Prospect Maine's successful 2022 Pier Moratorium question

Prospect Maine's  2022 Pier moratorium question

Approved

Bay History: 2001-2005 Environmental Conflicts & Initiatives.

The below archived Penobscot Bay Watch media releases  discuss relevant local/state/federal events & issues  as they rose and fell during Governor King's 2nd term and Governor Baldacci's 1st term .  2/2/01 - to 2/7/205  Topics  Knox county airport expansion, state rockweed conservation, Samoset marina sprawl, local landfills, out of state waste imports, dredge spoils, state trawl survey &, shedder lobster impacts,  salmon fishpens,  state aquaculture task force, shellfish farming, a Sears Island LNG terminal plan - and more!

NOTE some  internal links are outdated

2001

2/2/01  State delays decision on  Owl's Head airport expansion to  April. (jetification)

3/1/01  Lobstermen residents battle Samoset Resort over harbor fishing grounds  marina sprawl. Samoset

3/5/01  Picketers protest resort's controversial plan to build a yacht marina in Rockland Harbor's best lobstering area , Samoset

3/16/01  Did MBNA dump contaminated dredge spoils into Rockland's municipal landfill 

3/26/01 Rockland City Council rejects Samoset marina plan  

4/4/01  Federal agency rejects Samoset marina plan; orders eelgrass study of Rockland Harbor

6/6/01   Beach grasses shielding the sand dunes at Pemaquid Beach Park may finally gain additional protection

7/26/01 * US Fish and Wildlife Service bans the harvest of seaweeds at three National Wildlife Refuges on the Maine coast  

8/21/01 * Fishermen, islanders, conservationists fight fishpen sprawl: Penobscot Bay lobsters, wild salmon said at risk 

10/01/01  * Maine DMR Commissioner restricts state research videotapes, bans videotaping of future state trawl survey catches 

10/4/01  * Conservation Law group sues General Alum & Chemical Corp for polluting Penobscot Bay

10/21/01 * Fisheries panelists call for revamped fishing & aquaculture laws

11/8/01* 25 lobster boats out of Corea confront the Department of Marine Resources' survey trawler

11/22/01  Mainers criticize Snowe support of federal plan to bail out foreign fishpen companies

2002  

1/31/02 Aquaculture meeting raises Maine "open meeting law" concerns

2/4/02  Marine ecology chief and former Maine aquaculture official raise many eyebrows re  their handling of the trawl survey,  and aquaculture improprieties

2/8/02 Atlantic Salmon Federation calls for fishpen-free Penobscot Bay

2/11/02 Hearing on aquaculture reform brings together different points of view 

2/13/02 Legislators press fishpen industry for details on pesticide use

2/18/02 Commercial fishing industry, conservationists, tourism industry representatives call for fishpen moratorium 

2/19/02 Maine legislature to consider aquaculture moratorium 

2/22/02 DMR ordered to release files on aquaculture violations to Legislature 

2/25/02 Maine aquaculture reform bill attacked by DMR, aquaculture industry

2/26/02 Voices in the Maine aquaculture reform debate 

2/27/02 Legislature's Marine Resources Committee gives coastal towns power to regulate aquaculture 

3/2/02 DMR threatens to shut down lobstering if April trawl survey is resisted 

3/5/02 Fishermen sign petition to the Maine legislature calling for local control of aquaculture 

3/8/02 Marine trades, building industries in Knox, Waldo and Hancock county say fishpens harm business (Penobscot Bay Watch, 3/8/02)

3/30/02 Fishy Business: Aquaculture Reform Flames out in Maine

2003

4/7/03  Northport, Maine Speaks Out on Maine Aquaculture Bills 

4/10/03 Maine legislators hear pros and cons of aquaculture reform 

4/25/03 Baldacci's Blue Ribbon Aquaculture Task Force gets thumbs up

7/14/03  Rockland may accept construction waste from out of state for disposal in its quarry dump  

7/24/03 Maine Aquaculture Task Force Gets Underway

8/7/03  Continued Marine Bioinvasions prompt tough new federal rules

8/15/03  Criticism has arisen concerning Governor John Baldacci's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Marine Aquaculture

8/19/03  Maine Aquaculture Task Force hires Canadian consultants for fish farm economics study.

