Sears Island: Raising the bar for MDOT

Will her wetlands and eelgrass, her ferns and forests, her historic and prehistoric artifacts, her beaches and sandbars be protected from industrial development?

In the 1990s, the answer was YES

But if Maine Department of Transportation has its way this time: NO. (Click pic for larger image)

MDOT proposes divvying up Sears Island, taking a third for a future industrial port, leaving the other two thirds natural, (though allowing ENGOs to build an educational center in that natural area.)

But before the deal becomes official, Maine DOT has to satisfy the federal government that it has obeyed a certain federal law: 49 USC § 303 Policy on lands, wildlife and waterfowl refuges, and historic sites Because under the regulations of this 4(f) law, the Federal Highway Administration can not approve plans for future development of a port on a public land island until Maine DOT:

(1) identifies the wildlife, historic and recreational resources that would be affected directly or indirectly;
(2) Shows there is no feasible and prudent alternative to the use of land from the property; and
(3) Demonstrates how the proposed action includes all possible planning to minimize harm to the property and its resources resulting from such use.

So before Maine Dept of Transportation can move ahead with any plans, it needs to submit a report to the federal government showing:

(1) what wildlife, historic and recreational assets exist in, on and adjacent to their third of the island. Lots of info pertaining to WILDLIFE is available from the 1990s Environmental Impact Study (EIS) made for proposed port on the island in the 1990s. Not so for HISTORIC and RECREATIONAL assets. Maine DOT will have to hire a consultant to gather information on those two assets.

(2) what wildlife, historic and recreational assets the port would destroy or damage that exist in, on and adjacent to their third of the island. Again the 1990s EIS and other studies and reviews carried out by federal and state agencies in the 1990s will describe much of these assets and the likely adverse impacts of port development on Sears Island.

(3) What alternatives there are that would allow similar kind of development, but off of the island. Mack Point? Orrington, Bangor? Portland? Halifax?


So lets look at some details of what ought to be in Maine DOT's DRAFT version of their Section 4(f) report to the FHWA.

1. Description of Project
Describe the proposed project, including the purpose and need for the project.

2. A brief introduction that identifies:
a. The basic requirements of Section 4(f).
b. The Section 4(f) resource(s) affected.
c. The alternatives under consideration that would affect the Section 4(f) resource(s).

3. Description of each Section 4(f) resource:

a. A detailed map or drawing of sufficient scale to identify the relationship of the alternatives to the Section 4(f) property.
b. Size (acres or square feet) and location (maps, sketches, etc.) of the affected Section 4(f) property.
c.Type of property (recreation, historic, wildlife.) and ownership (public, private etc.).
d. Function of or available activities on the property (swimming, golfing, baseball, wildlife habitats.).
e. Description and location of all existing and planned facilities (tennis courts, baseball diamonds, etc.).
f. Access (pedestrian, vehicular) and usage (approximate number of users/visitors, etc.).
g. Relationship to other similarly used lands in the vicinity.
h. Relationship to ecologically important wildlife areas adjacent to the prooerty.
i. Applicable clauses affecting the ownership, such as lease, easement, covenants, restrictions, or conditions, including forfeiture.
j Unusual characteristics (flooding problems, terrain conditions, high value viewshed, rare or significant wildlife habitat or other features) that reduce or enhance the value of all or part of the property.

4. Environmental impacts during construction for each alternative on each Section 4(f) property (quantify where possible):

a. Acquisition of land (acres or square feet) and facilities (include map).
b. Access.
c. Aesthetics.
d. Air Quality.
e. Noise.
f. Water.
g. Wildlife/Fisheries
h. Land use in the vicinity.

5. Environmental impacts during operation for each alternative on each Section 4(f) property:

a. Acquisition of land (acres or square feet), if different from construction impact, and facilities (include map).
b. Access.
c. Aesthetics.
d. Air Quality.
e. Noise.
f. Water.
g. Wildlife/Fisheries
h. Land use in the vicinity. Include impacts of growth induced by project.

6. Avoidance alternatives and their impacts.

Identify and evaluate location and design alternatives that would avoid harm to the Section 4(f) property and its surrounds.

Generally, this would include alternatives to either side of the property. Where an alternative would use land from more than one Section 4(f) property, the analysis needs to evaluate alternatives which avoid each and all properties (23 CFR 771.135(i)).

The design alternatives should be in the immediate area of the property and consider minor alignment shifts, a reduced facility, retaining structures, etc., individually or in combination, as appropriate.

Detailed discussions of alternatives in an EIS or EA need not be repeated in the Section 4(f) portion of the document, but should be referenced and summarized.

However, when alternatives (avoiding Section 4(f) resources) have been eliminated from detailed study, the discussion should also explain whether these alternative are feasible and prudent and, if not, the reasons why. (T 6640.8A, p. 45.)

7. Mitigation measures, commitments, and monitoring procedures to minimize harm. Discuss all possible measures which are available to minimize the impacts of the proposed action on the Section 4(f) property(ies). Detailed discussions of mitigation measures in the EIS or EA may be referenced and appropriately summarized, rather than repeated. (T 6640.8A, p. 46.)

8. Coordination with other agencies The coordination should include a discussion of avoidance alternatives, impacts, and measures to minimize harm:

a. State Historic Preservation Officer/State Wildlife/Marine/Environmental Commissioners.
b. Local officials with jurisdiction.
c. Historic societies, conservation and environmental groups, museums, academic institutions.
d. Historic consultant.
e. Archaeological consultant.
f. Wildlife Consultant.
g. Fisheries.
h. Wetlands Consultant
i. Recreation Consultant.
j. Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP).
k. Indian Tribes

IT IS DOUBTFUL THAT MAINE DOT HAS INCLUDED ALL THESE DETAILS IN THEIR SECTOIN 4(F) APPLICATION TO THE FHWA.

Let's make make sure they do it, and do it right!

Sears Island: state trying to avoid Section 4(f) future EIS on latest cargoport proposal?

Under the Sears Island Planning Initiative,
Maine DOT has a fast paced stakeholder process going the Sears Island Joint Use Planning Committee (SIJUPC) a group of citizens and public and commercial interests brought together to develop a long-term plan for Sears Island. Skillfully railroa__....err...managed by the agency, its allies and the facilitator, the planning committee could swiftly finalize a proposal for the island's bifurcation into port industrial zone and conservation zone, avoiding repetition of the 1990s struggle for and against a port there.

