Penobscot Bay Report Audio recordings 2008 to 2012

Penobscot Bay Report Audio 2008 to 2012
Listen to a  selection of the public meeting recordings I've made  since 2008, starting with 2012 Listen to them and learn about Penobscot Bay, the Gulf of Maine and those that work and play upon these waters. Or plan to.
Ron

2012

July 2, 2012 Rockland city council takes testimony on letter to Searsport about DCP http://penobscotbay.blogspot.com/2012/07/rockland-drafting-letter-to-searsport.html

Jun 21, 2012 Statoil Speaks: six Interviews at public info meeting in Rockland Six Interviews at public info meeting June 21, 2012 in Rockland ...Earlier Statoil Hywind events audio ... 3/12/12 Statoil at 2012 Maine Fishermens Forum. Posted by Ron Huber at 6/28/2012 08:12:00 AM ...

6/11/12  DCP midstream - my sampled song "Shut us down" sampled from Searport planning board meeting http://penbay.org/dcp/audio/shutdown.mp3

May 23, 2012 Penobscot Bay Blog: Feds/Maine ocean energy task force e-meets, holds public teleconference  Feds/Maine ocean energy task force e-meets on next 2 steps reviewing Statoil's 4-turbine floating windpark plan, then holds public teleconference. AUDIO and TRANSCRIPT of public teleconference.

May 17, 2012 The Waldo County Local Emergency Planning Committee held a meeting and hosted an open house at their Waldo County Emergency Management Agency  facility in Belfast. Listen to Podcast  & listen to an mp3 recording of the hour long question and answer period in two formats:

Mar 13 and 14, 2012
  Open pit metal mining bill. Open pit metal mining: Maine legislature grapples with last minute bill. AUDIO of hearing and worksession.  

April 9, 2012 April 9th  Senator Douglas Thomas made the case before the appropriations committee (5min mp3) to get Sears Island dredge money on the transportation bond.

March 29, 2012  Casella  "surprise" resolution to  the Environment and Natural Resources Committee. Listen to the committee chair describe it around 2:40pm today

March 13 & 14 2012 the Maine legislature's Environment and Natural Resources Committee heard and received testimony and emails for or against  LD 1853 "An Act To Improve Environmental Oversight and Streamline Permitting for Mining in Maine"

Mar 04, 2012 Windpower seminar at 2012 Maine Fishermen's Forum. Overwhelming static forced editing out of parts of several speakers including Glenn Libby and Pete Jumars.

Mar 02, 2012  Fishermens Forum: Maine Groundfish Permit Bank Seminar:: Maine Groundfish Permit Bank Seminar: "Maine Permit Bank Program:Full Speed Ahead."

Mar 01, 2012  Penobscot Bay Blog: Maine Legislature considers elver fishery and shrimp dealers.. On March 1st the Maine Legislature's Marine Resources Committee, Led by Committee chair Lois Snow-Mello, with DMR Commissioner Pat Keliher, held a worksession on LD 1765 An Act To Sustain the Elver Fishery,

Feb 28, 2012 Penobscot Bay Blog: LURC reform legislation LD 1798 has  Maine Legislature's February 28, 2012 worksession on LD 1798 "An Act To Reform Land Use Planning in the Unorganized Territory". NOTE to listen to the February 16th public hearing ...

Feb 24, 2012 Sears Island Container port bill gets skeptical reception. 
Industrial port-huggers and two determined Penobscot Bay defenders Paul McCarrier and Will Neils, at the Maine statehouse, challenging the "LD 420 An Act To Authorize a General Fund Bond Issue To Fund Building a Container Port on Sears Island" that came before the Maine Legislature's Appropriations Committee 

Feb 21, 2012 Belfast City Council hears TBNT on LPG, votes to write to ACOE Belfast City Council hears TBNT on LPG, votes to write to ACOE 

Feb 16, 2012 Penobscot Bay Blog: Legislature & citizens ponder bill LD 1798 to reform LURC...  On February 16, 2012, the Maine legislature took testimony on LD 1798 ,"An Act To Reform Land Use Planning in the Unorganized Territory" 

Feb 14, 2012: East West Highway bill hearing   February 14, 2012, the People came out to speak against LD 1671 An Act To Provide Funding to the Department of Transportation for a Feasibility Study of an East-west Highway Click on a name for the link to an MP3 audio ...

2011

Dec 09, 2011  Penobscot Bay Blog: Norwegian Wind: federal/state task force ...

... to explain their bits of the puzzle. But without the Norwegian company's officials present, the meeting was strangely unfulfilling, like.

Nov 15, 2011 Belfasters speak out against DCP supertank plan. Audio.

Audio. At the November 15, 2011 Belfast City Council Meeting, three Belfast residents spoke out with their concerns about the proposed LPG super tank in nearby Searsport. And the City Councilors listened and replied. Listen ...

