Seal Island: ACOE, USFWS and other stakers recommend "Remedial Investigation & Feasibility Study

The latest communication from Army Corps of Engineers is promising:

"An RI/FS was recommended at this site due to past discovery of MEC and the MC risk associated with the COPECS"

Huh? Translated into plainer English below, but first the news: the Seal Island Site Inspection Report has been finalized "with concurrence of all stakeholders and regulators who participated with us in the process."


Okay. So what did they decide? In plainer English:
"A Remedial Investigation & Feasibility Study was recommended at this site due to past discovery of munitions and explosives of concern and the munitions constituents risk associated with chemicals of potential ecological concern" (see acronyms list, coming soon)

This is bad and good news:
Bad News: An initial quick& dirty onceover of the bombing range has revealed enough UXO to warrant developing a remediation plan. So yes, this outer Penobscot Bay gunnery range of an island is indeed contaminated.

The MK 15: most common UXO at Seal Island



Good news: The agencies and stakeholders have concurred that a plan should now be drawn up; a detailed plan for seeking out and removing or neutralizing UXO or MEC therefrom this former bombing range, which is identified on nautical charts as federal Danger Area 334.10.

The scuttle at a recent brownbagger in Army Corps of Engineers in Baltimore is that Army and DoD were talking last year about extending the scope of the area of concern to the waters the ranges out to the 125 contour (safe diving depth) eligible for cleanup; instead of the area within 100 yards of shore, (the present accepted limit.) This will be followed up on...

Now the heat is on the conservation/environmental community to act on behalf of Marine Maine down there, i.e. ensure the dangerous polluting munitions on the seafloor off Seal Island, steadily leaking into state waters and also washing ashore on nearby islands as the Gulf of Maine's currents tumble the underwater cache of UXO about is looked at, and appropriate remediation taken.

What's needed: Regional NGOs must step up to the plate.

Penobscot Bay is well-freighted with conservation and environmental non government organizations of all stripes. Commercial fisherfolk groups, coastal and island land trusts, regional environmental outfits. A shifting mosaic of grassroots groups in Maine coastal towns and cities rising and falling as they take on their particular NIMBY Nightmares.

It is historically been dififcult to impossible to draw Natural Resources Council of Maine down below the low tide line; those vast natural areas that make up Maine's state territorial sea must do without Brownie Carson's bands of merry men and women that fight the green fight so well on Maine's land and in Maine's freshwater rivers and lakes. Lukewarm interest so far. from Toxics Action Center.

So far. Time will tell. Get updated Seal Island info

Sears Island Joint Use Committee takes first steps. updated

Sears Island's Joint Use Planning Committee met July 11th.

See media coverage. The purpose of the two hour meeting, according to the agenda sent out by email, was to introduce JUPC members to each other, agree on ground rules for future JUPC meetings, and examine a draft “Scope of Work” paper from Maine DOT. The meeting was held at the Searsport town office from 10 am to noon.

According to a reliable source at the meeting, it went as follows:

Searsport town official Dianne Smith opened the meeting, praising the the attendees for their perserverance. “We've come farther than I ever thought we'd get,” she said.

Maine DOT commissioner David Cole spoke up “we're making history” he said. He said the Sears Island Committee was “one of the best I've ever worked with.”

James Gillway, Searsport town mgr, said that people have spoken to him and want the question settled.

Sierra Club representative Joan Saxe's cell phone loudly went off, annoyingly going through 8 or 9 rings before she could dig it out of her bag.

Senator Damon spoke up, noting that he had entered into the process late, but said he'd written to Governor Baldacci recently, praising “the tremendous amount of work” regarding “a tremendous asset and a tremendous natural resource.” He said he believed the two could be combined. “Every bit of our natural resources is important, and a port too.” he said.

The meeting participants ( see list below) agreed to adopt the groundrules of their predecessor group Sears Island Planning Initiative Steering Committee.

Then Duane Scott of Maine Department of Transportation presented his “Scope of Work” proposal. Calling it “a foundation” to work from he identified the following work priorities

(1) finalizing the buffer easement language
(2) fixing boundaries between the industrial zone and the natural zone
(3) Creating a new legal “Easement Deed”
(4) Deciding on Public Access Issues
(5) Develop a plan to provide revenue for the island for Searsport
(6) Mitigation options

Discussion followed.
Robert Grindrod,representing Montreal Maine railroad (formerly called Bangor and Aroostook Railroad) said setting out and fixing the boundaries must be done first. “
Grindrod says fix boundaries first. “Can't do anything without that.” he said.

DOT Commissioner Cole says with the 341 acres allocated to port usage “we have a core area to work with.”

Senator Damon said that the boundaries “shouldn't unduly constrain the permitting process”



Maine DOT's Duane Scott then talked about a state “mitigation bank”.
He said there were ten or eleven sites with “excess compensation credits”
Working with the feds as well ACOE, but he believed that the state could potentially have acquired
credit by agreeing not to develop the 600 acres of the island now to be kept free of industry.

Cole then read from a letter to the group from Aroostock County legislator and former paper industry official Rose Peletier, asking that SIJUPC members submit a thumbnail biography. “We can all learn from each other” Pelletier wrote.

Cole also noted that JUPC member Anne Crimaudo of Protect Sears Island is a former business executive who once helped save up trade agreements with China.

The question arose of committee transparency to the public.

“The DOT” Cole said, was being "as open as we can." Dianne Smith asked what do as a JUPC member if contacted by the media. Cole said “You speak for the committee.”

Bangor Daily News Journalist Tom Groening asked, “So who do I go to?”
Go to the state Sears Island website , Cole said. And to Duane Scott of Maine DOT.

Diane Smith wondered if sections of the meeting should be open to public participation?

Sandy Blitz said this sort of meeting should have a public session first then the meeting be limited to committee members for the rest of the meeting.

Grindrod expressed concern that if the public is let into the process “We'll be starting over.” he said. It would be “extremely unwise.”

Maine Fisheries & Community Based Resource Management : Can ecologically sensitive foxes really guard the marine henhouse?

Maine's mainstream marine conservation organizations have teamed up with several commercial fishing organizations to garner themselves collectively more than two million dollars to promote out what could be either an ecological and sociological triumph or a disaster.

The plan would put decisionmaking about exploitation of the NW Gulf of Maine's cod, haddock, pollock and other groundfish largely into the hands of committees made up of fishermen from Maine coastal communities.

Called Community Based Resource Management, the concept has its supporters and detractors.

But look what these folks below were just given to promote this:

Island Institute $396,328 Purpose
Penobscot East Resource Center $563,000 Purpose
The Ocean Conservancy $769,000 Purpose
Gulf of Maine Research Institute $467,000

Will they earn their pay?
Island Institute failed in its effort "This grant will focus on gaining approval by the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) of an alternative to amend the Multispecies Fishery Management Plan."

Penobscot East's cash, too, fruitlessly sought "adoption of a plan by the New England Fishery Management Council for implementation of an area-based pilot project in the Downeast area of the Gulf of Maine"

For in June, the NEFMC said NO to the II's and PE's proposals. So there's $959,328.00 down the drain with nothing to show for it. Though one assumes some splendid private conferences at the finest of resorts, replete with catered chow, took place. Doubtless a few Individual Retirement Accounts got plumped up, and some handsome salaries paid out. But as far as CBFM goes, the New England Fishery Management won't even be looking at it before 2009, and no action could take place before 2012. It is safe to assume that the 2 million bucks will have petered out long before then, though the requisite coffee table book or two will have been published.

One thing is certain: unless these insular groups opens up to the broader community, CBRM is doomed to be as much a waste of time and money as the recent Maine Bay Management Initiative and the Task Force on Maine Aquaculture

So what IS Community-Based Fisheries Management?

You could try the explanation by Penobscot East. But I don't think you'll come out of it much the wiser. (manage cod like clams? huh?) So here's my take at it:

It's the benign version of the fox-guarding-the-chick-coop scenario.

In this case, the concept is of having ecologically sensitive foxes (local groundfish committees) guard the chicken coops (marine fish habitats), with the farm owner (Uncle Sam) stopping in from time to time and making sure the inventory shrinkage (commercial fishing) is within reasonable bounds and is not damaging the chicken coop (habitat) or its feed troughs (prey species) and drinking tanks (water quality.)