9/11/03 Maine Aquaculture Task Force holds second meeting at the University of Maine's Darling Center

9/25/03 Aquaculture Task Force to hear from public & NGOs on fishfarms' impacts on property and scenic values

10/14/03  Aquaculture Task Force to explore coastal towns' role in decisionmaking 

10/17/03 Maine Aquaculture Task Force opts for baywide management study 

10/28/03 Maine Aquaculture Task Force Online Audio from the October 16 meeting in Rockland, Maine 

11/18/03  Criticism concerning aquaculture report submitted by a former DMR commissioner.

12/19/03 Maine Aquaculture Task Force report to call for smaller municipal role, bigger fishfarms, more studies

2004

1/9/04 Study on carcinogens in farmed Atlantic salmon available online 

1/28/04  Final Draft Report: Governor's Task Force on the Planning and Development of Marine Aquaculture.

2/9/04 Maine legislators to get presentation from Governor's Task Force on Aquaculture

2/18/04Maine legislators to hear from public on major aquaculture bill .

2/23/04 Legislators urged: drop acreage boost from aquaculture bill.

3/1/04 Opponents of Northport mussel farm expansion call it threat to navigation 

3/12/04 LNG tankers could force 15% drop in Penobscot Bay lobsterfishing 

4/20/04 Searsport residents warned by Harpswell lobstermen: Don't trust LNG corporations 

5/5/04  Federal Wilderness Proposed for 13 Islands off the Maine Coast 

7/28/04 Controversial decision by organizers of a statewide forum on LNG to block a Harpswell fishermen's organization 

8/24/04  Fishermen speak out against wasteful pair trawl herring fishery off Maine 

8/31/04  Released documents show politics behind Baldacci Sears Island LNG policies

2005 

2/7/05  Beginning of Maine's coastwide Bay Management Project 

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Penobscot Bay Dredging History 1988 -2007

Dredging articles and audio about  Searsport, Belfast, Rockland and Brewer proposals 1988 - 2007

1988 Sears Island Dredge
BDN Dredging in Sears Island Channel causes major losses for many Maine Lobstermen

2000 Mack Pt Dredge
BDN: Mack Pt dredging to be reduced  June 21, 2000

2002 Baywide Dredge
 Working Waterfront: Dredge committee wraps it up[on Mack Point & Rockland Disposal Site]

2002 Belfast Harbor Dredge 
BDN: Belfast Harbor Set For Dredging

2003 Belfast Harbor Dredge
BDN: Belfast dredging nears completion


2007 Lower Penobscot River Dredge (audio)
DMR's Brian Swan opens meeting on dredge plan for Penobscot River site in Brewer  (mp3)  9/1107

Penobscot Bay threatened AGAIN with offshore dumping of lead & PCB-laden dredge spoils

Is the US Army Corps of Engineers trying to fast track dumping of unacceptably contaminated sediments from the mainland into waters 3 miles off Vinalhaven?

The location for dumping sediment spoils dug up from the harbor floor has ping-ponged from the Rockland Disposal Site off the Fox Islands, onshore to Rockland's own Snow Marine Park and now back to the bay!

As we try to make sense of this Rockland Fishpier Dredge plan, here are some background documents and emails  to bring you up to speed.

EMAILS Discussions of the below documents, as well as about the now-dropped plan to land dump the spoils onto Snow Marine Park in Rockland,

 FOAA'd emails June 2016 to July 2017.

2016 DOCUMENTS  Sediment test and Army Corp response

3/16/16 Chemical Analysis of a marine sediment :City of Rockland Fish Pier ,Rockland Harbor, Rockland, ME Application Number NAE-2015-1695 60pgs Written by Bud Brown of EcoAnalysts, Inc

7/16/16 Army Corps of Engineers Suitability findings on Rockland Fishpier sediments  Quote:  "These sediments are not suitable for unconfined open water disposal at the Rockland Disposal Site (RDS) as proposed."

