aho Commissioner being tasked to throttle back  her employees' rush to examine that polluted shore? One wonders.  Meetings with the top GAC guy David Colter started well, too but petered out over the course of the year into canceled meetings and postponed cleanup plans.

The good news: We got access to about a thousand pages of well organized documents, charts, maps etc from two sub-bureaus, solid waste and remediation (polluted sites cleanup). The two officials that greeted us were professional and helpful.  Split among four of us, and a patient DEP receptionist/copy machine operator, we extracted about 180 pages of maps, charts, core sample data, pollution evaluations, enforcement letters/ replies and more. These will appear on the Friends of Penobscot Bay website as they get digitized.

The missing news: We saw DEP's attention was on the top layers of  alum production waste laid down after fertilizer production shut down in 1970.  But where did the 11 million tons of chemical waste from  fifty years of  fertilizer production on Kidder Point and Mack Point go?

Made by sulfuric acid drenching of phosphate ore, every ton of  superphosphate leaves five tons of  useless, unhealthily radioactive and highly acidic waste "phosphogypsum" behind.  Phosphogypsum (PG) is a problem powdery waste. Too much radium, uranium and radon for use in inhabited areas, according to US EPA. But every day more thousands of tons are produced around the world. So  much that  it is piled in enormous stacked  pyramids around the world, some of them visible from outer space  thanks to our fertilizer-using planetary civilization.

Searsport's fertilizer's  main market was the state's potato farms. Phosphate ore and sulfur arrived at Mack Point by ship; fertilizer went from Searsport to the tater-growing County by rail. Potatoes came back down the rail to Searsport for export.

Kidder Point & Mack Point both hosted a series of fertilizer companies:

1907 American Agricultural Chemical Company built plant and pier. Mack Pt
1907-1914 B&A RR runs electric power plant on Kidder Point  for AACC, etc.
1909  Hubbard (later Armour) Fertilizer sets up  Mack Pt
1919 Summers Fertilizer  Kidder Pt
1944 Northern Chemical Kidder Point
1966 W.R. Grace  Kidder Pt
1970 Delta Chemical  Kidder Pt
1994 to present: General Alum and Chemical(GAC)  Kidder Point

Superphosphate was made there. Lots of it.
In 1962 alone, Searsport would have generated 225,000 tons of waste while making 45,000 tons of superphosphate. Where is it?  Over fifty years, around 11 million tons of phosphogypsum would have been discarded in Searsport. Where is that? 

It is logical that the abovementioned  companies would deposit this toxic material nearby as possible.  It is most likely lining Kidder Point, Mack Point and even Sears Island  and was probably dumped into abandoned quarries like those in Northport. The amount of postponing by both the company and by MDEP suggests something is wrong on the shores of Stockton Harbor.

GAC Chemical and  Maine DEP would do better to speedily investigate the site and get the necessary remediation done and over with. Stockton Harbor, with its entrance only yards from the mouth of Penobscot River, is a very important part of Penobscot Bay's estuary system. A century of waste deposition and spillage into it from Kidder Point is a legacy that must be confronted and dealt with.

Time to  get the site investigation rescheduled AGAIN.

GAC Chemical's Spill Reports 2002 - 2010

General Alum & Chemical 1994 outfall fail.
Photo courtesy Project Lighthawk

Stuff happens.
Someone turns a valve not quite tight enough or too tight, or spills some toxic substance.  It must be responded to. It happens at GAC now and then.

Read below how GAC  has reported spills to the govt. Followed by a notice of a completed remediation project on  their site

GAC CHEMICAL'S SPILL HISTORY 2010 - 2002

2/03/2010 : B-57-2010 http://maine.gov/dep/rwm/hoss/report.php?spill_number=B-57-2010

6/22/08  B-356-2008 http://maine.gov/dep/rwm/hoss/report.php?spill_number=B-356-2008

5/25/08 B-291-2008 http://maine.gov/dep/rwm/hoss/report.php?spill_number=B-291-2008

1/19/08 B-35-2008 http://maine.gov/dep/rwm/hoss/report.php?spill_number=B-35-2008

7/11/06  B-389-2006  http://maine.gov/dep/rwm/hoss/report.php?spill_number=B-389-2006 

3/04/05 B-112-2005  http://maine.gov/dep/rwm/hoss/report.php?spill_number=B-112-2005

11/17/04 B-627-2004  http://maine.gov/dep/rwm/hoss/report.php?spill_number=B-627-2004

10/14/04  B-556-2004 http://maine.gov/dep/rwm/hoss/report.php?spill_number=B-556-2004

7/20/03 B-345-2003 http://maine.gov/dep/rwm/hoss/report.php?spill_number=B-345-2003

12/10/02  B-656-2002  http://maine.gov/dep/rwm/hoss/report.php?spill_number=B-656-2002

8/20/02  B-434-2002 http://maine.gov/dep/rwm/hoss/report.php?spill_number=B-434-2002

GAC VRAP SITE Permit # REM01170  Remediation completed

http://www.maine.gov/dep/gis/datamaps/brwm_remediation_sites/rpt_rem_site_list.pdf

DCP Searsport's death throes continue. Company adds two more nails to its own coffin.