So the last thing MDOT wants right now is to have to shell out to hire consultants to prepare an environmental impact statement that could take years to finalize, describing the likely effects of port construction. Especially since during that last go round, Angus King had to order Maine DOT to pull its application for an island port once it proved to the Army Corps of Engineers it could not compensate for the damage it would cause to the land and nearshore ecology and environment of Sears Island.

Flash forward to the present. Beginning February 8th Four meetings of the JUPC are scheduled : Feb 8th and 15th, and March 14th and 29th. All are open to the public and have time specifically set aside for members of the public to make statements.

Friday, February 8, meeting of the Sears Island Joint Use Planning Committee at the First Congregational Church, 8 Church Street, Searsport from Noon to 3pm.

In the minutes of the last JUPC meeting, the Joint Use Planning Committee decided that MCHT's application to steward the island meets its standards for consideration. The next step, the wording of an easement agreement. Ciona Ulbrich, a staffer of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust) said MCHT would be working with the Committee to draft this document.

JUPC also pondered a federal transportation law 49 U.S.C. 303, Policy on lands, wildlife and waterfowl refuges, and historic sites. Commonly called called Section 4(f).

A review of a large transportation related project proposal under Section 4(f) either triggers or doesn't trigger the need for a thorough EIS type study of the damage a major transportation project could have on the scenic, historic and archaeologic and wildlife resources.
See full law below the membership list of the Joint Use planning Committee:

Membership of the Sears Island Joint Use Planning Committee,
(as of July 5, 2007..Some changes may have occurred)

Government
David Cole, Commissioner, Maine DOT
Rosaire Pelletier, Maine Department of Conservation
Eliza Townsend, Deputy Commissioner, Maine Department of Conservation
Sara Bradford, First Selectman, Town of Stockton Springs
James Gillway, Town Manager, Town of Searsport

Conservation
Scott Dickerson, Executive Director, Coastal Mountains Land Trust
Jim Freeman, President, Friends of Sears Island
Steve Miller, Islesboro Island Land Trust
Joan Saxe, Sierra Club
Dianne Smith, Chair, Sears Island Alternative Use Committee

Industry
Robert Grindrod, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway
Sandy Blitz, EMDC; Exec. Dir. East-West Highway Assn.
Bob Ziegelaar, Telford Group

Local residents
Anne Crimaudo, Searsport
Bruce Probert, Searsport

Alternates:
Becky Bartovics, Penobscot Bay Alliance
James Therriault, Sprague Energy

A short but important federal transportation law:

49 U.S.C. 303, Policy on lands, wildlife and waterfowl refuges, and historic sites.

"It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States Government that special effort should be made to preserve the natural beauty of the countryside and public park and recreation lands, wildlife and waterfowl refuges, and historic sites.

49 U.S.C. 303(b) The Secretary of Transportation shall cooperate and consult with the Secretaries of the Interior, Housing and Urban Development, and Agriculture, and with the States, in developing transportation plans and programs that include measures to maintain or enhance the natural beauty of lands crossed by transportation activities or facilities.

49 U.S.C. 303(c) The Secretary may approve a transportation program or project (other than any project for a park road or parkway under section 204 of title 23) [of the United States Code, “Federal Lands Highways Program”] requiring the use of publicly owned land of a public park, recreation area, or wildlife and waterfowl refuge of national, State, or local significance, or land of an historic site of national, State, or local significance (as determined by Federal, State, or local officials having jurisdiction over the park, area, refuge, or site) only if—

(1) there is no prudent and feasible alternative to using that land; and (2) the program or project includes all possible planning to minimize harm to the park, recreation area, wildlife and waterfowl refuge, or historic site resulting from the use."
End of statute

(Emphasis added)

Marine Resource Committee: scallops, Halibut, clams, aquaculture

Upcoming hearings & work session before the Marine Resources Committee

Monday: Feb. 11th 1:00pm Public Hearing:
L.D. 2156 An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Marine Resources
L.D. 2137 An Act To Clarify the Licensing Requirements for Aquaculturists and Allow for the Appropriate Handling of Bycatch from Aquaculture Lease Sites
L.D. 2158 Resolve, Regarding Legislative Review of Portions of Chapter 34.10(1)(B)(4)(b)(viii): Atlantic Halibut, Landings Tag, Proposed Fee, a Major Substantive Rule of the Department of Marine Resources

Work Session-
L.D. 2038 An Act To Facilitate the Timely Reopening of Closed Clam Flats
L.D. 2158 Resolve, Regarding Legislative Review of Portions of Chapter 34.10 Atlantic Halibut, Landings Tag, Proposed Fee.

Wednesday: Feb. 13th 1:00 pm AT THE AUGUSTA CIVIC CENTER

L.D. 1980 An Act To Preserve the Cobscook Bay Scallop Fishery
L.D. 1957 An Act To Restore Diadromous Fish in the St. Croix River
L.D. 2071 An Act To Amend Maine's Scallop Laws

LEGIS - Maine fish habitat to be protected when 'imperiled'

A law protecting Maine fish habitat is up for amendment by the legislature.

LD 2016 An Act To Safeguard Imperiled or Critically Imperiled Natural Communities within Protected Natural Resources
Official Summary: "This bill provides protection under the Natural Resource Protection Act for imperiled or critically imperiled natural communities, as identified by the Department of Conservation, that are located within protected natural resources."

It does that by adding the phrase " imperiled or critically imperiled natural communities, " to the list of ecological communities that a would-be developer must not harm with its project, if they want to receive a Natural Resources Protection Act permit.

So the law would look like this: (addition in boldface)

38 MRSA §480-D, sub-§3,
3. Harm to habitats; fisheries. The activity will not unreasonably harm any significant wildlife habitat, freshwater wetland plant habitat, threatened or endangered plant habitat, imperiled or critically imperiled natural communities, aquatic or adjacent upland habitat, travel corridor, freshwater, estuarine or marine fisheries or other aquatic life."

Fine and good. But does the state have definitions or guidelines for defining when a natural community is imperiled or, worse, critically imperiled?

Mussels of the intertidal- town control? LEGIS

Marine Resources Committee will be looking at two bills tomorrow morning starting 9AM . Wed Jan 30, 2008. One bill proposes granting coastal towns authority to regulate intertidal mussel dredging, instead of the state government; the other would make it possible for the Department of Marine Resources to more speedily close a fishery when a serious bycatch situation threatens. Listen to these hearings live on the web

LD 2006 An Act To Give Municipalities Control of Mussels Located in Intertidal Zones.
"Under current law, a municipality may adopt shellfish conservation programs. This bill expands the definition of "shellfish" to include mussels."