2017 DOCUMENTS Army Corps issues new plan for fishper dredge spoils  going to RDS

7/28/17 Sampling and Analysis Plan for the City of Rockland’s Fish Pier, Rockland Harbor, Rockland, ME, Application Number NAE-2015-1695

AUDIO

6/27/17  Rockland Harbor management committee on dredge spoils - 6 and a half minute mp3

 Historical 

1973    July 1973 federal EIS for Maintenance Dredging Rockland Harbor 

How we got where we are.  Above documents get  referred to below

1. July 6 2016, the Army Corps of Engineers rejects dumping fishpier dredge spoils into the Rockland Disposal Site - located between the Fox Islands and Rockland The Corps cites a toxic mix of wastes in the spoils Here are excerpts from their suitability findings on the spoils "

Excerpts:
"These sediments are not suitable for unconfined open water disposal at the Rockland Disposal Site (RDS) as proposed. There are alternatives available to the applicant. These include upland disposal or biological testing of the materials.

Metals "in the sediments represented by Composite 2, cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) concentrations for the project are more than twice the “mean plus two times the standard deviation” of the RDS reference value." .

"Five PAHs (phenanthrene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo(a)anthracene, and chrysene) concentrations are at least 10 times reference values.

PCBs, "most of the congener concentrations in the project were above the analytical detection limits.
End of excerpts

2. In 2017 the city of Rockland then turned to the land disposal option and found two possible sites.

One would be a fresh topping* of Snow Marine Park in Rockland's south end with the spoils. This would elevate the height above sea level of the park by a certain amount. The second would cap the now filled-to-capacity Rockland Quarry Dump with the spoils, over which a sodded surface would be planted

However Nature has reasserted Herself. The waters that formerly flowed down slope through the South End as a stream into the cove now disperses itself through the filled-in spoils, upwelling as significant wetlands across the north end of the park, making that area off limits and apparently reducing the available area to too small for the spoils . In addition the city councilmembers seem to oppose topping a public park with sediments tainted with lead, cadmium PCBs and other toxins
* Snow Marine Park was created by filling an intertidal cove with dredge spoils - about half a century ago. (From where?)

3. Back to the bay! On July 27, 2017, Army Corps' Charles Farris sent an email to two other Corps officials and Bud Brown the rep of EcoAnalysts Inc . The short message:
"Here is the final sampling plan for the Rockland Fish Pier. Please contact me with any questions."
Norm"

Searsport Harbor dredge plans:two updates. Plus Camden & Blue Hill dredge news

Maine  Dredging Team Updates 

The Maine Dredging Team today released minutes from its October 11, 2016 meeting in Portland.  The team is led by Maine DOT  and the Army Corps of Engineers  and includes other state and federal agencies.  At the meeting, the Army Corps of  Engineers (ACOE)reviewed  the status of current navigation improvement projects in Maine. 

Below are sections from the report about Searsport Harbor,  Camden Harbor & Blue Hill Bay.  Read full 2 page report here. (pdf)  *** Meeting participants list (pdf)

Searsport Harbor (1). Ed O’Donnell (ACOE) explained that, at the request of MaineDOT, the ACOE is evaluating options for maintenance dredging of the existing federal project as a separate project, independent of the related proposed navigation improvement project. See above. Mr. O’Donnell clarified that the maintenance dredging project would be confined to the boundaries of the existing federal project, and involves dredging about 40,000 cy of material near the piers. Mr. O’Donnell further explained that ACOE is looking at various disposal options, would like to place the dredged material in a suitable upland location, and is awaiting further information from MaineDOT. 

Rob Elder (MaineDOT) noted that Maine DOT has retained an environmental consulting firm to investigate to assess upland disposal alternatives. In response to questions, 

Jay Clement (ACOE) indicated that he had no knowledge of discussions of potential dredging in the Penobscot River and placement of dredged materials in a CAD cell to be built off Castine and Cape Jellison as part of the federal court-ordered cleanup of mercury contamination. Mr. Clement said he’d check with colleagues and provide follow information. In response to the questions, Mr. Clement further explained that any such dredging and disposal project would require applicable state and federal permits, applications for which would be processed with public notice and opportunity for comment and in consultation with natural resources agencies. Mr. Clement further explained that a project-specific EA would prepared and would be the basis for determining whether an EIS would be appropriate to ensure a hard look at environmental effects.