Nov 03, 2011 Thanks But No Tank! Belfast public presentation AUDIO

Thanks But No Tank! Belfast public presentation AUDIO. Belfast Library, November third. The library's meeting room filled quickly and a two hour presentation and discussion ensued, exploring what is known about the plan for ...

July 7, 2011 Island Institute Offshore Wind Exploitation webinar 7/7/11 AUDIO 

 recordings. The meeting was organized by Island Institute. Speakers included Heather Deese, Ph.D., II Director of Marine Programs, Amanda LaBelle, II Marine ...

2010

Nov 16, 2010    BOEMRE  interagency/public meeting in Augusta  Maine ... 

October 19, 2010  Audio recordings of DeepCwind official Habib Dagher. * Habib Dagher speaks at 1st annual Maine Deepwater Offshore Wind Conference (one hour). * 

Sept 14, 2010  BOEMRE meeting Belfast Maine

 March 6, 2010  Maine Fishermens' Forum panel and discussion on windpower

March 11, 2010  Fishermen at Maine's State Legislature on LD 1810, An Act To Implement the Recommendations of the Governor's Ocean Energy Task Force.  ...

Jan 1, 2010 Fox Island Wind, polluting the soundscape .Wonder what the windmills on Vinalhaven sound like ? Click here for an hour long unedited recording of these windmills' endless warbling howl, as if jets are constantly flying past in the middle distance.

2009

Oct 28, 2009 ME Coastal Waters Conference  Maine Coastal Waters Conference October 28, 2009. Audio mp3s. See state website of the conference. The event had 10 sessions. Paul Anderson, Maine SeaGrant Welcoming remarks. George Lapointe. Angus King speaks.

June 2009 Shirley Oliver  on  historic Sears Island on a rainy day on the causeway back in June.  11 minutes long http://www.searsisland.org/audio/si_shirleyoliver_june09.mp3

2008

Jun 04, 2008  Sears Island - Sierra Club leader surfaces; to 

Critics including members of their own group locally, Atlantic Canada Sierra Club members, and as far away as California (mp3 audio of Tom Politeo, interviewed by Ron Huber, Penobscot Bay Report, WRFR COmmunity ...

These are a selection of recordings listen to them and learn about Penobscot Bay, the Gulf of Maine and that that work and play upon them.

Feds put 60 day ban on gillnetting to protect porpoises

No reprieve on fall gillnet closures
By Richard Gaines, Gloucester Times, September 12, 2012

NOAA's regional office has affirmed the agency's decision to impose a two-month closure on gillnet fishing in the Gulf of Maine beginning Oct. 1 due to what officials say are unacceptable levels of harbor porpoise bycatch that, to the government, showed lack of compliance with a requirement that nets be equipped with functioning "pingers."

The closed area encompasses about 2,130 square miles of prime fishing grounds north, west and south of Gloucester. Pingers, which are placed in fishermen's nets, send an audible signal designed to scare away the porpoises.

The decision to stick with the closure announced last spring came in the form of a rejection of an alternative proposal.

Presented last summer by the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, the region's largest industry group, the alternative would have reduced the length of the closure and the size of the area being closed; it also would have shifted the closure from October and November to the second half of March and April.

The decision to stand by the closures marks the first major science- and law-based action by John Bullard, who just weeks ago took over as Northeast regional administrator. Since his appointment in mid-summer, Bullard, a former mayor of New Bedford, has been on an introductory and opinion-and-fact-gathering tour of the states from Maine through North Carolina, whose federal waters are governed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northeast offices in Gloucester's Blackburn Industrial Park.

In a letter last Thursday to Jackie Odell, the seafood coalition's executive director, Bullard wrote that he had asked the acting administrator of fisheries, Sam Rauth, to have the harbor porpoise protection problem delegated to him; since then, Bullard said, he directed his staff to see if there was a way to protect harbor seals that "could justify" modifying the "consequence" closing.

Bullard rejected the proposed alternative proposed by the coalition, writing that switching to the coalition alternative offered fishermen or the harbor porpoises little to gain.

Moreover, he warned in his letter to Odell, a recent harbor porpoise stock assessment showed the "population has declined," implying that more radical actions than the "consequence" closure would be expected.

The term derives from the harbor seal management plan and indicates a carrot-stick approach to protecting harbor porpoises as required in the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act.

"The consequence closure area strategy gave gillnetters control of their own fate," Bullard wrote to Odell. "Fishermen on the (harbor porpoise take reduction team) accepted this as a challenge they could meet.

"Environmentalists on the team accepted it instead of an immediate closure of a smaller area. Unfortunately, during the past two years, fishermen in the Gulf of Maine did not fully respond to the compliance challenge," Bullard wrote.

Richard Burgess, who owns a multi-boat gillinetting business, disputed the assertion that the Gloucester-based gillnetters failed to utilize the pingers, while Paul "Sasquatch" Cohan, another Gloucester-based gillnetter, said losing the inshore grounds in October and November cannot be obviated by fishing in open months, due to the dearth of equally valued fish.