LD 1958. An Act To Make Marine Resources Management More Responsive.

'This bill changes all the rules that are adopted to limit the taking of a marine organism for the purpose of protecting another marine organism from major substantive rules to routine technical rules in order to allow the Department of Marine Resources to respond more effectively to fisheries management needs."

LURC OUT: The Plum Creek hearings are about to end. Then...?

The LURC Commissioners and their staff are to conclude their public hearings of panels of interested parties tomorrow or Friday in Augusta. They've gathered enough, heard enough, and next will have to ponder on their own the accumulated knowledge before making their decision . Like Cardinals retiring into the Vatican to decide on a new pope.

(Well, they gathered almost enough info: I was ignominiously passed over by the LURC analyst quizzing my panel, after expressing unfamiliarity with a certain state document, (which it turns out I actually had read, but didn't recognize by his description) Had he continued in the discourse with me as planned, I was to have inserted a variety of NFN-ian facts and figures into the discussion, but t'weren't to be so. Sigh....)

If you can't show up, you can listen to the hearing on LURC's live webstream during the hearing.

Maine bill would require killing all squatter fish found in fish pens.

For 2008, Maine DMR has introduced LD 2137. An Act To Clarify the Licensing Requirements for Aquaculturists and Allow for the Appropriate Handling of Bycatch from Aquaculture Lease Sites

The bill proposes requiring aquaculturists to kill and dispose of any 'squatter fish' found living inside the net pens along with the farmed fish or shellfish. Squatter fish (my term, not theirs) are wild species like pollock, that either were trapped in the fish pens when they were set up, or entered the pens when small enough to slip through the mesh, and have grown up with the farmed salmon, eating their food and commingling with them.

DMR fears that these animals could have become tainted with salmon diseases or parasites, and if captured and thrown back into the wild, could spread "it", whatever "it" might be. Make sense? Perhaps so. Perhaps not.

The bill's proposed addition to state law reads

"...upon harvest of finfish from the leased area pursuant to an aquaculture lease, any finfish of a species that was not cultivated on the leased area but occurred in the enclosure must also be harvested and retained for appropriate disposal by the holder of a lease. Such finfish may not be sold and may not be released or disposed of into the waters of the State and must be reported to the department at the same time as reports of the harvest are filed."

The legislation also "clarifies that leaseholders do not need a harvester’s license unless raising shellfish." says DMR

Maine bill would disappear "vernal pools" from state law.

With the Maine legislature shifting into gear , it is time to track those bills, good and bad, that will this year go under the hammer of the committee chairs of the Marine Resources Committee, Natural Resources Committee, and Environment Committee.

Let's start with one that representative Ted Koffman introduced. (He was one of the people who pushed the incinerator legislation last round.)



The bill is LD 1952. "An Act To Streamline the Administration of Significant Vernal Pool
Habitat Protection."

Streamline indeed, for it proposes we delete the very mention of "Significant vernal pool habitat" from our state law defining "significant wildlife habitat".

Eliminating it from the list of habitat types that Maine DEP and Maine DIF&W must protect, leaves it vulnerable to the "development community" of landsharks prowling Maine's natural areas, seeking land to pounce upon and snap up, to later excrete as condos, big boxes and dumps upon our environment, leaves only the following two on that list:

(2) High and moderate value waterfowl and wading bird habitat, including
nesting and feeding areas; and
(3) Shorebird nesting, feeding and staging areas.

Those two are important for our feathered friends living in our wide open environments: shores and open shallows. The (1) that Koffman's bill would remove is likewise important, only for the forest in-dwelling animals, a completely different set of birds, amphibians, mammals, reptiles, invertebrates.

Why eliminate the pools?...does that mean that our vernal pools, those incredible pocket waterbodies that appear, disappear and reappear in the woods,the cycle of wet and dry providing a unique two-tone environment for forest amphibians to hatch, spend their childhoods, then "drybernate" (like hibernate in winter cold, only done in the heat season, when the pools temporarily dries up), does it means these habitats are so common, already so protected, that they needn't be protected at all? Or so extinct they need be considered no more?

Not hardly. Nor likely.

According to the state's bill summary, LD 1952
"...narrows the requirement for notification concerning significant
wildlife habitats from those listed in the Maine Revised Statutes, Title
38, section 480-B, subsection 10, paragraph B to those listed in section
480-B, subsection 10, paragraph B, subparagraphs (2) and (3), thereby
removing vernal pools from the operation of that notification statute."

Here's that statute. The bill proposes to snip Section1 from the law.
from http://janus.state.me.us/legis/statutes/38/title38sec480-B.html

B. Except for solely forest management activities, for which "significant
wildlife habitat" is as defined and mapped in accordance with section
480-I by the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the following
areas that are defined by the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife
and are in conformance with criteria adopted by the Department of
Environmental Protection or are within any other protected natural
resource:

(1) Significant vernal pool habitat;
(2) High and moderate value waterfowl and wading bird habitat, including
nesting and feeding areas; and
(3) Shorebird nesting, feeding and staging areas.

Doesn't sound like a smart thing at all. Stay tuned.

LURC asks: Can Plum Creek build without polluting water? State Agencies: NO

Officials from three of Maine's resource agencies expressed doubt
Friday that the Plum Creek resort development proposal could be built
and operated without significantly degrading the region's environment.
Representatives of the Maine Natural Areas Program, Inland Fish and
Wildlife and Department of Environmental Protection testified and fielded questions at a public hearing of the Land Use Regulatory Commission.

The agencies were, like federal agencies US Fish and Wildlife Service and US EPA, turning out to be visibly reluctant to endorse Plum Creek's plans.

Representatives of NRCM, Maine Audubon and Native Forest Network and
other groups carried out cross examinations and testified at the
meeting.

Officials from IF&W said Plum Creeks proposed easement fails to
offset its resort and condo development, and recommended Plum Creek be barred from any development on the shoreline of Indian Pond and expressed concerns about development in deer yards around Burnham Pond.

The Maine Natural Areas Program told the Commissioners that Plum
Creek's plan won't adequately deal with potential exotic species impacts of both land and water resources.

Maine DEP Watershed Planner Jeff Dennis 287-7847 told the Land Use
Regulatory Commission Friday that Plum Creek's current rezoning
proposal could not be approved without significantly degrading the
water quality of Moosehead Lake and neighboring streams and ponds
within the proposed resorts and condos area.

Dennis said the would-be developer proposes to avoid polluting the
lakes, ponds and streams of the area using "thousand of buffer ones
that are being relied on to meet these standards."

