DMR politicizes aquaculture decision

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sears Island raided by Homeland Security

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

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

Stop Maine shark-finning!

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

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

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


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

DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS: Saturday, June 3, 2006

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

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

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

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

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


Proposed regulations: DEPARTMENT OF MARINE RESOURCES

Chapter 50- Spiny Dogfish and Coastal Sharks

50.01 Definitions

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

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


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

50.10 Finning Prohibited

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




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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

Rockport coastal forest threatened by Utah firm.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Stay tuned...

Eel Liberation Part 2--Androscoggin River

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

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

Stay Tuned.

Maine eels huggers gain public hearing!

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

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

Salmon fly fishery on the Penobscot?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sears Island - economist, scientists discuss possible futures.

ARE THERE COSTS TO NOT PROTECTING SEARS ISLAND? A Symposium, to be held November 5th, 2005 from 9am to 4:30pm at the Troy A. Howard Middle School, in Belfast, is cosponsored by Penobscot Bay Alliance, Islesboro Island Trust and the Maine Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Keynote address “The Nature of Resources and the Resources of Nature: an ecological economic framework for managing the Sears Island ecosystem, by Professor Jon Erickson, Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont.

Local and regional scientists and fisheries experts, Ted Ames of Downeast Groundfish Initiative, Brian Beals, Curtis Bohlen, Lobster Conservancy's Diane Cowan, and Charles Curtin will examine Sears Island and Penobscot Bay in light of this economic perspective.

$15. pre-registration. Includes Lunch and a reception
For more information or to register call Leanne Krudner at 761-5616 or send an email to maine.chapter@sierraclub.org. web site information available www.maine.sierraclub.org.

Sears Island is the largest undeveloped island in Penobscot Bay, the largest unprotected island on the East Coast and it provides five miles of coastal access for the public. The island comprises a myriad of habitats including beaches and rocky shores, softwood and hardwood forests, fern meadows, grassy meadows, salt marshes, ponds and freshwater wetlands. Such a diverse tapestry encompasses a wide variety of species not usually seen within the same zone. On a daily basis the island hosts multiple opportunities for recreation, such as walking, swimming, kayaking, bird watching, fishing, and picnicking.

Developers planning Big Box sprawl on Rte 1, Thomaston

Get involved! Developers are planning major Big Box projects on Route 1 in Thomaston (possibly a Super Wal-Mart.) A group of citizens is working to impose stricter size-limits in town, to try to keep the Box-wannabes out.
Anyone willing to get involved and/or wanting to be on
the e-mail list should contact Daryl Hahn at hahn14@verizon.net.

The NEFMC Habitat Committee

Keep up with what the New England Fishery Management Council is doing regarding the protection of natural marine habitats in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank.

FMC 's stinking waste: Rockland's problem?

Reports have serious quantities of hydrogen sulfide gassing off FMC's seaweed pulp wastes lying unmixed at the surface of rockland's spongy landfill. Gas masks are now de rigeur for attendants, and residents are stifled. The writer recalls desperately filtering the sour sulfurous air through his pillow, sleepless nights on Limerock Street in the early 1990s. Learn just how poisonous these gases are, and who in the state and federal agencies are supposed to rescue Rockland from its dump funk. Click Here

BEP takes over Dragon Taming

The Maine Board of Environmental Protection agreed today to take over jurisdiction of Dragon Cement Products' pollution permits for its cement kiln dust and clinker waste piles! A public hearing will be held in Thomaston or Rockland at a later date for the board to take testimony and vote to either accept or reject dragon's permits, or order them a whole new set of conditions.
Listen to key speakers at the BEP meeting

The Board members apparently felt that the company and Maine DEP were using legal loopholes to avoid taking action on the company's permit applications, and were also declining to respond to community requests to be involved in the state's decisionmaking process.

BEP holds October 6, 2005 public hearing on Dragon's waste permits.

Maine Board of Environmental Protection orders October 6 public hearing on Dragon's waste permits.
Read story, listen to audio recordings of meeting here

AUGUSTA. The Maine Board of Environmental Protection held a public hearing on whether they should take over over decisionmaking on Dragon Cement Products' pollution license. The hearing was held on October 6, 2005 at the Holiday Inn's Ground Round, on Civic Center Drive, Augusta. 

The Board responded to a petition by citizens group Neighbors for a Safe Dragon stating that the Maine Department of Environmental Protection's Waste Bureau was refusing to act on Dragon's Cement Kiln Dust waste license application, meanwwhile allowing the company to continuing discharging CKD into the air and groundwater.

The Board of Environmental Protection members voted unanimously to hold a hearing to take testimony from Neighbors for a Safe Dragon, Dragon Cement and the interested public. The meeting was  held October 6th in Augusta.

At the hearing, the Board was skeptical of explanations made by Maine DEP solid waste division official Paula Clark for allowing the Dragon to operate an unlicenced unlined 840,000 ton cement kiln dust landfill for the last decade without a license and wanted to know why the company was allowed to build a major addition to the industrial complex with no public notice or review. 

Members of Neighbors for a Safe Dragon are jubilant, saying that the people finally get their chance to be heard.

On Sept 22nd, Maine's Board of Environmental Protection to quiz state's Dragon-licensers.

Dragon's toxic test well data

Thomaston cement maker Dragon Cement Products' pollution licensing problems go under the spotlight on Sept 22nd, when the state's top citizen environmental board asks the Dept of Environmental Protection's pollution officials to explain why Dragon continues to be allowed to pollute the region's watershed, aquifers and neighborhoods without being licensed to do so.

The action comes in reaction to a request by citizens' group Neighbors for a Safe Dragon to the Maine Board of Environmental Protection that the Board itself take over the permitting process instead of letting DEP continue to muddle along year after year while Dragon continues discharging into the environment..

In the past, the Board of Environmental Protection "assumed jurisdiction" over Maine DEP permitting process regarding runoff and noise issues from expansion of the Knox County Regional Airport, as well as over the amount of waste that salmon farms can discharge from their marine feedlot operations, in addition to other pollution challenges that the Maine DEP staff seem unable to resolve.

According to BEP's executive analyst Cindy Bertocci, the state's pollution officials are scheduled to appear before the Board at 1pm September 29th in Augusta at the Holiday Inn /Ground Round on Civic Center Drive adjacent to the Augusta Civic Center. 1:00 pm.

Board of Environmental Protection:
Purpose of theBoard
Members of the Board

DMR Bay Mgmt Steering Committee meets 9/19/05, Portland

The Steering Committee of the Maine Bay Management Study will meet Monday, September 19th 10:00 am - 2:00 pm at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute 400 Commercial Street, Portland, Maine.
Legislation describing how the study is to be carried out