Maine Woods defenders urge legislators to support LD 640 to require EIS of HQ /CMP cable plan

Standing  room only as Mainers flocked to inform the Legislature's Energy & Natural Resources Committee of their support for  LD 640  To Require a Study of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions from the Proposed Central Maine Power Company Transmission Corridor

A small sampling from the speakers 

* Randall Parr  of Appleton  4minutes

* Nick Bennett NRCM  staff scientist  7min 46sec

*  Nick Bennet takes questions. 13min 31sec

* Fred Morrill of St George, 56 sec.

Belfast's secret river

One of midcoast Maine's best kept secrets in Belfast along its southern border with Northport on water district land is the Little River Community Trail. Three of us hiked it Sunday morning to see where a Salmon aquaculture initiative is proposed, finding workmen with chainsaws and a skidder removing trees.

From a picturesque ocean viewing dam on Route 1 a pine needle-coated trail meanders northwesterly beside a narrow pond called Little River Reservoir through swales, knolls and groves of evergreens with fluctuating pretty undeveloped frontage vistas. Except for the brick Water District office near the lower dam the only building in sight along the shore was a white house on the Northport side. A chewed-off tree stump next to its trunk signalled the presence of beavers.

Further ahead the pond narrows into a stream called Little River, remaining in view of the trail rising above it as a field comes into sight to its right, and then both intersect newly-paved Perkins road meeting Congress Street and Herrick Road, about a mile from the trail head by the lower dam.

After a short distance on the road another dam appears across the street and a second trail continues along the bank of the pond it forms, although the map calls it “Little River Community Trail,” and names the second pond “Upper Little River Reservoir.” even though the trail is bisected by two streets.

Almost as lovely as the lower trail, upper Little River Community Trail winds around the Airport and emerges at “Walsh Field Recreation Area” opposite Troy Howard school on Lincolnville Avenue.

For over 40 years I have driven by both ends of this lovely trail without knowing it existed. Walking through the pond-side needles on a summer day reminds me of Henry David Thorough's Walden Pond where I learned how to swim as a child.

On stakes and trees along the trail were bright colored surveyors' ribbons. Let's hope that construction of the aquaculture initiative doesn't mar this precious resource so the wild life habitat around these trails remains for posterity.

Pictures here show some of the features of Little River Community Trail.

Randall Parr

Appleton

Regarding Penobscot Bay Aquaculture initiatives

Appleton citizen Randall Parr addresses common concerns about the proposal for land based salmon farming

Apprehensions been voiced about land-based Atlantic Salmon farms proposed near Penobscot Bay.

In their aquatic environment over 95 percent of baby wild salmon die before adulthood, while most of those in salmon farms fed copious amounts of food without predation should live through maturity.

Fish oil, which fresh Salmon when eaten as food provide, contain Omega-3 fatty acids that help heart and circulatory systems is prescribed by doctors to reduce risk of coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death for humankind. Salmon also contain Vitamin D, Riboflavin, Calcium, Phosphorus, Iron,  Zinc, Iodine, Magnesium, and Potassium. The American Heart Association recommends eating fish at least twice a week as part of a healthy diet.

Concerns were raised about the quantity of water Salmon farms would extract to circulate in fish tanks from wells in Belfast. Copious rainfalls in recent years continue to amply recharge aquifers in coastal Maine, and unlimited seawater is available for desalinization for land-based fish farms.

Land-based Atlantic Salmon farms can be expected to increase jobs, incomes, sales, tax revenues, and economic activity. These projects should expand the economy, reduce youth out-migration which has bedeviled Maine for decades, keep small businesses alive, and workers busy.

Fecal discharges through underwater pipes extending into Penobscot Bay from shore in Belfast has  been another concern of citizens. Predicted waste pipe contents have not yet been made public, but filtered salmon excrement is expected to be its principle contents. Due to over-fishing and other reasons, wild Haddock, Cod, Swordfish, Tuna, Atlantic Salmon and other Penobscot Bay fish populations have fallen in recent years, reducing the natural recurrence of fish excrement in the water.

Fish poop augments water plant propagation like fertilizer stimulates vegetable growth on land. Containing nitrogen and nutrients, fish waste nourishes species at the bottom of the food chain, which sustains fish and sea creatures that eat them and others that feed on them.

Chlorophyll-containing green water plants also photosynthesize oxygen from carbon dioxide in seawater so that fish can absorb it through their gills into their bloodstreams like mammals do from air through our lungs. If current aquaculture initiatives pan out, wild Cod, Haddock, Tuna and Swordfish poop reduction, due to decline of these species may be offset by farmed Salmon waste, which could increase sea life in the bay and make wild fish more abundant.

Some are afraid that forest wild life habitat will be clear cut to build this facility. Citizens should participate in this process to prevent that.

We should encourage these initiatives but ensure they have positive environmental impacts by participating in the process.

Randall Parr
Appleton, ME 04862