Shown here speaking with NFN after the hearing, Dennison warned that unless carefully maintained, buffers will not carry out their functions. LURC and Plum Creek would have to come up with a strategy that would ensure each of the thousands of buffers be regularly inspected. "The challenge for LURC", Dennis noted, "is that this is scattered all over the landscape," adding that the extensive underground drainage system Plum Creek has proposed would also need regular maintenance to prevent from failing.

The Department's experience with other developers using buffers is
that not only are they frequently not maintained but "we know that
there are buffer violations," such as homeowners cutting down trees
in a buffer to improve the view from their vacation homes.

One LURC Commissioner noted that LURC had recently approved a 900
resort unit addition to Saddleback Mountain Resort in Rangely. Was
that a Class A water shed? he wondered. Given the information coming
from Maine DEP now, "I'm not sure why we voted to approve that."

NFN's Ron Huber cross-examined Plum Creek consultant Frederick
Kirchies, asking what sources he used to determine that there would
be no adverse impacts to the shallow waters near the shoreline of the
lakes and ponds within Plum Creek's development zone.

Kirchies, who had already acknowledged to an earlier cross-examiner
that much of the information he submitted was up to half a century
old, said he had not carried out any of the field work examining the
shallow waters, but had relied on verbal assurances from persons
familiar with the waterbodies to reach his conclusion that none of the
developments on any of the ponds or lakes would have any adverse
impacts at all.

"Nothing written? Nothing on the record?" Huber asked. Kirchies said
no. In response to queries from LURC, several state agency reps
suggested that the only way Plum Creek could avoid adversely
affecting the environment inside its development area would be by
allowing degradation of its proposed adjacent conservation areas.
This, it was noted would partly defeat the purpose of the
conservation areas.

The LURC Commission meets again to discuss the Plum Creek proposal on
Saturday in Greenville.

# # #

Seal Island fishermen - No sunken bombs in the 'Danger Zone'

In a posting last summer, the Bay Watch asserted that in the 1940s and 50s

"... several generations of student bomber-trainees frequently missed the slender W-shaped[Seal] island during their practice bombing runs....To this day, scores of bay-area fishermen can recount encounters with sunken ordnance during their careers.

NOT SO FAST THERE, CHIEF. The Watch has heard from than two Bay fishermen with extensive knowledge of the waters around Seal Island, 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 in at minimum decades.


S.R. wrote:
Never in the last 15-20 have I heard of a fisherman snarling back an
unexploded bomb; they get pieces of metal every now and then, but no
unexploded bombs. Your web site, however, says that scores of fishermen
have repeatedly snarled back bombs; that is false. Scores would mean at
least 40 - there happen to hardly be 40 fishermen who fish around Seal
Island. Where did you get that data?

JD wrote:
During the last twenty years I have never seen nor heard a report of a bomb washing ashore. Where did you get reports of bombs washing ashore? I've not heard of fishermen snarling bombs down there recently either, where did those reports come from?

So where did the report of 'scores' of fishermen encountering WW2 bombs and rockets, of dud munitions washing ashore around this island in the outer Penobscot Bay, come from?

Checking.... Stay tuned.

Sears Island - at risk of LNG again?

Someone asked me recently

Is the LNG issue still at large?

He was referring to Penobscot Bay, after reading an undated penbay.org webpage from 2004, on the then-proposal to build an LNG port on Sears Island; for all he knew, it was recent news.

My answer to Is the LNG issue still at large?

Yes and no. (But the yes has been increasing recently) Let's take a look back:

In 2004, LNG was kiboshed at Sears Island, after PBW's 2003-2004 FOAs of Governor Baldacci on the topic revealed his covert support for the proposal; outraged upper bay residents pressured him into agreeing to abide by a Searsport plebiscite, which rejected LNG at Sears Island.

The LNG issue then moved downeast, was swiftly thumbs-downed in Winter Harbor, but took root with the Passamaquoddy Nation and with another group of investors, only to run into the opposition of the Canadian government, which may well doom the two proposals there by barring LNG vessels entry into Passamaquoddy Bay by the only route that is even
remotely safe for large vessels.

Now? Over the last year and a half, the Maine Department of Transportation, state planning office and others, have managed to browbeat, outnegotiate and otherwise wear down most Sears Island protectors/opponents of the LNG proposal into signing off on an agreement to allow port development on 1/3 of Sears Island. In exchange for....a no-development easement on the rest of the island, and permission to build a visitors center.

What kind of port? That wasn't agreed upon. Could it be LNG once more? Possibly. Now that the LNG proposals on the shore of Passamaquoddy Bay are showing signs of defeat, Sears Island is the only logical site left in Maine.

And this time, most of the area environmental community, having signed off on that Sears-Island-port-is-okay agreement**, will have no legs to stand opposed on, for the agreement they signed pledged them not to oppose any port proposal for the island, as long as the port wannabes follow the regulatory process.

Oh...Governor Baldacci's promise still stands, but something like an 'energy emergency' or other plausible claim could well get him to backtrack on THAT.

** The agreement reached by the now-defunct stakeholders group stated specifically that

" 1) Inappropriate Uses for Sears Island: The Steering Committee acknowledges the position of Governor Baldacci that no LNG facility will be sited over the objection of local residents, and acknowledges that the majority of Searsport residents have clearly objected to siting such a facility within their community. The Steering Committee therefore agrees that no LNG facility of any kind would be an appropriate use for Sears Island."

As aforementioned, this Steering Committee no longer exists...but one hopes its agreements linger on.

The effect of other kinds of industrial ports on Penobscot Bay marine ecology would be similar to that of an LNG terminal - if not worse: (ballast water-mediated invasives, loss of eelgrass meadows important for groundfish larvae, among other impacts.

Arguably the most important thing to be done for Penobscot Bay right now is ensuring that the new federal regulation is finalized that designates Gulf of Maine coastal shallows, including those of Penobscot Bay, as Habitat Area of Particular Concern for juvenile Atlantic cod. See http://www.penbay.org/bm/hapcme.html

Once this process passes through its regulatory reviews, developers that want to impinge on the coast will have to demonstrate that their runoffs and discharges will not harm the prey of juvenile cod, let alone the juvenile cod themselves. The prey for freshly hatched cod -
amoebas and other soft protozoans -- are very susceptible to pesticides, and oil-tainted runoff. The timeline for that regulation is sometime late this year or early next.