Cohan said he found insulting the suggestion by Bullard that, if they chose not to fish, gillnetters could lease out their quota. Such a business decision would produce a small fraction of the revenue of fishing one's own quota, he said.

"The analysis provided in the environmental assessment supporting the 2010 amendment to the (Take Reduction Plan) shows that if fishermen use the appropriate number of fully functional pinger the harbor porpoise takes would stay below total allowable catch equivalent for porpoises," said David Gouveia, a member of the take reduction team.

"If takes continue to occur at this high rate," Gouveia added, "the 'consequence' closure will likely be the back story as more measures to reduce harbor porpoise bycatch will likely take the front page."

That will likely be the focal point, he said of a take reduction team meeting in October.

In the initial announcement\of the Gulf of Maine closure, NOAA's Protected Resource Division said, "We have determined that the bycatch rate for the Coastal Gulf of Maine Consequence Closure Area has exceeded the target rate" for harbor porpoise mortality of one per 71,117 pounds of fish.

Richard Gaines can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3464, or at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com.

But the "bycatch rate was so high (in the first year of monitoring) that the two-year average cannot be reduced below the target bycatch rate for this area, even if no harbor porpoises are observed being caught (in year two)," the NOAA statement said.

The two-year bycatch rate for porpoises in the Coastal Gulf of Maine Consequence Area was set at 0.031 porpoises per metric ton of fish landed, and in the first year the bycatch rate was reported to be 0.078.

In contrast, gillnet boats working in the east and south of Cape Cod did no exceed the limits: Pinger compliance was 65 percent, and the one-year by catch rate was 0.012 porpoises per metric ton of fish. The target rate for the Cape Cod region was 0.023 porpoises per metric ton of fish.

A Harbor Porpoise Take Reduction Team made up of industry, environmental group representatives, the New England and Mid-Atlantic Regional Fishery Management Councils, gear researchers and state and regional management organizations wrote the plan, required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, to drive down losses to a statistical zero.

Before management began in 1998, there were about 1,500 porpoise deaths a year from fishing gear, but the number fell to near zero for the first five years of regulation, before fatalities began trending upward again in 2005, which was when pinger compliance efforts were increased, said NOAA spokeswoman Maggie Mooney-Seus.

Government officials said they saw a cause and effect relationship between pingers and porpoise bycatch levels.

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Fishermen: "voluntary" dockside USCG inspections to be mandatory starting Oct0ber 16th

As of October 16, 2012, the United States Coast Guard voluntary dockside safety exam becomes mandatory for all commercial State registered and federally documented fishing vessels operating beyond 3 nautical miles from the territorial sea baseline.  

 This includes any full time commercial fishing vessel as well as recreational vessels while operating with a commercial permit to sell their catch. This requirement was mandated by the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010. 


Contact the Coast Guard safety examiner below for more information or to schedule an exam. Dockside exams are free of charge. 

Contact for Maine/New Hampshire:
Kevin Plowman 207-780-3256
Gerry Moores 207-838-4440

Camden Harbor breakwater study? Corps says, let's start

ACOE says: "[Camden] requested construction of breakwaters across the outer harbor to further protect the harbor from wave action and storms."

According to reporter Christine Parrish of the Free Press, the Army Corps of Engineers(ACOE) announced in its June 30 2012 Update Report for Maine that it will undertake a study and will begin "by gathering economic data from the commercial fishing fleet along with completing a depth survey in the vicinity of the proposed breakwater locations."

Below Parrish'[s article see the ACOE announcement

Five Years Later, Army Corps Says Yes to Camden Breakwater Study

by Christine Parrish, Feature Writer, Free Press

In the 1960s Camden started discussing having the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers do a study to see if building a breakwater across the outer harbor would help protect the harbor from wave action and storms.

On January 26, 2007, the town submitted a request to the Corps; the Corps acted on it this June, by announcing in its Update Report for Maine that it will undertake a study and will begin "by gathering economic data from the commercial fishing fleet along with completing a depth survey in the vicinity of the proposed breakwater locations." By the time that announcement came out, the town had pretty much forgotten its request for a breakwater feasibility study, but Town Manager Pat Finnigan tracked back and found the 2007 letter and then got in touch with the Corps. The study, says Finnigan, is just the first step in a very lengthy process.

The Army Corps is not usually known for speed. In 2000, the Maine Department of Transportation asked the Corps to study deepening the 35-foot shipping channel at Mack Point in Searsport. The Corps completed a draft feasibility report this year that included project costs, economic benefits and environmental assessment, and it plans to hold a public review of the study sometime during the last three months of this year.

By contrast, a private business request for an Army Corps permit was relatively expeditious: DCP Midstream LLC was granted an Army Corps permit to pursue building a large propane storage tank at Mack Point less than a year after submitting an application.