Two more twitches of the corpse of DCP Searsport were detected, one on April 5th and one April 9th, 2013:

The April 5th "Petition for Surrender of License",  by Kelly Boden, DCP's soon-to-be-former Maine attorney, concludes with the following to Maine DEP Commissioner Patty Aho:

"Given that DCP has concluded that it is not going to construct the Project as permitted by the Department, pursuant to Section 23 of Chapter 2 of  Department's rules, DCP hereby petitions to surrender the DEP Licenses. DCP has not commenced any on-site activities approved under the DEP Licenses and does not intend to do so in the future. DCP hereby waives any notice or opportunity for a hearing."

On April 9th, a "Notice of Withdrawal"  was sent  by soon-to-be-ex-DCP atty James Kilbreth to Jay Clement at the Army Corps of Engineers, announcing the death of the LPG tank proposal:

"DCP has petitioned to surrender its Maine DEP permits (attached). Although I understand that there is no formal mechanism to surrender the above-identified Army Corps permit, DCP has no intention of proceeding with the Project at this point. DCP has undertaken no activity with respect to the activities permitted by the Corps."

So long DCP! It appears that corporate rigor mortis is setting in. Let us turn DCP's picture to the wall, and contemplate how better our world without the (not-so) dearly departed!

UPDATED Grouchy eco-bureaucrats FOA responses suggest politics or paper wrenchers

When one looks back at the bureaucrats one has encountered over the years,  there seems to be a  certain surliness from time to time. Usually, this signals that a developer or polluter under review is a political Bigfoot, and a certain predetermined result is being sought by the ruling party's officials.

Such are the responses I've recently received when chipping some information free from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Innovation and Assistance, and prying some loose  from the Maine Department of Conservation's  Bureau of Parks and Lands. Makes one wonder what'g going on behind the scenes.

Conservation's Bureau of Parks and Lands  replied with this forbidding form letter, while MDEP's Office of Innovation and Assistance's slightly personalized response letter  was, if anything, more unfriendly than Parks and Lands' missive.

Both agencies replied to the innocuous FOA queries (for  memos and emails sent and recv'd the first two weeks after the legislature approved the ocean energy act) as if locating this information, which altogether must occupy  no more than two or three manila folders in  file drawers only inches from the replying staffers in their respective cubicles, would require a gargantuan effort that would require extra billing and time.


It seems as though they feel themselves victims of FOA Abuse, and must reply in kind. By FOA abuse I mean those requests that demand tens of thousands of pages of documents across myriad subdepartments for years back in time, for relatively spurious reasons. Wielding the Freedom of Access Act simply to tie up government workers' time.


By contrast, Penobscot Bay Watch FOA requests are typically tightly focused; the receiving officials needing to do little searching to locate them.  But...guilt by association, one guesses.  


UPDATE: Spoke with MDEP's Pete Carney who said that he'd given the Innovations  staff until tomorrow to round up their info for me.  FOA abuse? Carney wouldn't put it that way, but he noted that  the Freedom of access law is being increasingly by litigants instead of waiting for 'production of the record' by the opposing side. This  has increased the amount of file searching and copying by magnitudes. Thus the grumpiness of the MDEP  form letter.

Sears Island - JUPC to wrap up in September. Then...?

The current dealmaking over the island the Joint Use Committee appears to be finally sputtering to its conclusion. According to Tanya Mitchell's July 24 article at the Republican Journal, the committee, which is expected to finish its draft conservation easement in September, has once again revised its plan. this time adding a third party environmental watchdog, possibly MDEP. Possible someone else.

Mitchell wrote:
"The [Joint Use Planning Committee] easement draft also includes new language regarding a "third-party enforcer," which in the case of Sears Island would be the state Department of Environmental Protection. "

"Adding DEP, said Ulbrich, [MCHT] serves as a back-up plan to ensure the easement remains a strong document into the future. "It gives them the right to enforce restrictions of the easement if we [MCHT] fall down on the job," she said."

Okay... MDEP can be reasonably responsive given enough pressure from the public. How about DMR? The biggest 'fall down on the job' is going to be the savaging and ravaging of the seagrass areas and the nursery shoal edging the island, by dredging and operation of vessels at the port - if it were ever built. Is MDEP up to that? Where's the Department of Marine Resources? Its the eelgrass, people.