Maine/NH Port Safety Forum January 30th: LNG; icebreaking, port security, Penobscot Bay & much more

Penobscot Bay maritime issues, LNG, icebreaking and more will be among the many topics discussed January 31st at the 80th meeting of the Maine/New Hampshire Port Safety Forum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The event will take place 10:00 AM at the NH Dept. of Environmental Services, in Portsmouth, NH. Members of the public are welcome to attend as observers.

The meeting agenda includes updates & presentations on:
Right whale sightings, by Kristen Koyama, NMFS; Maritime Incident Resources & Training for Piscataqua & Merrimack River Region (Val Pamboukes, Portsmouth FD, Ret.); LNG Update-Al Moore, USCG; results of the Frontier Sentinel port security exercise, a mock attack against a navy supply ship. (Lt Cdr Mike Sams, USCG); the raising of the 40 foot Seahawke, a 40 ft boat that sank in Great Bay, NH, (Rick Berry, NHDES); the new Transportation Worker ID Card (Al Moore, USCG); and the Homeport Program (LTJG Beacher, USCG).

Participants will also discuss a Small Passenger Vessel Seminar (call for topics) (LT Green, USCG) and get a report on the Ice Breaking season to date, CWO Chase, USCG)

Under New Business, John Henshaw of the Maine Port Authority will lead a discussion of Penobscot Bay maritime issues. (what are these issues? I'll have to ask him); other new biz includes a proposed Waterway Round-Table Discussion of "port access thresholds" LTJG Miller; the America's Waterway Watch & Sea Partner Program (LT Green) and interpretation of the CBP Passenger Vessel Services Act (John Henshaw, Maine Port Authority).

The event will take place 10:00 AM at the NH Dept. of Environmental Services, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Members of the public are welcome to attend as

observers.

Invasive species solution - a look outside the box.

In addition to organisms stowing away in ballast water, ships transport aquatic and marine life on their submerged hulls. The environment created by such organisms as barnacles, sea squirts other 'fouling' organisms, serves as protective habitat for even more species.

When the vessel's hull is cleaned, the biofouling community is scraped off and may well find its way into the harbor, bringing a host of species native to elsewhere.

A SOLUTION? 'Paint' the hulls of vessels with a preselected mix of fouling organisms , of a sort that is non-invasive in nature, that is already globally ubiquitous, that nonetheless makes short shrift of any other species that tries to com aboard the hull to pull an aquatic hitchhike across the seas by fouling to the ship or to the boat.

"Go away! There's no room at the inn", the invader wannabe is told.

Thats the idea, anyway. Let's explore it further at a later time and date.

Right Whales visiting Penobscot Bay!

A pod of nearly two dozen northern right whales is visiting the mouth of Penobscot Bay.

As a precaution, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has imposed lobster gear restrictions on nearly 2,000 square miles of ocean south of Rockland through December 19th.

Photo shows 600 feet of lobsterline unwrapped from a humpback whale.

The Dynamic Area Management (DAM) zone is likely to have varying impacts Maine fishermen. December is a big month in the offshore lobster fishery. Monhegan opens in January.

Some of the largest boats that fish offshore can land as much as 20,000 pounds of lobster, earning thousands of dollars for their crew on a single December trip. While the rewards can be high, so can the risk.

Its a hard pill to swallow, but until lobstering technology moves into the 21st century, we humans must make way for our majestic predecessors, who have lived in these waters since before the bronze age, for the trap lines WILL snarl a rightie if he or she blunders into it the wrong way.

As goes Moosehead Lake, so goes Maine - right, Governor?

Shall Moosehead Lake be crucified on the cross of corporatocracy?

Tourism and respectful exploitation of wild and natural northern Maine, or corporate profit driven growth centers sprawling over the wild landscape?

The question comes up repeatedly, even daily for Mainers: How shall our local economy be? Atomized into a robust democracy of small businesses, or congeal into superstores for the many and gated estates for the few.

Even Governor Baldacci, no enemy to big business, admits the plans of Plum Creek for the Moosehead Lake region are defined by the "S" word. And unfavorably so.)

Keep the faith, Governor. Don't equivocate. Better to leave a legacy of wild nature than be known as the hangman of Moosehead Lake.

IMO punts on ballast water

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has decided to delay enforcement of a 2009 requirement for new ships to have ballast water treatment equipment,arguing that the 2004 Ballast Water Management Convention has not yet entered into force, and, moreover that there is a lack of type-approved equipment.

Shipping Industry group ICS has been complaining that cost-effective ballast water treating equipment continues to fail to be available since the 2004 IMO Conference which adopted 2009 for its mandatory use by certain ships constructed after this date. IMO agreed.

Maine court whacks ocean polluter

Its $525,000 and two years probation for the owners of the M/V Kent Navigator, which was inspected when it entered the port of Portland by the US Coast Guard after receiving an anonymous tip. The inspectors found oily residue in piping that led to overboard discharge valves and inoperable oil pollution control equipment., and were able to prove to the court that the ship's crew circumvented the ship's oil water separator and discharged waste oil tanks and bilge tanks directly overboard.

Good job Coasties! Read the full story:

Vessel Operator Sentenced to Pay $525000 for Environmental Crime
WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A federal district court in Maine sentenced Petraia Maritime Ltd., late yesterday, to pay a fine of $525,000 and serve two years probation for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution From Ships (APPS), the Justice Department announced.

Petraia had been convicted following a jury trial in May 2007 of failing to maintain a record of its overboard discharges of oily bilge waste, which it made without using required pollution control equipment, from the Kent Navigator a vessel that it owned and operated. Two chief engineers serving aboard the M/V Kent Navigator had previously pleaded guilty to making false statements to the Coast Guard for their role in the attempted cover-up of Petraia Maritime’s discharges of oily waste.

"This sentence should make clear that the shipping industry will continue to pay penalties if they fail to abide by laws protecting the environment when they choose to enter any United States port," said Ronald J. Tenpas, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

"This case sends a clear message to vessel operators and mariners that dumping waste at sea and covering up pollution are serious crimes that will be prosecuted. We take our stewardship of our oceans very seriously and will continue to pursue cases like this," said Rear Admiral Timothy S. Sullivan, Commander of the First Coast Guard District.

"My Office will continue to aggressively pursue those vessel operators and mariners whose actions threaten Maine waters and violate the integrity of their recordkeeping obligations," said Paula D. Silsby, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine.