End of FP article

------------------
Army Corps of Engineers, Update Report for Maine, June 30, 2012
CAMDEN HARBOR, CAMDEN (1st Congressional District) 
"The Camden Board of Selectmen requested the New England District

initiate a study under Section 107 of the River and Harbor Act of 1960 to determine the feasibility of implementing a navigation improvement project for Camden Harbor.

"Currently the Camden Harbor contains a Federal navigation project consisting of an inner and outer anchorage. The town requested construction of breakwaters across the outer harbor to further protect the harbor from wave action and storms.

This improvement potentially would provide further protection of harbor anchorages and shore facilities and allow for expansion of commercial activities. 

"During the initial phases of this investigation, economic data will be gathered from the commercial fishing fleet along with completing a depth survey in the vicinity of proposed breakwater locations."

End of update

Beachseining results Stockton Harbor 8/19/12

Beach seining results: 8/19/12, SW Stockton Harbor

Ron Huber and Bob Levangie deployed a 50 foot long, 1/32" knotless mesh beach seine in two locations in Stockton Harbor, near  the Sears Island Causeway.

Atlantic Silversides

Site 1= 51 

Site 2 +15

Mummichogs

Site 1 = 65.  

Site 2 = 13

Greencrabs

Site 2 = four

Windowpane flounder 

Site1=1 

Mackerel

Site 1=2

Crangon Shrimp 

Site 1=  3    

Site 2= 4

2nd annual Penobscot Bay Rendezvous Power and Sail Regatta underway

Knox VIllage soup: ROCKLAND — Nearly 60 sailboats and powerboats are taking part in the second annual Penobscot Bay Rendezvous Power and Sail Regatta. The PBR "welcomes the hard-core sailor and the recreational sailor," according to the event website. The PBR is presented by Wayfarer Marine and Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding. The first day of racing kicked off shortly after noon on Friday, Aug. 17 as boats gathered outside Rockland Harbor to compete.

An airshow performed by the Texas Flying Legends preceded the start of the regatta. The antique planes dazzled observers as they performed various tricks against the backdrop of a near-cloudless blue sky.

Conditions were clear and warm as the regatta began. The breeze picked up as the afternoon continued with boats sailing around a course of pre-set markers, competing in one of six divisions that the PBR website states are based on "desired level of intensity."

A party Friday evening at the Pearl was one of several evening events for PBR participants. A barbecue and fireworks Thursday, Aug. 16 at Lyman-Morse in Thomaston welcomed participants, and a surf and turf dinner and gala is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 18 at Wayfarer Marine in Camden. Awards will presented Sunday, Aug. 19.

Courier Publications reporter Jenna Lookner can be reached at 236-8511 or by email at jlookner@courierpublicationsllc.com

Envionrmental Impact Study for Hywind Maine

Draft Environmental Impact Study for Hywind Maine
 Click here for federal register notice

Islesboro Islands Trust retains prominent security expert to review DCP gas tank plan

From the Islesboro Islands Trust August 14, 2012

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EXPERTS TO REVIEW SEARSPORT LPG TERMINAL

 Islesboro Islands Trust retains Richard A. Clarke and consulting firm Good Harbor to conduct impartial All Hazards Risk Assessment of LPG marine import terminal proposed for Searsport, Maine.

ISLESBORO, MAINE (Aug. 14, 2012) – Today, the Islesboro Islands Trust (“IIT”) announced the retention of internationally renowned security expert Richard A. Clarke with the consulting firm Good Harbor, to conduct an independent All Hazards Risk Assessment of the 22.7 million gallon liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) marine import and storage facility proposed for Mack Point in Searsport, Maine.

IIT Executive Director Stephen Miller said, “The people of the Penobscot Bay region have repeatedly asked the developer and the permitting agencies to hire an independent expert to conduct an unbiased analysis of the safety and security risks of siting the largest liquefied petroleum gas import terminal on the East Coast at the head of Penobscot Bay – but these requests have, so far, been ignored.”

Steve Hinchman, counsel for IIT, a conservation land trust, and Thanks But No Tank, a concerned citizens group in the upper Penobscot Bay, noted further, “The potential economic, social, environmental and human costs of a serious accident – whether onboard ship, at the terminal, or from LPG tanker trucks on Route 1 or Route 3 – are too great to proceed any further until we understand the risks involved.”

To fill the gap, IIT turned to Richard A. Clarke, counter-terrorism advisor to three Presidents of the United States, and his firm, Good Harbor, because they have the experience, qualifications and capacity to provide the people of Midcoast Maine with an objective, unbiased review of the critical security questions associated with the proposed LPG terminal.

The Good Harbor All Hazards Risk Assessment will involve identification of the potential intentional, natural and accidental threats that are inherent to a gas import and storage facility of this scale, whether the gas is LPG or LNG, and will examine the vulnerabilities associated with the 24-acre project site and surroundings, as well as potential weaknesses in the facility’s configuration and design.