Searsport Harbor (2) Ed O’Donnell (ACOE) explained that, at the request of MaineDOT, the ACOE is evaluating options for maintenance dredging of the existing federal project as a separate project, independent of the related proposed navigation improvement project. See above.

Searsport Harbor. Mack Point dredging, 1966.

Ed O’Donnell clarified that the maintenance dredging project would be confined to the boundaries of the existing federal project, and involves dredging about 40,000 cy of material near the piers. Mr. O’Donnell further explained that ACOE is looking at various disposal options, would like to place the dredged material in a suitable upland location, and is awaiting further information from MaineDOT.   Rob Elder (MDOT)noted that MaineDOT has retained an environmental consulting firm to investigate to assess upland disposal alternatives.

In response to questions, Jay Clement (ACOE) indicated that he had no knowledge of discussions of potential dredging in the Penobscot River and placement of dredged materials in a CAD cell to be built off Castine and Cape Jellison as part of the federal court-ordered cleanup of mercury contamination.  Mr. Clement said he’d check with colleagues and provide follow information. In response to the questions, Mr. Clement further explained that any such dredging and disposal project would require applicable state and federal permits, applications for which would be processed with public notice and opportunity for comment and in consultation with natural resources agencies. Mr. Clement further explained that a project-specific EA would prepared and would be the basis for determining whether an EIS would be appropriate to ensure a hard look at environmental effects.

Camden Harbor .  Mark Habel (ACOE) reported that ACOE headquarters approved federal involvement in a feasibility study of a proposal to improve the existing breakwater. Work on this project remains on-hold pending execution of a feasibility cost-sharing agreement with the Town of Camden pursuant to which the town would be obligated to fund 50% of the study’s cost.  The ACOE awaits the Town’s decision.  Note This project has been "on hold" since at least May, 2016.      Camden Harbor Navigation Project

Blue Hill Bay. Mark Habel (ACOE) said that the Town of Blue Hill and the ACOE have entered into a cooperative agreement for the on-going feasibility study for this project. which involves a proposed shallow-draft channel and turning basin. See news story.10/20/16 Environmental sampling showed gasoline contamination in some areas where dredging had been planned, and additional sampling showed this to be confined to surface sediments, with clean glacial till comprising the bulk of the material to be dredged. The ACOE and town are also looking at reconfiguring the turning basin to minimize the volume of contaminated material needing removal.

Maine Dredge Team March 7, 2016 meetings Audio mp3s of the interagency meeting

Monday March 7th, the Maine Interagency Dredge Team met in Augusta. 

Listen to audio from the event.

Intro of Dredge team 4min 19sec |

Part 1 21 min |

Part 2 22min |

Part 3. 16min

Participants were there to discuss dredging projects underway and under consideration. This included the Searport Harbor expansion dredge project, as well as other harbors along the Maine coast.
The public was represented by eco-attorney Kim Ervin Tucker of Lincolnville Beach, Becky Bartovics, Maine Sierra Club, North Haven Island, and Ron Huber, Friends of Penobscot Bay, Rockland.   The meeting allowed public participation by speakerphone 

The dredge team included: 
Pete Tischbein, Army Corp Craig Martin, navigation section, ACOE Wendy ____ Army Corp of Engineers planning John Chelley Chief of planning, f Army Corps Mark Habel Corps new eng, navigation Ed O'Donnel chief navigation section and the ONF program Dennis Nault Maine DMR Rob Elder MDOT trade office Maine DEP ____ Green Paul Mercer, commissioner DEP Mark Bergeron on MDEP Maine Geological Survey Maine Port Authority - Dredge committee Patty Aho, Sen Collins office staffer, Sen Collins for York County Pingree staffer Portland Senator Angus King staffer Tom Dobbins Portland harbor commission Jim Katz Saco coastal waters chief Patrick Fox Saco Payne, Normandeau Associates Biddeford harbor commission Wells harbormaster & town manager
Also attending: Maine Lobstering Union members (3) Kim Tucker Lawyer for Maine Lobstering Union David Black, Belfast Zone D lobsterman