The government's investigation began in August 2004, when the U.S. Coast Guard received an anonymous tip that a vessel bound for Portland, Maine, was illegally discharging its waste oil and bilge while at sea. MARPOL, a treaty signed by more than 135 countries representing approximately 97.5 % of the world's commercial tonnage and implemented into U.S. law by the APPS, limits the oil content of discharges from ships to no more than 15 parts per million. Oil pollution control equipment, called an oil water separator, is equipment required by these laws that, when operated correctly, will prevent discharges of oil in excess of 15 parts per million.

The Coast Guard inspected the Kent Navigator when it entered the port of Portland and found oily residue in piping that led to overboard discharge valves and inoperable oil pollution control equipment. The Coast Guard's investigation revealed that while the vessel was at sea, the ship's crew discharged waste oil tanks and bilge tanks directly overboard and also discharged the bilges in a way that circumvented the ship's oil water separator. These discharges, which numbered 13 over eight months, were usually in excess of 5,000 gallons each and resulted in the discharge of significant quantities of oil. In addition to entering port in Portland in August 2004, the investigation revealed that the Kent Navigator had entered the Portland port on numerous prior occasions.

To conceal this illegal discharge activity, Petraia's employees falsified records in the ship's oil record book, making it appear as if the discharges were made using the required pollution control equipment when in fact they were not.

The investigation was conducted by Special Agent Daniel Bradford, of the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, with assistance from the Coast Guard Sector Northern New England, the Coast Guard First District Legal Office, and the Coast Guard Headquarters Office of Investigation and Analysis. The case was prosecuted by Wayne Hettenbach and Kevin Cassidy of the Environmental Crimes Section of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maine.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

Right whale whackers must be stopped

Sounds like a bad idea. The U.S. Navy wants to put a training range for lethal mid-frequency
sonar off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina smack in a key migratory route for menhaden, bluefish, striped bass, right whales, humpbacks, swordfish, eels, ...you name it, and if it travels the north/south route along the US Atlantic coast that is used by so much marine nature, it could be in deep trouble if the proposed sonar range gets set up in those waters.

The Navy's new Atlantic Undersea Warfare Training Range would create a 500-square-mile hub of sonar activity. While they could likely be forced to refrain from sonar testing during whale thru-migration times, many other species travel on their own schedules, and the survival of such species is every bit as important as that of the marine mammals.


We'll keep an eye on this...Stay tuned.

Sears Island Joint Use Committee met, sets 341 acres aside for future port.

By Tanya Mitchell VillageSoup/Waldo County Citizen Reporter

SEARSPORT (Oct 31): The Sears Island Joint Use Planning Committee learned the basics of creating a document that would spell out how the island will be used in the future at its meeting Friday, Oct. 26.

As a result of the April 12 consensus agreement that came out of the Sears Island Planning Initiative Steering Committee meetings, 341 acres will be set aside for development of a future port, while 600 acres are earmarked for recreation/conservation purposes.

Along with fixing the boundary line to reflect that land division between the state Department of Transportation and those interested in keeping the island open for conservation, the JUPC is charged with drafting a conservation easement to make the land-share arrangement work for both parties.

The next JUPC meeting is slated for Thursday, Nov. 15. Read full story

Wiscassett coal degasification plant would create 770 tons of toxics-rich slag per day.

The coal degasification plant proposed for the shore of in Wiscassett would produce about 770 tons of boron-rich slag per day. I understand by looking at the literature. Where's that going to go?

Boron is a significant component of that slag. Aquatic toxicity of Boron in the leacheate from this type of slag. is described below (can you explain what the findings to this paper mean? (it is also toxic to waterfowl at some concentration.

The scientfic literature is equivocal. We need some science on the topics of boron toxicity. There are concerns about impacts to fresh and waters zooplankton and importantly to Wiscassett's fisheries, to eelgrass.

Inshore GOM herring fishery closed till January 1, '08

From the Federal Register: October 25, 2007

Fisheries of the Northeastern United States:

ACTION: Closure of Atlantic herring fishery for Management Area 1A.

SUMMARY: NMFS announces that effective 0001 hours, October 25, 2007, federally permitted vessels may not fish for, catch, possess, transferor land more than 2,000 lb (907.2 kg) of Atlantic herring in or from Management Area 1A (Area 1A) per trip or calendar day until January 1,2008, when the 2008 TAC becomes available, except for transiting purposes as described in this notice.

This action is based on the determination that 95 percent of the Atlantic herring total allowable catch (TAC) allocated to Area 1A for 2007 is projected to be harvestedby October 25, 2007.

Regulations governing the Atlantic herring fishery require publication of this notification to advise vessel and dealer permit holders that no TAC is available for the directed fishery for Atlantic herring harvested from Area 1A.

DATES: Effective 0001 hrs local time, October 25, 2007, through 2400hrs local time, December 31, 2007.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Don Frei, Fishery ManagementSpecialist, at (978) 281-9221.

Getting lost between Matinicus and Rockland

It's the sort of minor tale of the sea that that "the Humble Farmer' might memorialize on his weekly radio show:

Lobster boat leaves Matinicus Island and becomes lost on en route to Rockland.

Was it storming? Did deep fogs fill the mouth of the bay? Was the crew desperately ill, or worse? Apparently not. Skies were clear. It was a little after 3 in the morning, and their chart plotter was broken and it was blowing about 15 knots out of the southwest, with a 4 foot swell. But still...

Coast Guard Station Rockland's public releases on the hapless lobster boat's two October 23rd incidents follow:

23 October
At 2:55am, Station Rockland received a report of a 40 foot lobster boat with two people on board that was disabled near Matinicus Island. When no commercial providers responded to the Marine Assistance Request Broadcast, Station Rockland responded with its 47' Motor Life Boat and Boatswain's Mate 1st Class Scott Self as the Coxswain.

Two and one half hours later:

At 5:39am, the MLB arrived on scene, took the boat in tow and proceeded to Matinicus Island. At 6:37am, just outside Matinicus Harbor, the boat was able to regain propulsion and the tow was dropped. The disable boat went into the harbor and the MLB returned to Rockland. Case Closed.

Four Hours Later

23 October
At 9:50am, Station Rockland received a report from the same boat they had just towed, that they were underway enroute Rockland when their chart plotter had broken and they didn't have any local charts. They did have GPS, but no way to tell where they were. Another commercial fishing vessel over heard the radio traffic, was near their position and offered to help. The commercial fishing vessel was able to locate the lobster boat and escort them back to Rockland. Case Closed.

CWO3 Curtis Barthel
Commanding Officer
CG Station Rockland

Matinicus is about 18 miles from Rockland. Its hard to think of any lobsterman who couldn't navigate this pretty straightforward route

The answer? They were delivering the lobsterboat from Away.