To evaluate the region’s ability to safely manage this risk, Good Harbor will compare the proposed Pen Bay project against LPG terminals elsewhere (there are two similar facilities on the East Coast) to assess the community’s ability to cope with an emergency, including fire and emergency response personnel, training, and equipment; public notice and evacuation plans; medical and hospital assets; and US Coast Guard and commercial tug capabilities to respond to accidents on the water.

As part of the Assessment, a blast and heat effects analysis will map out areas that may be impacted in the event of an accidental or intentional event. The analysis will be based on the worst case and “worse likely” events, as identified in the All Hazards assessment.

The sheer size of the proposed LPG terminal – and the inherent risk of transporting large volumes of explosive gasses – warrants this level of careful and independent review,” Miller added.

To fill this critical information void, the Islesboro Islands Trust, with the generous support of many concerned residents, has undertaken the burden to obtain an objective, neutral assessment of the safety and security risks and threats posed by this proposed facility and the tanker traffic – on land and sea – that it will generate.  

-- end --

FMI: Stephen Miller, IIT Executive Director 207-734-6907 (office) 207-542-5780 (cell) 

Legal Wrangling Continues over Searsport LPG

From: Island Institute's "Working Waterfront" newspaper. August 2012 edition

Legal Wrangling Continues over Searsport LPG
By Douglas Rooks.

Review of a proposed $40 million, 22.7 million gallon liquefied propane gas (LPG) storage tank is now in the hands of the Searsport Planning Board. But opponents and skeptics of the project still wonder if their concerns will ever be fully addressed.

“There’s a tremendous number of moving parts, and the responses we’ve seen to date tend to raise more questions than they answer," said Steve Miller, executive director of the Islesboro Island Trust——whose organization has not yet taken a position on the project.

Attorney Steve Hinchman represents a local citizens group, Thanks But No Tank, which has concluded that potential harm from the project outweighs any benefits, and appealed issuance of two state permits in Kennebec County Superior Court.
Among the legal issues raised by the group are noise levels, visual and scenic impacts, and the lack of a lighting plan from the developers, DCP Midstream Partners of Denver, Colo.

A brief from the State Attorney General’s oflice says the Department of Environmental Protection acted correctly in issuing the permits. And DEP spokeswoman Samantha DePoy-Warren, said, “Our review of this project . . . was a thorough and thoughtful one and was completely in keeping with the high standards of review that are within our jurisdiction under the Natural Resources Protection Act and the Site Location of Development Act."

DEP did impose several conditions on the permit, including a requirement that DCP Midstream pay $305,835 into a state conservation fund as mitigation for disturbing two acres of wetlands and rerouting a stream.

DePoy—Warren also noted that, although there were 30 written comments, no one requested a public hearing, which could have brought the matter before the Board of Environmental Protection and triggered a more extensive review.

Hinchman conceded that point, but said that BEP hearing requests were only possible for 20 days after DCP Midstream’s application was filed, in April 2011, and that “people in town were just starting to become aware of the size and scope of this project."

DEP issued the permits in September, while the Army Corps of Engi- neers signed off in April of this year.

The project still needs a Maine Fuel Board permit, and will need a federal Environmental Protection Agency permit before operating, but at this point, town review could be the last major step before construction. No Tank’s appeal of DEP’s permit decisions is now before Superior Court Iudge Nancy Mills, who could issue a ruling at any time, since the judge has not requested oral arguments.

But Hinchman is still not convinced that state and federal reviews will adequately consider the impacts. There is, for instance, the issue of public safety. “There are only two LPG storage plants on the East Coast of this magnitude,” he said — in Tampa, Fla., and Norfolk, Va. “And both of them are in heavily industrialized areas remote from homes and retail businesses?

Hinchman wonders how a volunteer fire department like Searsport’s would be able to cope with a major spill or fire. He noted that a spill at a nearby fuel depot required dispatch of a foam truck from Portland.

The tank would be built on 23.6 acres at the northeast corner of the port site, relatively close to Route 1. The Angler restaurant would be a near abutter, something that led its owner to join the No Tank group. A mile—long pipeline will connect the harbor site to the storage tank, which will be 138 feet high, almost three times the height of any existing tank in Searsport. A town height restriction was increased from 50 to 150 feet at a lightly attended town meeting in March 2011, by a vote of 79-66.

Nor do some local residents believe the state has appropriately gauged the impact of truck traffic; initially, all LPG would be moved by trailer, although rail line access is available.

One comment that doesn’t sit well with local residents came from Dave Allen, a DOT traffic engineer, who said at a recent public meeting, “Route 1 has tens of thousands of vehicles going down it every day. No one is even going to notice these trucks." The terminal is expected to operate year-round, 24 hours a day.