ABOUT THE MEETING

The meeting was frustrating for critics of the Searport harbor dredge plan (aerial photo) . Dredging officials told Tucker at first that they had absolutely no new information about when the withdrawn Searsport harbor expansion dredge project might be reactivated. She managed to pull a few things out of them, like the identity of the till-now army corps officials in DC are who will decide when the Sarsport : Tab Brown, Army Corp Chief of Policy Regarding the Big Gas plan, the Corp's <Edward.G.O'Donnell@nae02.usace.army.mil>, told Huber that they have not received any communications at all about natural gas pipelines coming down from Massachusetts to the Penobscot Bay coast (with all the stream & river crossings required by such pipelines etc, the Corp will be involved. Huber also brought up the failing condition of the surface of the Rockland Breakwater, which has reduced pedestrian travel to the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse. He said that the Rockland Harbor Commission was concerned that if they complained, the Corps might shut off pedestrian access entirely. Corp official Ed O'Donnell asked Huber to forward him some details.

The meeting was frustrating for opponents of the Army Corps of Engineers massive dredge plan for Searsport harbor:  It seemed that  try as they might, it was near impossible to get details from the army corps staff there on when the "withdrawn" application would become active again.   Federal officials claimed to have no information! Check out this exchange between Kim Ervin Tucker and an Army Corps official 

Q: What is the time frame you're talking about resurrecting this during the course of 2016?
A. We don't know.
Q: Who in DC specifically are you working with, what office?
A. Planning and Policy.
Q: A specific person there involved in that ?
A. Not a specific person, but  Tab Brown is the chief of that.
Q: Was there anything in particular you all are looking at?  Pockmarks? What specifically is now being re-evaluated for that project?
A.We don't know yet
Q: When will you know?
A: laughs
Q: Before the next team meeting? Will there be some activity taken before the next dredge team meeting?
AThe corps and DOT have to do a lot of talking, before the half stretch.
Q Thank you. 

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 To get notified about  future  Maine  dredge meetings  write to  Todd Burrowes  at the Maine coastal program <Todd.Burrowes@maine.gov and ask him to put you on the list.   Burrowes is the Maine Coastal Program's "Federal Consistency Coordinator", meaning he's the contact when fed permit-requiring projects - including dredging but also  shoreline development like  riprapping  & piers-  come up. Coastal program phone: (207) 287-3200.

Searsport megadredge plan is withdrawn!

Great News!
The megadredge plan for Searsport Harbor has been withdrawn!

The Army Corps of Engineers sent this letter today to Maine DEP
The terse letter from Corps permit reviewer Barbara Blumeris's letter  to Jim Beyer of Maine DEP says it all:

================================
Mr. Jim Beyer, Regional Licensing Compliance Manager
Bureau of Land Quality, Maine Department
Eastern Maine Regional Office
106 Hogan Road Suite 6
Bangor, Maine 04401

Dear Mr. Beyer,

"The US Army Corps of Engineers and the Maine DOT are withdrawing the Water Quality Certification (WQC)/ Natural Resources Protection Act application for the Searsport Harbor , Searsport Maine navigation maintenance and improvement project. We may consider submitting a revised application for a Water Quality Certification at a later date. Thank you for your assistance and let us know if any additional information is required.

Sincerely: Barbara Blumeris, Project Manager US Army Corps of Engineers/New England District 696 Virginia Road, Concord, Massachusetts 01742 Phone (978) 318 873 7

Kim Ervin Tucker conquers the Corps once more! Thanks Kim!

Second Battle of Penobscot Bay: Fierce fighting along the western bay corridor.

Struggle for the bay.

In the West: Wins, stalemates, losses.