The idea loosely parallels the lobster fishing zone council concept, which set up local decisionmaking bodies at regional and community levels along the Maine coast in the 1990s. The groundfish area management committees (AMCs) would be established in those same towns and cities. But this time, each holder of a groundfishing license will have to choose which Gulf of Maine fishing grounds they ply their trade in.

But there are as many differences as similarities between lobsterfishing and groundfishing, ecologically, technologically and economically. So the articles, lectures, reports, websites and other literature on Community-Based Fisheries Management that these groups listed above are presently offering up for public consumption are big on rationales and broad concepts, but vague on details.

Stay Tuned...

Sears Island: SIPISC to SIJUPC

Sears Island Planning Initiative Steering Committee has morphed into the Sears Island Joint Use Planning Committee. The new group will meet at Union Hall in Searsport Wednesday, July 11, from 9-noon. While the some of the stakeholders have changed, the stakes remain as high as ever!

Earlier posts about the Sears Island port approval process Click Here

Sears Island almost became an LNG port in 2004

SIPISC reached an agreement in April, subsequently approved by legislature and governor, to split the island into a 600 acre natural area and a 341 acre commercial port zone. The SIPISC-ians okayed building an education center and parking lot on the island in the "natural " portion. They also authorized the state to solicit container port companies to develop and operate the port zone.

The JUPC meeting is expected to spend time developing its internal decisionmaking processes and establishing the exact borders between the two zones. Will the port proponents submit a proposal from a port wannabe corporation.

Members of the Sears Island Joint Use Planning Committee are:
Sandy Blitz, ex dir East-West Highway Association
Sara Bradford, 1st selectman Stockton Springs
David Cole, Maine DOT Commissioner
Anne Crimaudo, Protect Sears Island
Scott Dickerson, MCHT
Jim Freeman, president Friends of Sears Island, Maine Earth First!er
James Gillway, Searsport town mgr, former police chief
Robert Grindrod, Montreal Maine railroad former B&A
Rosaire Pelletier, Aroostook legislator
Bruce Probert, Searsport resident career exec retired from Sprague
Joan Saxe, Maine Sierra Club
Dianne Smith, Town of Searsport
Eliza Townsend, Maine Dept of Conservation
Bob Ziegelaarm Maine Port Authority, Telford Aviation
Steve Miller, Islesboro Island Land Trust

Alternates are
Becky Bartovics , Penobscot Bay Alliance and
James Therriault, Sprague Eneregy

Bombs Away From Penobscot Bay - Seal Island cleanup priority rises

The Seal Island parties of interest met last Monday. It was a small party, though: US Army Corps of Engineers, US Fish and Wildlife, Maine DEP. While invited to attend as observer, I was unable to make it to Portland.

Word from Ted Wolfe in Maine DEP's Division of Remediation is that his agency
"...shares your concern regarding any potentially unexploded ordinance in the waters surrounding the island. " Wolfe is confident however, that "as the site moves through the established investigative process, these issues will be discussed."

Also noted was the success that Maine DEP and US Fish and Wildlife (specifically the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife refuge, of which Seal Island is part) had in convincing the Corps of Engineers to uptick Seal Island's priorities score in the review process, virtually ensuring that a cleanup of some sort will indeed be carried out.

Next up: developing a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study An RI/FS is a geophysical survey performed to characterize a suspected UXO area, develop a sampling strategy to characterize areas suspected of containing UXO, and use the info garnered to come up with a site-specific response action. The decision as to whether or not the seafloor around Seal Island will be cleaned up will take place during this process. RI/FS's are also used for organizing cleanups at nuclear wastes sites.


The draft Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study will then made available for public comment to get input on the potential response and on reasonably anticipated future uses. After the Corps of Engineers has responded to the public comments, the response action is finalized in a Record of Decision (ROD) or Decision Document (DD), and, presuming funds available, gets carried out.

Citizens need to be involved in this process. The agencies welcome such participation.

Seal Island clean up: out of sight, out of money, out of mind.

The congressionally funded interagency group planning the cleanup of bomb waste from two marine islands off Maine used for bombing practice during WW2 and Korean War, may have the will, but not the way, to actually search for and clean up the suspected thousands of rounds of cannon shells and rockets that trainee pilots rained upon, not these islands themselves, but the hundreds of acres of seafloor surrounding them. To this day, aging bombs and rockets continue to wash ashore from this ghostly undersea cache.

But the 'Cleanup' as presently planned ignores this toxic hoard. See the official public notice

The word from the two program managers running the planning project - Sheila Holt of US Army Corps of Engineers and Ted Wolfe of Maine DEP - is that despite the suspected presence of 100s of bombs and rockets on the seafloor around the island, and the near total absence of ordnance remaining on the island itself, the Seal Island munitions cleanup will be restricted to topside. or at most the intertidal areas.

Above the tideline only? Why? After all, several generations of student bomber-trainees frequently missed the slender W-shaped island during their practice bombing runs.

To this day, scores of bay-area fishermen can recount encounters with sunken ordnance during their careers. Note that this statement has been rejected as false by at least three area fishermen with extensive experience with those waters and the area fishing communities, who state that apart from a few metal fragments, there have been no unexploded shells or rockets washed up, towed up or snarled up from the waters around Seal Island, and consider it highly unlikely that any shells or rockets remain intact in the subtidal around seal Island

The agencies' explanation -- waters too deep round the island for scuba-diving UXO hunters-- doesn't...ahem... hold water.


At least one third of the seafloor (about 2 square miles) in the munitions danger area is less then 120 feet deep, the diving depth limit set out in the federal Munitions Response Site Protocol.

Regardless, the plan being worked out for possible adoption this month would set a no-dive precedent for cleanup of ex-bomb range islands in marine waters. Duck Island, in the Maine part of the Isles of Shoals archipelago, comes next, and then other marine islands that were used for bombing practices off the US coast.

BOTTOM LINE?
A cleanup program that excludes mapping and cleaning up marine bomb waste from seafloors adjacent to island bomb ranges is unacceptable.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Contact the federal and state leaders of the project. (See contact info below).

Explain that it is
their duty under the Protocol to evaluate and clean up submerged unexploded ordnance in the public waters around Seal Island. The plan should not be finalized until it includes this activity.

Remind them that

* At least a third of the seafloor within the Seal Island Danger Area is shallower than 120 feet, the official safe scuba diving limit set by the federal government for UXO cleanups;

* UXO continues to wash ashore the island from these waters.

* Fishermen continue to report encounters with unexploded ordnance in the vicinity.


Who to contact:

Sheila Holt
Geographical District Project Manager
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
New England District 696 Virginia Road Concord , MA 01742-2751
Phone: 978-318-8174
Email: shiela.d.holt AT usace.army.mil

&

Ted Wolfe
Program manager
Military Munitions Response Program
Bureau of Remediation and Waste management
Maine Department of Environmental Protection
Phone: 207-287-2651 or 287-8552
E-mail: Theodore.E.Wolfe AT maine.gov

Getting your concerns on the record quickly is critical. Be brief and to the point. The draft plan goes before the cleanup committee on Monday June 11th, The two officials above need to have things emailed to them before the close of that day, if not sooner.

Seal Island munitions "cleanup" plan leaves 100s of bombs behind.

Updated June 14, 2007.
Out of sight, out of money, out of mind.

The congressionally funded interagency group planning the cleanup of bomb waste from two marine islands off Maine used for bombing practice during WW2 and Korean War, may have the will, but not the way, to actually search for and clean up the suspected thousands of rounds of cannon shells and rockets that trainee pilots rained upon, not these islands themselves, but the hundreds of acres of seafloor surrounding them. To this day, aging bombs and rockets continue to wash ashore from this ghostly undersea cache.

But the 'Cleanup' as presently planned ignores this toxic horde. See the official public notice

The word from the two program managers running the planning project - Sheila Holt of US Army Corps of Engineers and Ted Wolfe of Maine DEP - is that despite the suspected presence of 100s of bombs and rockets on the seafloor around the island, and the near total absence of ordnance remaining on the island itself, the Seal Island munitions cleanup will be restricted to topside. or at most the intertidal areas.