For Steve Miller, it is coastal navigational issues that are particularly daunting. In its review of the project, the U.S. Coast Guard recommended that no other vessels be in the shipping lane while LPG tankers are approaching the pier at Searsport. “Managing traffic during the busy summer months could take a lot more sophisticated system than anything that’s in place there now,” he said.

Miller is also disappointed and surprised that the Army Corps of Engineers didn’t require an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the project, opting instead for a more abbreviated environmental assessment. “That could still change," he said. “Searsport could still request an ElS."

Miller noted that, in an application for a now-moribund liquefied natural gas plant on Cobscook Bay, the applicant’s EIS said in its alternatives analy- sis that Searsport would be unsuitable for LNG—and, he added, the National Fire Marshal’s office considers LPG to be more hazardous than LNG.

Arch Gillies, an Isleboro selectman, says it’s significant that at least seven neighboring municipalities have written to the Searsport Planning Board raising concerns. “There’s a real sense that this project is a lot bigger than anyone realized when the application was filed last year," he said. “I think that’s starting to sink in.”
But whether that realization will lead to more scrutiny is anyone’s guess. “In the filings, it’s diflicult to see the need for something this large,” Miller said.

“They say there was a propane shortage in Maine in 2007, but that was really more about transportation bottlenecks than supply. It’s hard to argue that all this new infrastructure is really necessary."

Former Maine Times and Kennebec Journal editor Douglas Rocks has been covering Maine issues for 25 years. He lives in West Gardiner.

Thanks But No Tank! Reaching out to the bottlenecked tourists of coastal Route 1

I walked through the Thanks But No Tank! demo in Searsport on Sunday. Great!!    Spanning all ages, they lined BOTH sides of Main Street, as well as a tiny pocket park that the quiet demonstrators overflowed from.

Like Wiscasset, Searsport's lovely downtown Route One bottleneck brings the great stream of Midcoast Maine's scenic summer travellers to a crawl through its small historic zone.

Thanks But No Tank!ers took the opportunity to inform thousands of these tourists  parading slowly through their town of the peril that a proposed supersize Liquified Propane Gas tank  & terminal presents to traveler and Searsport area resident alike. 

The location was chosen was well away from the entry exit of the Penobscot Marine Museum, to avoid exacerbating the general slowdown any further. 

DCP tank farm would replace forest in lower left of photo.
Note US Route 1, at left above Long Cove

The 22 and a half million gallon LPG tank proposed by Denver-based DCP Midstream  would hulk over scenic North Searsport, over Cape Jellison, and would be a regional eyesore, becoming the dominant "scenic" feature of a dozen tourism dependent bay towns.  

The citizen activists were a colorful mosaic of signs and earnest, smiling faces to those slowly going by. The tourists had the leisure to read their sign messages and info broadsheets.

The tourists learned that if a catastrophe ever took place there, the explosion at the giant tank would engulf them, as well as the oil and gas tank farm tucked  out of sight on lower Mack Point, and the GAC Chemical complex on neighboring Kidder Point. 

Not wanting to slow the bottled-necked travelers any further, however, the No Tank!ers were mostly silent, letting the toots and honks of supportive drivers passing by speak itself of the support for their cause.

Many of the tourists visiting Searsport on foot, however, had the chance to discuss the issues at length with the Thanks but No Tank!ers and their allies from neighboring towns. 

Many signed the signup sheet and caused the pile of Thanks But No Tank! buttons to shrink away.  

For more infomation, go to http://tbnt.org

Turning mooring stones into lobster homes

Rockport Harbor and a growing number of other places are home to new perforated  artificial mooring stones with tunnels bored through them: instant lobster habitats.


New York inventor creates lobster habitat for Maine waters  
By Shlomit Auciello  May 27, 2011 
Village Soup, Camden Herald Gazette

 

Right: Rockport Charters crewmember Owen Casas and owner Robert Iserbyt prepare to set a habitat mooring block in Rockport Harbor.

"The principle of this mooring is that, rather than being a  featureless block of concrete or granite, it creates habitat," said  Lobster Institute Executive Director Robert Bayer on May 26.

"It's full of tunnels," he said. "Those habitats are shelters for  lobster — which is our target — as well as crabs. Fish will swim through  it."

Bayer was in Rockport to accompany Capt. Robert Iserbyt of Rockport  Charters as he installed one of the new moorings for a customer. In  addition to installing and maintaining moorings, Iserbyt runs a 24-hour  dive, towing and water taxi service, takes visitors out on Penobscot Bay  for photography excursions, and brings campers to the islands.

The habitat mooring was invented by Stewart Hardison of Oneonta, N.Y.

"It came to me in a roundabout way," said Hardison.
"I've been into environmental issues all my life," he said. "Five or  six years ago, I became interested in wind power." He said pressure to  stop wind development in New York state led him to look toward Maine.