Searsport, Belfast Rockport and Rockland are most in contention by Big Energy and Big Sprawl, or are in imminent risk of same. Let's go down the list 

Searsport.

WIN *GAC Chemical has vowed to, by the close of this year, remove acid wastes from their Stockton Harbor shore and create a neutralizing lime trench between the tainted slope and the intertidal beach below. This first serious response to our request - repeated on and off since 1998 - may markedly reduce the impact of Maine's worst ocean acidification source. In exchange GAC gains a "pollution pardon" for those particular deposits next to the abandoned acid plant. We'll give them a pat on the head, too.

LOSS * The Mack Point Wood is reeling from fragmentation caused when natural coastal forest and soils along its southwestern reach was replaced with acres of tarp and cable clad salt piles taller than the trees they replaced. by an enterprising landowner who deforested more than 15 acres.

LOSS * A shredded automobile export operation named Grimmel has gotten an annual town permit to operate. This having followed fast trackage by Maine DEP and DMR or their respective sign-offs on the project. There is now only the grim wait.

*IN PLAY State officials running the Searsport megadredge application have fast tracked it by rejecting an effort to have the Maine Board of Environmental Protection assume jurisdiction. The dreaded Patty Aho, via her subchief Suzanne "the Butcher" Miller of the eastern Maine DEP office, is certain to approve, and Islesboro will have to once again massively increase its cash burn rate to equip its Warriors of the Law with the litigatory weapons needed to combat both the LePage administration AND the Obama Administration.

Rockland

* Big Gas. IN PLAY The Carbonistan initiative from Boston to gas Rockland has been challenged but only slowed; a northern gas front is equally likely to open up the bay coast by way of Belfast. The Rockland site is a stone's throw from the city schools and athletic fields. It is even closer to the Little League Field.

A public information on the gas plant /pipeline proposal meeting was held. The gasser wannabees were not there, The public was, or course FORBIDDEN TO SPEAK, but could submit questions on little pieces of paper that had to pass through at least two censors before being aired. Mysteriously, few questions critical of the proposal made it to the moderator's microphone. Thus passeth democracy, one more razor cut to the body politic.

Belfast IN PLAY. Will Belfast save the bay by fending off a predicted northern gas invasion? (See rockland, below) Or will the Sprawl Army gas Belfast, then press south along the western Bay shore, linking up with a north expanding pipeline from Rockland? A pincer movement, spreading suburbanization and urbanization, and all their ecological disruptions in its wake? Belfast has a soul. Will it rise to the occasion. Time will tell.

Rockport

* WIN South coast forests of Clam Cove saved from subdivision by land sale to unidentified 1%ers for wooded family compound.

IN PLAY *Ecomapping of western Rockport Harbor from its coastal forests to its rocky submerged cliffs moves forward on two fronts:

(1) A snapshot comparison of the present with Rockport as documented in Beedy Parker's seminal 1984 book "A natural history of the Camden and Rockport area,covering weather patterns, geological composition of the land and the varieties of plant and animal life found here."

(2) IN PLAY A continuing log of marine and tidal and shallow subtidal observations of selected areas of the harbor using standard estuary documentation gear. Seasonally Identify the species mix of the present Rockport Harbor from several points.

Around the Bay. IN PLAY

No surer way to ruin the bay's rich ecosystem of microflora and microfauna in their shallow water haunts than by replacing the natural forests, swamps and meadows above them with asphalt and cement pavements, with roofs and chemlawns, transforming that tea into a poisonous iridescent technobrew called "stormwater".

Because that sort of gutting of the bay's coastal forests tends to take place in bites, it is important to preemptively document the existing environmental and ecological conditions of today's shoal ecosystems rimming the bay's coasts, from just below the tide to shoals edge edge of the shoal. This prior to their being impacted by tainted stormwater runoff.

PENOBSCOT BAY NEEDS YOU!   if you would like to help video document our bay's shallow water habitats call Ron at the Friends of Penobscot Bay at 207-593-2744 or email coastwtch@gmail.com

Or if you'd otherwise like to help take care of Maine's biggest bay and the wild atlantis below its surface! A bay is a terrible thing to waste.