Above the tideline only? Why? After all, several generations of student bomber-trainees frequently missed the slender W-shaped island during their practice bombing runs. To this day, scores of bay-area fishermen can recount encounters with sunken ordnance during their careers.

The agencies' explanation -- waters too deep round the island for scuba-diving UXO hunters-- doesn't...ahem... hold water.


At least one third of the seafloor (about 2 square miles) in the munitions danger area is less then 120 feet deep, the diving depth limit set out in the federal Munitions Response Site Protocol.

Regardless, the plan being worked out for possible adoption this month would set a no-dive precedent for cleanup of ex-bomb range islands in marine waters. Duck Island, in the Maine part of the Isles of Shoals archipelago, comes next, and then other marine islands that were used for bombing practices off the US coast.

BOTTOM LINE?
A cleanup program that excludes mapping and cleaning up marine bomb waste from seafloors adjacent to island bomb ranges is unacceptable.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Contact the federal and state leaders of the project. (See contact info below).

Explain that it is their duty under the Munitions Response Site Protocol to evaluate and clean up submerged unexploded ordnance in the public waters around Seal Island. The plan should not be finalized until it includes this activity.

Remind them that

* At least a third of the seafloor within the Seal Island Danger Area is shallower than 120 feet, the official safe scuba diving limit set by the federal government for UXO cleanups;

* UXO continues to wash ashore the island from these waters.

* Fishermen continue to report encounters with unexploded ordnance in the vicinity.


Who to contact:

Sheila Holt
Geographical District Project Manager
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
New England District 696 Virginia Road Concord , MA 01742-2751
Phone: 978-318-8174
Email: shiela.d.holt AT usace.army.mil

&

Ted Wolfe
Program manager
Military Munitions Response Program
Bureau of Remediation and Waste management
Maine Department of Environmental Protection
Phone: 207-287-2651 or 287-8552
E-mail: Theodore.E.Wolfe AT maine.gov

Getting your concerns on the record quickly is critical. Be brief and to the point. The draft plan goes before the cleanup committee on Monday June 11th, The two officials above need to have things emailed to them before the close of that day, if not sooner.

Seal Island Bomb Range cleanup planners to meet Monday in Portland.

Seal Island is about 6 miles east of Matinicus Island. The mile-long W-shaped island had thousands of artillery shells and rockets rained upon it by trainee pilots during World War Two and the Korean war. About Seal Island

An interagency group meets Monday in Portland, using funds that
Congress recently appropriated for a federal/state joint effort to survey first this old marine gunnery range, home now to seals and seabirds, for unexploded ordnance (UXO) and other military wastes, and, using the Munitions Response Site Prioritization Protocol, decide what form of cleanup, if any, to do. About UXO. (DoD website) .

This protocol "is used to assess sites that may have unexploded ordnance, discarded military munitions or munitions constituents, and to assign priorities for any additional investigation or muni­tions removal that may be required."

According to MDEP military munitions cleanup specialist Ted Wolfe, a brush fire that swept the island several years ago cooked off most of the unexploded ordnance; wave action, however, continues to bring additional UXO ashore from the many bombs and rockets that fell short of the island during training exercises. Area fishing history is rich with stories of encounters with UXO around Seal Island.

Despite this identification of the island's nearshore waters as a continuing source of explosive ordnance, cleanup planning has focused solely on UXO wastes above the tideline; the depth of water around the island apparently makes removal of submerged UXO problematic.

A Plan Development Team will give a presentation to the June 11th meeting of state and federal agencies in Portland. According to project manager Sheila Holt of the Army Corps of Engineers, the planning process has moved along swiftly; there are high hopes that the evaluation and cleanup of Seal Island's miltary wastes will serve as a prototype for further marine gunnery range cleanups in other ocean locations around the United States.

The next assessment site will be Duck Island, Maine, Isles of Shoals; it, too was used as a naval aircraft bombing target area.

Rockland Harbor Lobsterfishery - Saved from Marina Sprawl

Amazing but true: Maine Department of Environmental Protection actually PROTECTED a nearshore lobster ground and scenic shoreline from marina sprawl. And this despite the vigorous efforts of Governor Baldacci's brother Robert to sway the agency's permit reviewer on behalf of the lawfirm representing the pier wannabe, Samorock LLC.


A unique bit of Maine's coastal waters, the north end of Rockland Harbor is rich with lobsters, free of marinas, and has only a tiny scattering a private piers. The shallow waters are filled with eelgrass meadows, kelp forests, coralline algae, lobster burrows.mussel beds and more.


Just as important, large areas are free of moorings - the bane of bottom habitat. (the heavy chains at the lower end of the mooring sweep round and round the mooring stone, clearing away kelp and eelgrass, and flattening lobster, shrimp and seaworm burrows)

Mooring fields, as cover much of Rockland Harbor and other increasingly crowded harbors along the midcoast, have contributed to the desertification of otherwise highly bio-productive protected shallow waters. With this removal of living seafloor habitats comes a diminution of lobster productivity.

So praise to Maine DEP and especially to Jim Cassida and ex-MDEP-er Lisa Kay Keene, for taking the lobstermen's concerns seriously and for upholding the laws and regulations protecting our irreplaceable coastal scenery from ruination.

Kudos too, of course to Arthur Johnson and the other lobstermen who stood up for their fishing ground. If they hadn't, the pier proposal very likely would have been approved, and this would have become a thing of the past!

A hearty bronx cheer, on the other hand, to Maine's Historic Preservation Commission, Maine Natural Heritage Program, Maine Department of Marine Resources, Maine Department of Inland Fish and Wildlife, US Army Corps of Engineers, Friends of the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse for kowtowing to big business and declaring that marina sprawl in the north end would have no ecological or other impacts.

Sears Island - end of one committee, start of another!

On April 27, 2007, (Friday morning), the Sears Island Planning Initiative committee holds its final meeting at Searsport Town Hall. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The future of Maine's biggest natural undeveloped non-park island may well hinge on what gets decided then and there, as a brand new committee, sworn to abide by the findings of its now-nearly-defunct predecessor, rises phoenix-like from the ashes of what is feared could be disharmony over two alternatives.


Two key purposes to the meeting, according to a recent email from the quartet that has been running the year long committee: Jonathan Reitman, the hired facilitator, Karin Tilberg, Office of the Governor, Dianne Smith, Town of Searsport, Sue Inches, State Planning Office.

(1) the group of stakeholders that has taken part in this year of meetings will take a last stab at "harmonizing" the still divergent points of view that split them. Two "draft consensus agreements" have been emailed to committee members. Will one, the other or a mixture emerge? Or none?

Daunting: the committee includes cargo port builder wannabes, upper bay town governments, earth first!, land trusts, several grassroots activist groups, shipping and piloting companies, and more.

But don't worry if you can't create a useable synthesis on your own; a subcommittee has been working up such a document and will present it at the Friday meeting. Reitman says that it "harmonizes and reconciles all previous drafts". Really? Hope springs eternal...

(2) A 'Joint Use Planning Committee', with "balanced representation of port development and conservation perspectives" is being set up to further these harmonized, reconciled goals --whatever they be. Nominees are being sought. Reitman says: "If any of you have potential nominees for that group who would represent a particular perspective and who are willing to serve, please send those names to Jonathan as soon as possible (jreitman@blazenetme.net)."

However, the notices makes it clear that to be on the committee, one must support the planned consensus, which may be summarized, perhaps overkindly, as:

"A Sears Island port if necessary, but not necessarily a Sears Island port."

Risky, what? Who decides if a port is necessary on this wild island off Searsport, or simply desirable to some group of interests?

Maine eels! Protect them lest they go extinct!

Come to the state legislature Wednesday April 25th at 1pm. and speak about "An Act To Protect Native Diadromous Fish during Their Migration"

Eels are vanishing from Maine waters. Maine DEP knows that power turbines and other impacts are the reason why, but shirks its responsibility to protect. This bill both clamps shut major loopholes that let the power industry get away with turning eels to mincemeat AND gives citizens the right to stand up for the eels.