The Coasties didn't reveal whether they were downeasters bringing a lobster boat from Jonesport, or up from Portland, or even Canadians.

Mack Point's security analyzed

Maine port officials say facilities secure
By BDN Staff
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

By Rebekah Metzler
Boston University Washington News Service

WASHINGTON — The small size, remote locations and relatively low-value cargo of Maine’s ports in Searsport and Eastport make them easier to manage and to secure, according to security agents from the two ports. Full story

Bay saved from toxic river dredge spoils

Construction firm Cianbro, poised to redevelop the abandoned Eastern Fine Paper site on the Brewer shore of Penobscot River, has bowed to bay fishermen and other citizens' concerns, and abandoned plans to dump dredge spoils from its site into Penobscot Bay. 

 he company will instead spread spoils dredged from its waterfront onto its land and use them as part of the redevelopment. The company had planned to dump its spoils at the Rockland Disposal Site, but pressure from Penobscot Bay Alliance, Maine Lobstermen's Association and others moved them to abandon the plan in favor of land-deposition.

Boat fuel spill fouls Saint George River

According to a report in Village Soup:

"About 600 gallons of number two diesel fuel have leaked into the St. George River Friday morning from a boat [Arcadia] docked at Lyman Morse Boat Builders near the Wadsworth Street Bridge and "has spread down to the St. George/South Thomaston line and flowed up to Warren, according to officials on the scene."

The spoill occurred when the boat owner failed to pay attention to the fueling process.

Responders include Maine DEP, DMR the Thomaston and Warren Fire Departments

While optimistic officials have told the press the cleanup will take only " several days", this remains to be seen. Stay Tuned...

Bad ballast water bill pulled from consideration!

Pressed by environmental activists, the US Senate Commerce Committee has pulled a foul amendment from consideration as part of S 1578: the "Ballast Water Management Act of 2007". The industry supported "Nelson Amendment" would have stripped states of the right under the federal clean water act to prevent invader species from being discharged into their lakes, rivers and coastal waters in ballast water. Recreational boating industry was a major part of the impetus to weaken state powers.

According to a Snowe staffer in Washington, the Nelson Amendment was withdrawn by its sponsor, after Sen Barbara Boxer introduced, then withdrew, her own amendment restoring the primacy of the Clean Water Act. So the bill never came up before the Senate Commerce Committee Thursday and will be worked on into the future. See a recent (August 07) news article detailing the POVs of S 1578's critics and supporters.

Nina Bell of Northwest Environmental Advocates organized marine activists around the nation's coasts into signing a joint letter to Commerce Committee members opposing the bill, and organized a call-in campaign to legislators. Maine's Olympia Snowe "laid low", according to one observer familiar with the hearing, and was neither in support or opposition. Other Senators on the Commerce Committee were concerned enough by the issues raising in the letter and calls to pressure its withdrawal from consideration.

Bill strips Maine of power to fend off marine invader species.

Dear Friends,

In the cause of environmental justice, please urge Senator Olympia Snowe to vote against a bill -- S 1578--the so-called "Ballast Water Management Act of 2007" The bill is coming up before the Senate Commerce Committee tomorrow.

Please call the capital switchboard (202) 224-3121) ask for Olympia Snowe. NOTE THE COMMITTEE VOTE IS TOMORROW. Snowe's staffers are totting up how much interest there is, so please call!

Under the Clean Water Act, Maine Department of Environmental Protection can impose strict conditions on ballast water discharges into state waters and even bar it entirely.

This water, required to be pumped out of the ballast holds of oceangoing cargo ships to accomodate the weight of onloaded cargo and to pass through shallow areas, is typically found to be rich with exotic marine life, pathogens and pollutants from distant waters and ports around the globe.

With actual andf attempted increases in cargo and tanker ships and barges picking up and delivering cargo at ports in Casco, Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Bays, the state needs to retain its powers to protect its vital lobster industry and other coastal fisheries from ecological disasters from marine invader species introduction --granted it under the Clean Water Act-- more than ever.

The new bill S 1578--the "Ballast Water Management Act of 2007" would declare the Coast Guard to be "the sole Federal authority" to limit species' introduction by vessels. This would invalidate Maine and other states' ability to use the powers given to states under the Clean Water Act to restrict such discharges.

Pushing this mandate of marine biological management onto an ill-equipped and already-overburdened US Coast Guard takes the agency into a regulatory area it lacks both expertise and time to perform successfully.

Even worse, under the bill the Coast Guard could postpone indefinitely the date at which whatever standards it finally comes up with are enacted. In the politicized morass of the present administration that can mean "never".

As a letter sent to the Commerce Committee today by fortyfour environmental and conservation groups notes:

"Individually and in combination, the proposed provisions precluding States from taking their own actions, exempting ballast water discharges from the Clean Water Act, and curtailing the federal agencies’ actions, result in a bill that we fear will perpetuate the economic and environmental harm of invasive species for many years to come."

Senator Snowe needs to know that this bill is bad news for Maine's lobsters and lobster industry. Maine is much better positioned to identify and prevent discharges of marine invader species into its waters that could put its fisheries and public health at risk.

Please call Snowe's office and urge her vote against this a fast-moving industry bill. With increases in cargo and tanker ships and barges picking up and delivering cargo at ports in Casco, Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Bays, the state needs its powers to prevent ecological disasters from marine invader species --granted it under the Clean Water Act-- more than ever.

Call Senator Snow via the capital switchboard (202) 224-3121, and let her know you care about marine Maine.

Ron Huber
Penobscot BayWatch

Public criticises Cianbro plan to dump Brewer dredge spoils into Penobscot Bay

Dredge 'n dump meeting at Rockland Middle School thronged; industry reps present, lobstermen glare, agencies filibuster, environmentalists fume.

At a meeting sponsored by the Maine Department of Marine Resources
lobstermen and environmentalists challenged the proposal by Cianbro and an unnamed corporate partner to dredge mud and woody debris from Penobscot River bottom adjacent to the defunct Eastern Fine Paper site in Brewer , as part of setting up and operating an industrial module producing plan on the site. News coverage... more media coverage___even more media coverage

The Cianbro Company is partnered with unnamed investors to build and operate an industrial module assembly facility that would import parts from other states and nations, assemble them, then shipping out the completed "industrial modules" to be put together onsite . "Like erector sets" the company rep said.

Cianbro and its partners say they want to move quickly and be assembling these modules 12 months from now.