"Everything seemed to come back to Maine," Hardison said of the  national conversation about wind power. He said concept renderings of  the various designs for ocean wind turbines showed large mooring blocks.

"It popped into my mind that all that massive structure could be used  as habitat," he said. Hardison wrote to Ian Bricknell, director of the  Aquaculture Research Institute at University of Maine, and was  eventually led to Bayer and Lobster Institute Assistant Director Cathy  Billings.

In time, he developed the design of a large concrete block with channels molded into it, the Habitat Mooring System 4000.

Each fiberglass filament reinforced block weighs 4,025 pounds,  carries a 15-pound hitch bar, and can secure a boat of up to 40 feet in  length or more, depending on the harbor bottom and other conditions.

Iserbyt said he saw the habitat moorings advertised through Hamilton  Marine and that the cost was not much more than that of a granite  mooring.

"The fact that they have a removable hitch rod made it more  appealing," he said. Iserbyt said the hitch rod replaces the metal  staple traditionally used to connect a mooring to its chain and buoy.

"A staple needs to be put in by somebody with a crane and torches,"  said Iserbyt. "That job in itself can cost $350 or more." He said the  steel hitch rod, galvanized bolts and stainless steel cotter pins in the  habitat mooring cost about $50.
"I ordered six of them," he said.

After Iserbyt placed his order, he got a phone call from Hardison,  who wanted to see the place where those six blocks would be set.
On May 26, Hardison, Bayer, Billings and a pair of television crews  were on hand as Iserbyt and crewmember Owen Casas set a mooring. Later,  Bayer gave Iserbyt a certificate of appreciation for his "ongoing  support of the Lobster Institute."
Bayer said the invention was likely to be of greater value in  southern New England than in Maine, because the resource is healthy in  Maine waters.

He said one habitat mooring, already in place in Seal Harbor on Mount  Desert Island, is being monitored by University of Maine at Orono  graduate student Chris Roy. Divers have made video recordings of the  life that is colonizing the mooring.
Another mooring will be used as a larval lobster nursery, said Bayer.

"That's going to be done in cooperation with Brian Beal of the Downeast Institute on Beals Island," he said.

Bayer said $50 from the sale of each mooring block would go to the Lobster Institute to support its research and educational activities. He  said that 15 percent of adult lobsters in Maine had no home shelter and  that the constant search for protective habitat exposes lobsters to  predators and disrupts life cycle behavior.

"Every ball you see is a mooring," Bayer said as he looked out over  Rockport Harbor. "If every one was a habitat mooring, it would have a  large impact on the lobster population and biodiversity."

Rockport Charters has a Facebook page and can be reached at 691-1006.  To learn
 more about habitat moorings, visit the website at  habitatmooring.com.
The Herald Gazette Reporter Shlomit Auciello 

Giant Hogweed - up the River but not (yet) down the Bay coast yet

Giant Hogweed - up to 14 feet tall

Bangor Daily News' July 4th edition warns: "Giant hogweed infestation in Bangor could spread to Kenduskeag Stream, expert says"

This aggressive invasive plant superficially resembles Queen Anne's Lace, but looms up to 14 feet tall. (Queen Anne's Lace maxes out at 3 feet tall.)The howeed stems are up to  2 & 1/2 inch thick stems, supporting leaves up to 5 feet wide. The annual weed has multiple flower heads per plant. (QA's Lace has just one flower per plant). 

Giant Hogweed sap  is highly toxic.  According to the video in the BDN article and other sources, if the bamboo-like stems are broken open,  skin contact with the sap causes skin irritation, lasting hypersensitivity to sunlight  (see blistered arm)   Even "brushing up against and breaking open the robust hairs on the plant's leaves" can trigger the irritation, according to a Maine Cooperative Extension report. Blindness has occurred as a result of the sap touching eyeballs.

Queen Anne's Lace - up to 3 feet tall

WHAT YOU CAN DO.

Each Giant Hogweed plant produces 100s of floatable seeds. It has a capacity to colonize Knox,Waldo  and Hancock counties if the seeds come down the river and survive in brackish water long enough to reach shore.

If you live along Penobscot Bay or elsewhere in Maine and identify this pernicious invader, please report the sighting to State Horticulturist Ann Gibbs at the Maine Department of Agriculture at 207-287-3891  or email ann.gibbs AT maine.gov  They will help organize renoval

See Giant hogweed and the harmless look-alike Maine plants

Because of the dangerousness of the sap, before taking on Giant Hogweed,  please review Maine Department of  Agriculture's  "Homeowners' Guide to Managing Giant Hogweed" (2 page pdf) 

Giant Hogweed was introduced into the United States  from the Near East in the early 1900s as an arboretum curiosity.