Details below from Friends of Merrymeeting Bay Contact Ed Friedman @ 666-3372 or email at edfomb@gwi.net

"PLEASE COME & TESTIFY Wednesday April 25th 1pm.

WHAT: Joint Public Hearing before two legislature committees at once: Marine Resources and Natural Resources.

WHERE: Room 214, Cross Office Building Augusta

Bill summary from FOMB: This bill requires that dams in this State in all classifications of fresh and estuarine surface waters must provide safe and effective upstream and downstream passage for indigenous diadromous fish. Diadromous fish are those that migrate from fresh to sea water or sea water to fresh water and are known as anadromous and catadromous fish, such as alewives, shad and salmon. It also provides a process for any person to bring a civil action against violators of the requirements.

WHY The BEP is headed towards a probable abdication of its responsibilities in their response to our petitions. It's up to the legislature to hear our cry and that of our fish and fishermen.

Penobscot Bay Foghorn Duet - Now on CD

Listen to the haunting call-and-chant of two great lighthouse horns guarding the rocky entry to Penobscot Bay's Rockland Harbor one cool thick-fogged spring morning hour. Enjoy a minute-long mp3 sample.

Joining the foghorns in song, a departing fishing boat and arriving ferry meld their own cries with those of gulls and songbirds, underlain by the wash and gurgle of the Gulf of Maine beating time on the stony Owls Head shore below. An hour long hybrid symphony of humanity reaching out to Nature, and Her eternal reply.

Order an hour of eternity, while helping protect Penobscot Bay from pollution and marina sprawl: click here for ordering details

MDEP nixes Samoset pier! Rockland Breakwater lobstering saved!

Rockland harbor lobstering, recreational fishing saved from resort pier plan.

Maine Department of Environmental Protection has rejected a proposal by Samorock to build a 550 foot pier in the scenic and fishery-rich waters adjacent to the Rockland Breakwater. The agency cited impacts to irreplaceable scenic resources, and noted the proposal's potential impacts to existing lobstering, recreational fishing and swimming uses of the site.

Maine DEP permit reviewer James Cassida wrote today: " The denial was issued by the Department on April 12th."

Rockland harbor lobsterman Arthur Johnson said "A lot of fishermen depend on Rockland harbor for their living. This is prime fishing area and next to a National Historic Landmark. This area should be protected forever from development of this type."

This marks the second time opponents of Samoset's pier plans have prevailed.
The city of Rockland's harbor commission has received a proposal to zone the harbor waters near the breakwater as a lobster fishing area. This would prevent future attempts at encroachment by marina sprawl wannabes.

Samoset has threatened to block public access to the historic breakwater if it didn't get its way. It is also seeking a zoning change from the city of Rockland allowing it to double the density of condominiums it has proposed to build near the breakwater.

Fat chance on either!

Sturgeon are surging!. On Aril 25th help them and all Maine's migratory fishes.

Friends of Marymeeting Bay urges your help in supporting a bill tto bring to a decent end the struggle to free from river blocking dams, the eels, shad and salmon that naturally migrate in and out of the Kennebec, Penobscot, and other Maine rivers, as do many other species.

On April 25 at one pm in the state house, it all comes to a boil, with a joint
Marine Resources and Natural Resources Committees hearing 4/25 at 1pm on
LD 1528: An Act To Protect Native Diadromous Fish during Their Migration.

If passed, Maine state law will read:

38 MRSA §465, sub-§5. All waters. Dams in all classifications of fresh and estuarine surface waters must provide safe and effective upstream and downstream passage for indigenous anadromous and catadromous migratory fish, including eels. For every day this fish passage is not in effect, the dam owner may be automatically fined not less than $1,000 by the department or other appropriate state agency.


The official bill summary reads: "This bill requires that dams in this State in all classifications of fresh and estuarine surface waters must provide safe and effective upstream and downstream passage for indigenous diadromous fish. Diadromous fish are those that migrate from fresh to sea water or sea water to fresh water and are known as anadromous and catadramous fish, such as alewives, shad and salmon. It also provides a process for any person to bring a civil action against violators of the requirements."

Contact Ed Friedman of Friends of Merrymeeting Bay for more info. edfomb AT gwi.net

Rockland Breakwater - DEP's draft denial and the final comment countdown!

It's only four days until the Maine DEP pounds the last nail into the coffee of the undead Samoset Pier. Help them swing the mallet by sending them your comments by close of business April 11, 2007. Email them to
James.Cassida(AT)maine.gov Use subject line: Samorock Pier application.

Below is an article by Melissa Waterman from the latest issue of Free Press Online summing up where things stand. Let Jim know that the pier would unacceptably and permanently degrade the water quality of the lobster-rich ecosystem of the northern end of Rockland Harbor.

DEP Issues Draft Denial of Samoset’s Pier Application
— by Melissa Waterman

Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has issued a preliminary denial of Samoset Resort’s application to construct a 12-foot-wide, 550-foot wooden pier, 50-foot ramp and 140-float system off its property in Rockland. According to Jim Cassida, Licensing Coordinator within the Bureau of Land and Water Quality in the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, “This is a draft denial, typical in larger projects. It allows all interested parties to review and comment. It’s the final opportunity for the applicant to overcome the objections contained in the draft denial.”

At the request of Samorock LLC, which owns the Samoset, DEP has extended the comment period on the draft to April 11. A final decision will not be issued until some time after that comment period is over. Appeals of final decisions go to the Board of Environmental Protection. “It is rare for an appeal to happen, but I fully expect an appeal in this case,” said Cassida.

The draft denial concluded that the proposed activity would “unreasonably interfere with existing scenic, aesthetic, recreational, and navigational uses,” and “would unreasonably harm a significant wildlife habitat.”

Following are excerpts from the findings in the preliminary denial:

“After reviewing the evidence in the record and viewing the project site, the Department finds that there is at least one practicable alternative to the project that would be less damaging to the environment. In particular, the applicant could use the existing marina facilities within Rockland Harbor as well as their existing ramp and float located on the breakwater. The applicant could provide a shuttle service to the marina facilities within Rockland Harbor and a harbor shuttle to transport residents and guests of the Samoset Resort to and from their boats located on a mooring within the established mooring area in Rockland Harbor.… Given that the construction of the proposed pier, ramp and float would result in a permanent loss of wetland area, as well as additional impacts to the wetland; and that the applicant has access to the water through existing marina facilities within close proximity to the development site, the Department finds that the applicant has not adequately demonstrated avoidance of impacts to the coastal wetland....

“IF&W [Inland Fisheries & Wildlife] stated that the construction of a pier, ramp and float system at this location will result in a loss of habitat functions and values. However, IF&W views that loss of habitat functions and values as not having an unreasonable impact to wildlife habitat.... The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) commented that some loss of habitat functions and values may occur through displacement of the traditional lobster fishing area. However, DMR concluded that the proposal for a pier at this location would not have an unreasonable adverse impact on marine habitat.... Given that the construction of the proposed pier would result in a loss of habitat functions and value; and that the applicant has boating access to the water through its already existing structure and could have access through facilities within the Rockland anchorage, the Department finds that the applicant has not adequately demonstrated avoidance of impacts to marine wildlife and fisheries habitat.”

“…The Department has determined that two of the scenic vistas examined will be significantly adversely affected through construction of the proposed 740-foot pier, ramp and float. The scenic impact will occur to views from the Marie H. Reed Memorial Park, which serves as the primary access point for the public to the Rockland breakwater and the harbor/beach area at the base of the proposed pier....

“In consideration of these criteria the Department finds that the applicant has failed to demonstrate that the proposed pier, ramp and float will not dominate the landscape from the public viewpoint at both Marie H. Reed Park and the beach/harbor area at the base of the proposed pier structure. For the users of the coastal wetland, such as people walking along the intertidal area, and boaters, the pier would be a significant visual intrusion, traversing the entire width of the intertidal area. While persons walking the intertidal area would be able to pass beneath the dock, the dock would dominate the landscape and partially obstruct and/or fragment the view along the intertidal area towards the Rockland breakwater and across Rockland Harbor, significantly detracting from the visual and aesthetic quality of the resource and thereby interfering with this use of the coastal wetland. Additionally, the proposed pier, ramp and float will displace some traditional fishing area resulting in an impact on this traditional use and navigation within this portion of Rockland Harbor.”