Fishermen and conservationists at the meeting lobbied hard for a total upland disposal option be substituted for bay dumping at the Rockland Disposal Site.

Two petitions were sent or given to DMR, one calling for a public hearing and one expressing the concern of dozens of bay area citizens who would be affected. DMR claimed that the public information meeting being held, was adequate ; I objected, citing the plain language of MRSA 38 480-D(9) Dredging. (scroll down to (9) the statutory chapter and verse.

The meeting was about 1 & 1/2 hours long. At the head tables, (speaking mostly in that annoying sotte voce used by midlevel officials at such interagency public meetings) were two DEPers: the permit reviewer and the DEP marine ecologist; in the middle: DMR's Brian Swan. On the other side sat the Cianbro representatives including Parker Hadlock, with experience in port building and renovation in Portland, who will be the project manager for the project, which will build by-request modular machines for global big industry. Army Corps of Engineers' Shawn Mahaney sat in the back of the audience, occasionally fielding RFI's from the state and industry reps up front.

An enviro/chem consultant for Cianbro sat quietly in the front row, saying little, and that little with awesomely developed pass-the-buck skill.

Maine Lobstermens' Association President Dave Cousens was in the second row with several lieutenants and a row or two of Vinalhaven lobstermen with families. Lobstermen pushed for schedule change to minimize interference iwth autumn fishery, questioned the toxicity information and opposed damaging their industry to better another one; Sierra Club's Vivian Newman questioned the jobs projections, (she came in about 45 minutes in.) The Lobster Conservancy voiced concerns over toxicity and the smothering of lobsters, the Lower Penobscot Watershed Association advised, the Island Institute rep spoke; Hannah Pingree gave a lengthy statement recapping the fishermens' concerns.

Posters on easels: an 1880s architect's drawing of a chlorine-using paper mill filling the same local footprint. It showed two docks operating back then: one for shipping materials and paper, one labeled "coal dock" (gotta be a lot of coal down there). A nav chart of Penobscot Bay with the east and west l shipping lanes highlighted, a chart tabulating of toxics findings of sediment cores.

The Pitch
Cianbrorep was enthused about re-using this old riverside industrial site in Brewer , providing good paying jobs non-polluting industy since it is only assembly of parts coming in, completed industrial modules going out. If approved, the facility's first project, that they have already been awarded the contract to build, will be sent to some facility near or in the Gulf of Mexico in October 2008. Although they wouldn't identify even potential clients, in general the operation will custom build large complete modular industrial plants of all types. These will then be barged to distant seaports whence they are taken to whatever Mordor-ian industrial facility awaits the instant industrial plant.

Confronted on the non-transparency of their process to date, agency faces were red. Clearly they would rather not have a further public hearing. Maine DEP's permit reviewer announced that the public comment period was over, but finally bent to some pressure to accept public comment to the end of the month.

Fishermen have been trying for years to have the bay dump site permanently closed.
A lobsterman said it was known to be a terrible location for a dump due to the vigorous currents that have sent the spoils spreading across the bay. Fifty years of dumping there and the bottom is still flat, he noted.

First dredging act will be removal of 'windrows of wood' on the river floor. Divers have examined it. Then about 1/2 of the total amount of mud and sand spoils that they would be licensed to discharge they are allowed to.
They may or may not use the train (RR tracks run past the site.)

Many more details, soon.

Paper company dredge spoils could end up off Rockland. Pub Mtg 9/11

Public Meeting on Plan to Dump Paper Mill Dredge Spoils off Rockland. September 11th,

On Tuesday, September 11, 2007, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. Maine Department of Marine Resources will host a public meeting/listening session at the Rockland Middle School, to take comments on a proposal to dump dredge spoils from Penobscot River off the former Eastern Fine Paper mill site in Brewer Maine, into the Rockland Disposal Site. The meeting will take place in the cafeteria of the Rockland Middle School 30 Broadway, Rockland.

AT ISSUE: Eastern Fine Paper Mill discharged significant quantities of dioxin and other wastes into Penobscot River. The material being dredged for the benefit of a riverfront developer i contaminated. However, the US Army Corps of Engineers decides whether the level of contamination is low enough to permit dumping at the Rockland Disposal Site Army Corps of Engineers most recent review of the dumpsite (large pdf), which is located between North Haven and Rockland, 3 and 1/2 miles from the Rockland Breakwater Lighhouse

The meeting that Maine Department of Marine Resources is hosting IS NOT A PUBLIC HEARING. Rather officials from DMR and other agencies will sit silently at a table before the public, members of which will be invited to make statements. The officials will not answer any questions. See excerpt from public notice, below

However, MRSA 38 §480-D(9) Maine state law concerning dredging (scroll down to 9. Dredging) states:
"If 5 or more persons request a public hearing within 30 days of the notice publication, the Commissioner of Marine Resources must hold a hearing."

According to the DMR's Public Notice:

The purpose of the meeting is to gather information and comments from the public on a proposal by Penobscot River Holdings, LLC and Cianbro Construction, LLC of Pittsfield to dredge approximately 33,000 cubic yards of intertidal and subtidal sediments from the Penobscot River along the shore of the former Eastern Fine Paper Mill in Brewer.

Dredged materials suitable for open water disposal would be transported by barge for disposal at the Rockland Ocean Disposal Site located approximately 3.33 nautical miles east northeasterly of the Rockland Breakwater light. Dredged materials not suitable for open water disposal would be disposed of in an upland location.
For further information contact Brian Swan, DMR at 624-6573.

GOM Right Whale Protection Stymied by Bush Admin

July 24, 2007. The White House is currently delaying enactment of a final rule intended to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.

What's going on here? According to NOAA, the chief cause of accidental deaths of North Atlantic right whales is "ship strikes" i.e. being run over by oil tankers and other big vessels while drowsing away on the surface. Not lobster pot-warp entanglements, not fishing of any kind. The US and Canadian fishing fleets already have a brace of strictures on their operations to protect our cetacean relatives sharing the Gulf of Maine.

But big global trade vessels have big money, big lawfirms and big lobbyists to keep themselves as free of profit-threatening regulations as possible. These are the chief culprits. A little known administration bureaucracy, the "White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs" (OIRA) is holding things up. Under Executive Order 12866, issues by Clinton, all federal agencies have to run their new regulations past OIRA before it can go on the books and be enforced. OIRA looks at the regulation's costs and benefits. It is supposed to make its decisions swiftly
But in this case....Not! Read the details here as assembled by public interest watchdog group OMB Watch

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