Rockland drafting letter to Searsport re giant gas tank & tankers plan

The Rockland City Council has agreed at their July 2, 2012 meeting to draft a letter to the town of Searsport asking them for an explanation of their understanding of their mutual aid agreement as it relates to the proposed DCP Liquified petroleum gas tank and terminal on upper Mack Point. See  Bangor Daily News coverage of the council meeting

Steve Miller of Islesboro asks Council to draft letter

Listen to the  city council take on the LPG issue at their July 2, 2012 meeting: 

* Council taking public comments (28 minute mp3)  from two area residents and and a delegation from Islesboro on the DCP midstream issue 

* Council discussing the issue and voting to draft a letter to Searsport (15min mp3). said letter  to be brought up for a vote  at next Monday's council meeting. (July 9, 2012)

If approved at the July 9th meeting, Rockland will join Stockton Springs  Belfast, Islesboro, North Haven, Rockport and Lincolnville in requesting consultation on the controversial DCP Midstream plan for a 22.6 million gallon Liquified Petroleum Gas tank.

Mapping offshore Maine's submerged wildlands with 3D sonar

The NOAA research vessel OSV BOLD  is setting out within a week  to use side scan sonar to create 3D maps of an 800 square mile area of the Gulf of Maine off the mouth of west Penobscot Bay, south to Boothbay.

See a recent  Maine Department of Conservation press release

Map shows the area that the Bold is   going to document includes the two  areas proposed for ocean windfarming off Maine: state and federal waters off waters off Monhegan, and  Boothbay.

The waters  off Monhegan are under consideration by  DeepCwind Consortium, while Norwegian-based Hywind Maine  is interested in waters off Boothbay.

The vessel will be well stocked with local scientists from academia government and industry, keen to sample as many parameters of this wild region of seamounts rising above deep muddy plains as they can during the five day voyage.

Bon Voyage!

Maine newspaper editorial blasts Gas giant DCP

DCP conduct raises concerns

Jun 20, 2012

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A month ago The Journal wrote an editorial urging the Searsport Planning Board to take its time while reviewing the application by Colorado-based DCP Midstream for a 22.7-million-gallon liquefied petroleum gas tank at Mack Point.

So far the Planning Board has done an excellent job wading through the 700-page application document and thoroughly vetting its contents. When it found the company lacked a permit from the state fuel board they voted that the application was incomplete.

The Board also allowed for public comment on the project at its last meeting, though it was limited to half an hour. It will also hold a public hearing on the application before voting on whether to approve the project.

The Planning Board's conduct, thus far, has been as professional and considerate of all opposing views as we could ask. The conduct from DCP Midstream has not.

Two things the company said at the Monday, June 11, meeting raised serious questions. The first was a statement by a DCP attorney during the public comment portion of the meeting.

After a different DCP lawyer was denied a request to respond to public comment, DCP attorney James Kilbreth, approached planning board chairman Bruce Probert and planning board attorney Kristin Collins and whispered, "You better shut this down." His words were caught on video during the meeting.

The their credit neither Collins nor Probert stopped the public comment period. Though the Board will have tighter restrictions on comments at future meetings.

DCP does not deny that exchange took place. A representative of DCP said the attorneys objected because they felt the statements made were not factual and some speakers did not have standing. However, the speakers had waited three and a half hours to say their piece, while DCP presented evidence to the board.

Though DCP felt what was being said was not true, its attempt to interrupt and "shut down" public comment is not conduct a respectful community partner displays. Everyone deserves an opportunity to have their concerns aired.

The other statement that DCP made that must be looked at more closely is its apparent unwillingness to fund the development of a 3D model of the project. In order for the community to really grasp the size and scale of the tank proposal a good model of what it would look once built is necessary.

To date, we've seen two representations, both of which carried biases in favor of the group that produced them.

A photo illustration created by DCP last year showed the tank as it might appear from the water downplaying its size.

A model produced by local opposition group Thanks But No Tank portrayed the tank in correct scale, but it left out the topography and surrounding foliage. The omission made the tank seem larger than it probably would if built.

Both DCP and Thanks but No Tank have an inherently desired outcome, which makes their respective photo illustrations and models suspect. A third-party presentation would be beneficial to everyone, particularly those who have not yet decided how they feel about the proposed tank.

This week DCP will float balloons over the project site to demonstrate the height and width of the tank; however, a 3-Dimensional model would better demonstrate the mass.

The 3-D model would likely cost an amount that equates to a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated total project cost of $40 million. However, DCP's representatives have labeled it cost prohibitive, even though they pledged on several occasions to eventually fund the model, a promise that came more recently after TBNT produced its own scale model last winter.

This raises questions about the company's future plans. A 3-D model would help all those involved understand the project better and the company is on record promising to provide it.

If they are willing to renege on that promise, what other promise could they go back on in the future?

DCP has said it wants to be a part of this community, to provide much needed jobs and increased economic activity. In order to do so it must live up to its promises by funding a 3-D model of the tank and fully accept and encourage engagement with the people it hopes become neighbors with by allowing unfettered public comment.