Catching lobsters with a dragger on the Maine coast.

Catching Lobsters with a groundfish trawler along the Maine coast
Click this link for photographs from two successive "tows" of dragging gear by the Maine/New Hampshire trawl survey in the waters of outer Penobscot Bay--from the initial haul-in of the net to the dumping out of the (primarily) lobster catches.

(Excerpted from Maine Department of Marine Resources annual trawl surveys of the state's marine waters. 2000 footage.)

Chilloa-ing effect on free speech at Maine Fishermen's Forum

Struggle to protect nearshore fishing grounds divides forum organizers. Opponents of efforts by the Samoset Resort to gain state permission to build a 550 foot yacht pier in a nearby Rockland Harbor commercial lobstering area brought their grievances to the Maine Fishermen's Forum in the form of a flyer featuring a photo of a lobsterman fishing the area that would be "taken" by the Samoset for its pier, floats, dozens of moorings and its no-fishing yacht access lanes.

The popular Fishermen's Forum brings hundreds of Maine lobstermen and other fishworkers together each year for three days of networking and seminars on the industry, marine science and fishery regulations

The flier about the breakwater controversy was liberally distributed throughout the Forums' display table areas on several days.

On Saturday, copies of it reached Samoset officials, and shortly after that, a grim-faced Chilloa Young, forum organizer, stalked through the halls with Maine SeaGrant official Paul Anderson sheepishly in tow, seizing about half of the offending literature before it was taken up by fishermen browsing over the dozens of display tables.

Asked if she had vetted all fliers at the Forum, or was quashing the lobstermen's complaint at the bidding of the resort, Young said that only those that paid for display space could distribute fliers at the event. (Needless to say, a small but significant percentage of the fliers at the Forum were from groups that had NOT paid for space, but being inoffensive to the owners of the facility, remained on display.)

The flier's distributors learned an important lesson: the bright red headlines of the second wave of fliers made them easy prey for the censors. The black and white version distributed Thursday apparently escaped their attention.

The incident showed both the clout of the well-connected Samoset resort's owners, who are being represented before state environmental agencies by the governor's brother Robert Baldacci, and the timidity of the commercial fishing industry's boosters in Maine, who frequently look the other way when big development projects gnaw away important inshore fishing grounds. Tsk tsk Chilloa and Paul...Whose side are you on, anyway?

Lower Penobscot River Watershed Coalition meets Feb 26, Bangor.

Like Penobscot Bay, the tidal Penobscot River plays an important role in the fish and wildlife ecology of the Gulf of Maine. The Lower Penobscot Watershed Coalition is meeting February 26th from 10:00am – 2:00pm, at the Fish &Wildlife Building, 650 State Street, Bangor, ME to discuss protecting and restoring these values. The meeting is sponsored by Penobscot River Restoration Project Info: Gayle B. Zydlewski 207-862-3382. The draft agenda follows:

1. Review agenda

2. Introductions & Updates

3. Values of the Lower Penobscot Watershed that are worth preserving

4. What needs to happen to preserve these values

5. Overview of the Penobscot River Restoration Project

6. Discussion of Land Trusts and Watershed Councils

7. Elements of a Mission Statement

8. Discussion of organizational structure

9. Action items/next steps

10. Schedule next meeting

11. Other

Directions to Fish and Wildlife Bldg in Bangor:
Coming from I-95, take exit 187 (Hogan Road exit). If you are north bound, take a right onto Hogan Road and go to the Mount Hope intersection (third traffic light) and turn right. Approximately .3 miles take a left at the bus kiosk. This is the back entrance of the BMHI campus. Go past the large green barn. There will be a large parking lot on the right hand side of the road, and at the end of this is a three way-intersection. Turn right and look for the three-story rectangular brick building with a bronze deer sculpture in the front yard. That's the Fish & Wildlife Building. ASC is on the second floor.

If you are south bound, take a left on to Hogan Road and follow the directions.

Feb 14th legis ponder Kennebec migratory fish restoration, reimbursing Commercial Safety Councilors, limit mahogany quahog fishery to boat owners

Wednesday: Feb 14^th 1:00 pm PH
Room 214, Cross State Office Building

Public Hearing on Marine related Bills

LD# 324-Resolve to Require the Dept. of MAR to Report on Results on Anadromous Fish Restoration on the Kennebec River System

257-A/A to Allow Expense Reimbursement for the Commercial Fishing Safety Council

156-A/A to Require All Holders of Mahogany Quahog Licenses to Operate Their Own Vessels When Fishing for Quahogs (concept draft)

More info: Veronica Snow, Marine Resources Committee Clerk Tele: 207-287-1337

Lobsters from away, landing at a dock near you.

Bill seeks to lure out of state fishermen to land their lobsters in Maine.

LD 311 "An Act To Create a Nonresident Lobster and Crab Landing Permit"
Sponsored by Representative Walter Wheeler

"This bill creates a new permit that allows nonresident lobster fishermen to land their catch in a Maine port."

A farewell to seagulls?

Legislation would make it a crime to feed a seagull or any "migratory bird"
on public intertidal land on the coast of Maine and its islands.

LD 384 An Act To Further Protect Water Quality in Coastal Waters by Representative Leila Percy, Phippsburg expressly prohibits a most basic form of interspecies communication practiced in our area: tossing food to seagulls, ducks on the shore of the Gulf of maine.

"Prohibition. A person may not intentionally feed any migratory bird or seagull on public property in the intertidal zone."
As always, the fine folks in the state legislature's Marine Resources Committee
would be pleased to learn your point of view on this or any other marine legislation before them.

Shortnose Sturgeon, Elver fisher safety bills before marine resources committee Feb 7th

Augusta: Legislature's joint marine resources committee schedule
Wednesday: Feb. 7th 1:00 pm

9:00-10:30 am FY08-09 Budget hearing in Approp Committee.
1:00 pm Presentation: Sea Grant UMaine Cooperative Extension
Reports: Boater Safety and Endangered Species
Work session on LD# 140-A/A to List the Shortnose Sturgeon as a Marine Endangered Species
Work session on LD# 77-A/A to Provide for the Safety of Elver Fishermen Using Dip Nets

Sears Island: next state meeting Feb 5, '07 9 to 3

Sears Island Planning Initiative Steering Committee meets February 5, 2007 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Searsport. NOTE start time of 9:00. AGENDA:

I. Welcome, Introductions and Agenda Review (9:00 -9:15)
II. Presentation of DOT White Paper on Container Port Parameters (and Q & A) (9:15-10:15)

BREAK (10:15- 10:25)

III. Presentation on Proposed Easement Language (10:25-11:15)
IV. Private Meetings among Affinity Groups for Discussion of DOT White Paper and Proposed Easement Language (11:15 - 12:15)

LUNCH (12:15 – 1:00)

V. Whole Group Stakeholder Discussion of Draft Consensus Agreement (1:00 - 2:00)
VI. Followup Private Meetings among Affinity Groups (if necessary) (2:00-2:30)
VII. Next Steps & Adjourn (2:30-3:00)

Useful Links:
Fair Play for Sears Island
http://fairplayforsearsisland.org/
Maine Dept of Conservation Sears Island webpage
http://www.state.me.us/doc/initiatives/SearsIsland/SearsIsland.shtml

Bay Management Study final report out: Weak on solutions

"Managing Maine’s Nearshore Coastal Resources: Final Report of the Bay Management Study" Click Here

The report was just given to the Maine Legislature's Marine Resources Committee
What's in it?

It starts by stating the problem:
Maine’s nearshore coastal waters are under increasing pressure from a variety of influences. The potential exists for both increased user conflicts and for further environmental degradation. At the same time, there are signs and symptoms that Maine’s current methods of nearshore management need improvement. Without embarking on enhancements to nearshore management, the health of the marine environment, the livelihoods and recreation that depend on it and the essence of Maine’s character may be at risk.

Solutions? Nothing new here.
A. Move towards regional management of nearshore waters.
B. Increase the amount, availability and accessibility of nearshore data and information.
C. Improve the state’s framework for nearshore management.
D. Increase the amount and diversity of funding sources.

Rockland Lobsterman to City Council: Save Our Industry from Marina Sprawl

Rockland lobsterman Artie Johnson tells the Rockland City Council to protect his industry! Waiting for Maine DEP to deny the Samorock yacht pier proposal is nervewracking to all concerned.

Salmon manure - Maine DEP tightfisted on details

Under an aquaculture agreement with the federal EPA, Maine oversees the NPDES pollution permitting license for finfish aquaculture. The salmon farms dotting the downeast coast must file monthly monitoring reports with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, detailing the amount of manure that has emanated from the up-to million farm salmon swimming in foreign-owned cages from Passamaquoddy Bay to Blue Hill Bay at any given time.

Read DEP Fact Sheet on Salmon farm pollution monitoring (PDF)

The reports arrive at MDEP's Bangor office in a tabulated format that Maine DEP, several years into receiving these reports, says it has yet to come up with a good way of printing them out or otherwise making them available.
to
This has angered and frustrated coastal environmentalists seeking this info -- vital to keeping track of these absentee-owned marine hog farms. But MDEP has persisted making these reports available to the public as paper printouts. on unscannable unreadable gray paper stock with the oversized table figures overcompressed to the point of unreadability.

The MDEP official in question Matthew Young admitted that "the printed form is a challenge to read" and agreed to "look into the possibility of creating a cd-rom with the electronic reports we have now...".

Further Young'll see where the agency as it as far as adding this waste discharge data to its publically available database. Watch this space...

Rockland lobster fishery protection debated at City Council meeting.

On January 8, 2007, A lobsterman and a conservationist spoke their minds to the Rockland city council about the Samorock pier proposal.
Click here for coverage of that council meeting,
Excerpt: Pier proposed near Rockland Breakwater...On the application to build a pier near the Rockland Breakwater, Ron Huber, executive director of Penobscot Bay Watch, and Art Johnson, a Rockland lobster fisherman, asked the council to take a position opposing the Samoset pier project.

“If built, the pier itself will close off fishing in the productive near-shore waters,” said Huber. “More fishing ground will be lost to the approach routes that would have to be kept free of lobster traps to avoid fouling the props of boats using the pier. It would increase pollution into this cleanest, most natural part of Rockland’s inner harbor.”
http://knox.villagesoup.com/print/Print.cfm?StoryID=84873

City harbormaster Ed Glaser has been too lukewarm about the subject, in their opinion, and can an earful from city fishermen, whose traps bring millions of dollars into the local economy. About two dozen harbor lobstermen have signed a petition to the city which was delivered last month.

Maine Legislature: 2007 bills so far

The 2007 session of the Maine legislature is underway. The first 200 bills that they'll be taking on can be read here.

One bill LD 16 will decriminalize lobster trap molesting!

Dragon Cement - which toxic wastes does it burn?

Back in November Dragon Cement rejected a request by Neighbors for a Safe Dragon (NSD) for the company's fuel/waste burning logs. Why? "Trade secrets," of course. NSD complained to Maine DEP's Peter Carney. He wrote to Dragon in early December, stating that the company must either (a) ship NSD their fuel logs with the 'trade secrets' blacked out, or (b) ship the uncensored list to DEP. The agency, he wrote, would decide whether the things Dragon wants redacted deserved it. Then DEP would pass the fuel logs to NSD either censored or not--though first giving Dragon a chance to appeal this to state court. Stay tuned...

Fishermen's opposition to Samorock pier rises.

Opposition rises among lobstermen opposed to Samoset's second attempt to build and operate a private pier nearby the Rockland Breakwater. See also Lobstermen's 2001 opposition and that of their community to Samoset's first attempt.

MEDIA:
* WCSH TV Portland, Bangor Maine Dec 29, 2006
"A proposal for a New Pier in Rockland has local lobstermen boiling...."

* Village Soup News, Knox County, Maine. " Dec 28, 2006 A petition suggesting Rockland take a stand for the Rockland Harbor lobstermen was delivered late Friday evening to City Hall...."

* Courier Gazette Rockland, Maine "A petition signed by 23 lobstermen has been filed with the city in opposition to the proposed Samoset marina next to the Rockland Breakwater. The petition will be presented to the city council..."

* Feds opposed earlier Samoset pier plan for rockland Breakwater 5 years ago. Read letter from National Marine Fisheries Service

Sears Island - talks continue.

Two accounts of yesterday's meeting in Searsport...

Tanya's Mitchell's account of the meeting Here

Peter Taber on yesterday's meeting on Sears Island.
Sears Island Update
By Peter Taber

“Today’s the critical day,” Deputy Conservation Commissioner Karin Tilberg predicted Tuesday in Searsport at the start of what many had long hoped would be the end of a now seven-month-long citizen planning initiative, its claimed goal to achieve a consensus recommendation to Gov. John Baldacci to decide the fate of Sears Island. “It’s going to happen today or it’s not going to happen,” she said.

Five hours of generally unproductive talk later, it clearly wasn’t going to happen. But as the new year rolls around, the approximately 40 “stakeholder” participants were assured, there will be more talk, lots of talk. Starting in January, there will be meetings both large and small. Those attending will mostly be from the ranks of the two now-dominant positions that have emerged from half a dozen lengthy open meetings since May, from an unknown number of smaller technically public but unannounced meetings, from a blizzard of email and telephone traffic among the participants.

One group is a familiar one that includes transportation industry representatives and officials of the Department of Transportation (DOT) who are straightforward in their desire for major port development on the west side of the island. According to a large map of the island prepared by the DOT’s Rob Elder on display in the meeting house behind the Searsport Congregational Church where Tuesday’s gathering was held, this would close off for port development some 300 acres of what at present is an entirely wild 941-acre island, the largest such public island property on the East Coast.

The other major group of initiative stakeholders are those ostensibly in the preservation camp, most of whom until recently argued for maintaining the entirety of the island in its natural state. Considering the stormy political history of the island, focus of the longest-running environmental battle in New England history, many of these stakeholders now appear prepared to make some truly astonishing concessions to the first group, their primary caveat being that they, too, should be allowed to embark on physical development of their own on the island in the form of some sort of “education center.”

Indeed, responding to a draft consensus proposal primarily authored by Jonathan Reitman, the Brunswick attorney serving as facilitator for the state-sponsored process, on Tuesday elements of this group made public a compromise version that would give the DOT the green light to start “marketing” perhaps 141 acres of the island for a cargo container port. Reitman had suggested about 241 acres with possibly about another 50 acres serving as “a flex easement.” The compromise version was prepared by Steve Miller, director of the Islesboro Islands Trust, who along with Scott Dickerson, his counterpart at Coastal Mountains Land Trust, has led the drive for non-industrial development of the island. It was unclear whether all the others present calling themselves environmentalists were endorsing this version. Most of these stakeholders spent a considerable portion of the early afternoon closeted away in a private planning session of their own closed to the press. What was clear, after they finally emerged for the open public session, the only criticism heard of the Miller proposal came from the mainline port proponents, who didn’t feel it went far enough to suit them.

The environmentalists included two representatives of the Maine chapter of the Sierra Club. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Sierra Club footed much of the bill for a succession of legal maneuvers that stymied port developers and forced the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to enforce provisions of the U.S. Clean Water Act. This activity brought attention to the enormous environmental damage that would be caused by a container port with a marginal wharf on the west shore of Sears Island, the very sort of project now being reconsidered. It also led to criminal investigation of some of those involved in the major preparatory work that did take place for the project, something that only failed to result in prosecution because the statute of limitations ran out. Further, it led to Normandeau Associates, which conducted some of the planning studies on behalf of the DOT for the project, having its privilege to bid for federal contracts suspended. The Sierra Club’s activities also resulted in the state agreeing to an $800,000 settlement to avoid prosecution for illegal filling of wetlands at the proposed port site. And, most significantly, it was this legal effort that ultimately forced Gov. Angus King to conclude in 1996 that the cost of mitigating for environmental damage made continuing with the port project an economically unsound idea.

Tuesday’s meeting opened with Tilberg seeking to clear the air in the wake of a Bangor Daily News article last Friday whose banner headline announced “Sears Island group reaches consensus on port.” “This is a very delicate time,” she cautioned as she went on to strongly deny suspicion her department was anything but transparent in its dealings, that it certainly would never attempt “to plant articles.” The story with its misleading headline was widely circulated by other news media including Maine Public Radio. Reporter Tom Groening said he “cringed” when he read the headline and blamed “some 25-year-old copyeditor” for the error.

END

Maine DEP still undecided on Samorock pier-sprawl plan for Rockland Breakwater.

Jim Cassida, Maine DEP's permit reviewer for the Samorock's plan for a yacht pier next to the Rockland Breakwater, continues to delay. Several days ago he answered an inquiry as to the status of the plan with:

"We are again waiting for a revised visual analysis. I will keep you posted. Jim"

So the wait continues...

DMR politicizes aquaculture decision

Maine Department of Marine Resources' aquaculture administrator is
throwing roadblocks in the way of a Rockland aquaculture proposal apparently in order to benefit a developer with personal ties to Governor Baldacci that is seeking to build a pier in a nearby location. At the same
time, Maine Department of Environmental Protection is poised to reject
the developer's pier proposal, due to its impact to the area's marine
resources.

Rockland resident Neal Parker filed an application with DMR on January
12th of this year for an experimental lease to grow sponges, eelgrass
and coralline algae in a two acre site near the Rockland Breakwater.
The species would be bottom-cultured with no cages, lines or pens.
Lobstering and recreational fishing would be permitted to continue
within the lease area.

While the proposal has met with acceptance by the residents and lobster
fishers of the area, DMR has done everything possible to slow down decision
making on Parker's application, apparently to benefit efforts by a
politically connected developer to build a pier in the same area. The
developer, Samorock LLC, is represented before state agencies by
Robert Baldacci, Governor John Baldacci's brother. Samorock owns
the Samoset resort.

DMR aquaculture administrator Mary Costigan has tried a variety of
tactics to delay decisionmaking on Parker's proposal. According to
documents released pursuant to a Freedom of Access Law request , Costigan
sought a scoping session on the proposal before receiving ANY comments
on the proposal. The scoping session was ultimately not held,
following objections by another DMR official.

Costigan then ordered a public hearing on the proposal, despite a lack
of public interest during the March comment period in doing so. Public
hearings are not required on experimental aquaculture leases unless
five or more individuals request one. Only three requests were
received. The would-be pier developer Samorock LLC did not request a
public hearing.

Moreover, while the agency typically holds public hearings on
experimental aquaculture proposals a few weeks after the close of the
comment period, Costigan has set the date for Parker's hearing for
late August, effectively preventing him from beginning work on his
lease site until next year.

By contrast, DMR received a mussel farm proposal in May and
will hold the public hearing in July, according to the mussel farm
applicant's father, Erick Swanson.

Remarkably, while Maine DMR's aquaculture administrator has been
bending over backwards to favor developer Samorock over its own
aquaculture applicant, officials at Maine Department of Environmental
Protection are poised to reject Samorock's pier proposal due to its
adverse effects on juvenile lobster habitat, the harbor lobster
fishery, shorebird nesting habitat and the aesthetics of the
breakwater area, according to DEP official Jim Cassida, who is
handling the application for that agency.

Cassida will be meeting with representatives of Samorock today to give
them an opportunity to withdraw their pier plan before the agency
rejects it.

Maine DEP proposed rejecting a similar Samorock proposal in 2001. The company withdrew its proposal at that time.

Sears Island's future at stake at meeting May 30th

On May 30th the Sears Island Planning Initiative Steering Committee will meet at the First Congregational Church of Searsport from 9 a.m.- 3 p.m. All are welcome.
DOC info on Sears island meetings Click Here
DRAFT AGENDA
I. Welcome, Introductions and Agenda Review
II. Goals for the process
III. Proposed Groundrules for Effective Communication and Dispute Resolution
IV. Proposed Steering Committee Protocol
V. Composition of Steering Committee and Resource Circle
VI. Overview of Process, Proposed Work Plan and Timeline; discussion of public participation event(s)
VII. Creation of Subcommittees:
* Education (including materials)
* Public Participation
* Site Visit
* Other
VIII. Identification of Issues
IX. Summary and Adjourn

Public hearings June 12-13 on 2006-07 sea urchin seasons

(DMR) announces two public hearings on proposed rules to establish the 2006-2007 Maine sea urchin fishing seasons. Rules for both zones (Zone 1 to be followed by Zone 2) will be discussed at both hearings.

• Monday, June 12, 6pm at the Science Building Lecture Hall, University of Maine, 9 O’Brien Avenue, Machias.
• Tuesday, June 13, 6pm at the Lincoln County Communications Center Meeting Room (lower entrance behind the courthouse), Route 1, Wiscasset.

Agency contact person: Margaret Hunter
Mail written comments to: attn L Churchill
AGENCY NAME: Department of Marine Resources
ADDRESS: PO Box 8, West Boothbay Harbor, Maine 04575-0008
TELEPHONE: (207) 633-9584

Sears Island raided by Homeland Security

Sears Island raided by Homeland Security.
Local and state security forces put public Sears Island under a tight cordon, Friday, including aerial surveillance, police dogs, motorized and on-foot sheriff's patrols,and a hastily set up wall of Jersey Barriers blockading off the island, all at the request of the Maine Department of Transportation,

That agency fears losing its grip on the NW quarter of the island.
related article ...watch for updates...

Stop Maine shark-finning!

On Wednesday May 24th, you can help put an end to the practice of "finning" sharks captured in Maine state waters.

On that day at 6pm Maine DMR will host a meeting on a rulemaking proposal to do so at their laboratory in West Boothbay Harbor (Directions below). "Shark finning" means capturing dogfish and other sharks live, cutting off and saving their fins,and tossing the maimed animal back into the water. Sharks' fins are considered a folk medicine or flavorful soup ingredient by several cultures. The price paid to harvesters for fins is much higher per pound than for shark flesh or skin, leading to an incentive to keep only the fins of sharks . The shark finning industry has led to a major drop in the number of sharks around the world, including the Gulf of Maine.

The US Government now bans shark finning in federal waters. Maine is required to enact a shark finning ban for state waters. Please get involved to make sure that Maine's regulations are strict as possible to keep our finny friends around!
Complete details, below...


PUBLIC HEARING: Wednesday, May 24, 2006, 6:00 PM*, Department of Marine Resources, Large Conference Room, 200 McKown Point Road, West Boothbay Harbor

DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS: Saturday, June 3, 2006

AGENCY CONTACT PERSON: Terry Stockwell (tel: 207-624-6550)
Mail Written Comments to: attn: L. Churchill
AGENCY NAME: Department of Marine Resources
ADDRESS: PO Box 8
West Boothbay Harbor, Maine 04575-0008
WEB SITE: www.maine.gov/dmr/rulemaking
TELEPHONE: (207) 633-9584
FAX: (207) 633-9579
TTY: (207) 633-9500 (Deaf/Hard of Hearing)
Hearing facilities: If you require accommodations due to disability, please contact Kim Pierce, at (207) 287-5055.
­­­­______­­­­­­______________________________________________________________________
Additional information:

The proposed regulations would implement a prohibition in Maine’s territorial waters for the process of “finning” spiny dogfish or coastal sharks. This measure would provide enforcement consistency with the National Marine Fisheries Service federal regulations for sharks (CFR 635.30) and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Fisheries Management Plan for Spiny Dogfish.

Finning is the process of removing the fin or fins from a coastal shark or spiny dogfish and discarding the remaining of the animal at sea. According to the federal regulations background the strong international market for shark fins has increased the potential for fishing shark stocks at unsustainable levels as well as the waste of usable (but often relatively lower value) shark meat.

The proposed regulations would affect all harvesters of coastal shark or spiny dogfish in Maine’s territorial waters. These amendments are intended to have a positive impact on the conservation of the resource for future harvest.

Shark finning has been prohibited in Federal waters since 1993, and finning of spiny dogfish was prohibited in this region in 2000. Persons aboard a vessel issued a federal permit for coastal shark or spiny dogfish already must comply with the federal prohibitions to shore or more restrictive rules. Maine is the remaining member state of the ASMFC compact to comply with the finning prohibition.


Proposed regulations: DEPARTMENT OF MARINE RESOURCES

Chapter 50- Spiny Dogfish and Coastal Sharks

50.01 Definitions

1. “Coastal Sharks” means for the purpose of these regulations any species of shark caught in Maine’s territorial waters.

2. “Finning” means the act of taking a spiny dogfish or other coastal shark removing the fins, and returning the remainder of the spiny dogfish or other coastal shark to the sea.


50.02 Harvest, Possession and Landing Restrictions Note: See separate proposed rulemaking

50.10 Finning Prohibited

Finning is prohibited in Maine territorial waters. Vessels that land spiny dogfish or other coastal shark must land fins in proportion to carcasses, with a maximum 5% fin to carcass ratio, by weight. Fins may be removed at sea, but the corresponding carcass, including the head and tail, must be retained. All fins and carcasses must be landed at the same time and in the same location. The shark or dogfish may be bled.




If you wish to submit comments on this rulemaking and are unable to attend the hearing please mail written comments at any time from the receipt of this notice to be received on or by
June 3, 2006. See contact information.

Penobscots, NGOs to DEP: Is Casella plan for mega bark mulch complex the camel's nose for another Maine megawaste complex?

Is the mega-mulch plan for Milford actually Casella wastes' first foray into its long-dreaded proposal for a mammoth waste & demolition debris processing and sorting complex in Maine?

Recently John Banks, natural resources director for the Penobscot Nation, and a number of other concerned folks met with Karen Knuuti of the DEP's Remediation and Waste Management bureau. Purpose: Get more info on Casella Wastes plan for bark mulching and bark chip storage site that Casella wants to build at the west end of the Stud Mill Road on the Milford / Greenbush town line.

Kanuuti did the can-only-act-on-what-is-right-before-her-in-the-permit-application
dance as expected, but some aspects of the big picture are sinking in:
Big Waste is seizing every opportunity to acquire and expand existing waste dumps no matter how small, and to of course creat entire new waste hoards. Can we curb Waster rapacity?

Maine's Mini-NEPA to the Rescue?
Is the bark that Casella wants to mulch in Milford defined as 'waste' or 'raw materials'? The difference is vast. If the latter, Maine's Site Location of Development Act requires a whole new level of review for Casella's plans.

The additional review requires a look at the forest of the area


Specifically,
Sec 485-A(1-A) of the Site Law, notes that:

"For a new or expanded development requiring an annual supply of wood or wood-derived materials in excess of 150,000 tons green weight, the applicant shall submit a wood supply plan for informational purposes to the Maine Forest Service concurrent with the application required in subsection 1. " What must a wood supply plan include?
1-A. Wood supply. For a new or expanded development requiring an annual supply of wood or wood-derived materials in excess of 150,000 tons green weight, the applicant shall submit a wood supply plan for informational purposes to the Maine Forest Service concurrent with the application required in subsection 1. "

The wood supply plan must include, but is not limited to, the following information:
A. The expected operational life of the development;
B. The projected annual wood consumption of wood mill residue, wood fiber and recycled materials from forest products during the entire operational life of the development;
C. The expected market area for wood supply necessary to supply the development; and
D. Other relevant wood supply information."

Rockport coastal forest threatened by Utah firm.

Leucadia National Corporation has its eyes on developing 111 acres of the Brewster Point forest on the edge of Clam Cove in Rockport. (Area outlined in white on aerial photo.) 

Travellers on Route 1 in Rockport can see the forest (for now) rising directly across the impressive Clam Cove mudflats in Glen Cove.

 The company purchsed the forest property in late January 05 from the estate of longtime landowner Nancy Smyrll, who died in last June.

 Up to 50% of this tract is a thickly forested wetland rich with wildlife, including deer, furbearing mammls, forest dwelling songbirds and many more. Eleven streams flow through and out of the forest within the tract, which is also a major portion of a an undeveloped wildlife corridor stretching between Rockland Harbor and Clam Cove.

 Utah-based Leuvadia is a conglomerate with subsidiaries in the fields of mining, telecommunications, healthcare, banking, manufacturing, real estate, winery operations, and insurance. On page 1 of its 2004 Annual Report, Leucadia describes its investment philosophy “as buying assets that are out of favor and, therefore, cheap or disheveled in one way or another which makes them inexpensive.” 

While wetlands rich, wildlife rich forests such as this one may be "disheveled" in the eye of a developer, to Nature they are splendidly organized and highly functional areas, and, in this this case, irreplaceable. 

 To date the company has not filed any applications with Maine DEP. Nor has it held any preapplication discussions with the agency. There have been no application filed with the town of Rockport either.

 Stay tuned...

Eel Liberation Part 2--Androscoggin River

Coming on the heels of their victorious effort in January to get the Maine Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) to agree to hold a full adjudicated hearing on the impact to American eels of turbines of a hydroelectric dam on the Kennebec River
Ed Friedman and his Merrymeeting man and women today pose the same question to the BEP but this time on behalf of the eels that are lost to turbines on the Androscoggin River.
Click HERE for a pdf file of Ed Friedman's remarks today before the Maine Board of Environmental Protection.

Good luck today, Ed & companions! anyone who looks into the eyes of the eels of Maine cannot but wish him the best.

Stay Tuned.

Maine eels huggers gain public hearing!

Eel defenders Friends of Merrymeeting Bay and won a key victory today when the Maine Board of Environmental Protection (BEP voted to hold a full adjudicated hearing on the impact to American eels of turbines of a hydroelectric dam on the Kennebec River. The eel huggers are asking for immediate down & upstream passage for catadromous eels through dams on that river and the Androscoggin River as well for the movement of anadromous fish.

The BEP decision to hold the meeting went against the recommendations of the Maine DEP staff, so it was a figure that had to be fought for. Happily, as one meeting attendee put it: "The DEP staff, and the dam owners kept digging a deeper and deeper hole for themselves." Let's hope they and DMR which likewise has been silent in the face of the well documented heavy eel slaughter at the turbines, dig a hole big enough to let this important animal pass safely from freshwater Kennebec to the Gulf of Maine. Two fins up for Kathleen McGee, Ed Friedman and the others waging this critical campaign for wild Maine.

Salmon fly fishery on the Penobscot?

State proposes salmon fishery reopening on the Penobscot River.
An Atlantic Samon Commission plan to allow a limited flyfishing season will be released in February with public hearings in March.
Atlantic Salmon Commission says studies show a one month winter flyfishing only catch and release fishery won't seriously harm recovery efforts especially as survivability is believed to be better when the water and air is cold, than warm.

NGO's Atlantic Salmon Federation and Trout unlimited have waded in. ASF "studying the plan", but Trout Unlimited is voicing doubts about the wisdom of a fishery in the midst of a restoration. But reserving judgement.
Penobscot River salmon not on ESA. Under a state/fedeal agreement, fishing was drasticly curtailed. State official
Pat Keliher agrees Maine salmon are not restored but says a case can be made for the public awareness positivity of a very limited fishery.

Links:
Atlantic Salmon Commission
Atlantic Salmon Federation (Maine)
Trout Unlimited (Maine Council)

Gulf of Maine: The Way (marine) Life Ought to Be

Get smart on Fisheries. Learn how abundant the fishes living in Maine rivers, bays and offshore were before the twentieth century's mechanized fisheries and pollution laid them waste.

How? Read more than 100 remarkable reports published by late 19th century researchers working for the Smithsonian and the U.S Fish Commission, as they explored and documented the fishing grounds off New England, the Maritimes, and Atlantic Canada, and the salmon rivers of Maine. And the fisherfolk who harvested them.

Sears Island - Maine DOT, Sierra Club, Islesboro Trust plans for island future?

The Waldo Independent. November 2 2005
DOT island plan blasted. By Peter Taber

The state Department of Transportation (DOT) once more stands accused of operating in bad faith with respect to the largest uninhabited and undeveloped publicly owned island on the East Coast.

This week environmentalists and neighbors who want to save Sears Island from intensive commercial and industrial development said they plan to take their concerns about the DOT's activities to Gov. John Baldacci. They said they'll remind him in an open letter of the assurances they said he gave them last year that all interested parties would be fully included in planning for the future of the island. Full story Click Here