Clean Water

Protecting Searsport and Penobscot Bay

The Army Corps of Engineers and the Maine Department of Transportation is proposing to spend $13 million in taxpayer dollars to dredge nearly one million cubic yards of silt from Searsport Harbor channel and dumping it in Penobscot Bay off Islesboro. This site is in a geologically unstable area of "pock marks" formed by methane venting, and was rejected for dredge spoils disposal for this same project when first proposed in the 1990s.

Why are the Corps and MDOT proposing this again?  So that Sprague Energy and Irving Oil can supposedly save $845,000 annually by keeping an average of fewer than 7 vessels a year from waiting no more than 6 hours for a high tide to unload imported oil products at Mack Point.

We share the concerns of many in the community that the dredging would disturb toxic sediments, including known mercury contamination from the HoltraChem facility, and contaminate the Bay’s important lobster fishery. 

Blue Hill Lobster Traps

The Army Corp estimates that it will take at least four years for “recovery and re-colonization” of the area.  It would take many more years than that to fully restore the fishery (if it ever could be restored), but a 4-year loss of just the western Penobscot Bay lobster fishery could result in up to a $2.6 billion loss to the Maine economy and destruction of key fishery resources, including a productive aquaculture facility for mussels that is just 5000 feet from the disposal site.  This dredging will also damage or destroy essential fish habitat for winter flounder and important eel grass beds. 

We support a better alternative that can accomplish 97% of the navigational improvements of the Corps’ proposal. The Dawson Alternative, developed by former Corps experts, requires removal of only 37,000 cubic yards of material which could be disposed safely on land, and deepening the dock area to 45 feet (approximately 5 feet deeper than the current depth). The Dawson Alternative only requires a maintenance dredge of the existing channel, which would require no state taxpayer funds. 

News/Articles

**BREAKING**

September 9, 2015

Army Corps and MDOT Withdraw Massive Searsport Dredging Proposal
 
The Army Corps of Engineers and Maine Department of Transportation withdrew their application to dredge nearly one million cubic yards at Mack Point in Searsport yesterday. In a letter to Islesboro Islands Trust, the Lobstering Union, Sierra Club and other interested parties, Barbara Blumeris, project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, and John Henshaw, director of ports at the Maine Department of Transport, said, “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Maine Department of Transportation are withdrawing the Water Quality Certification/Natural Resources Protection Act application for the Searsport Harbor...”  The announcement went on to say, “We may consider submitting a revised application for a Water Quality Certification at a later date.”
 
The massive, expanded dredging proposal first surfaced in April of 2013.
 
A groundswell of concern, led by Islesboro Islands Trust, the Lobstering Union, Sierra Club and numerous state legislators and local governments in the region, consistently argued that the dredge sediment is contaminated and not suitable for open water disposal, the proposed disposal site is unstable, disposal of any sediment on lobster ground, let alone one million cubic yards, poses a serious threat to the lobster industry and related marine-dependent economies, and the Dawson Alternative enables docking of the larger modern ships.
 
Dawson and Associates, a consulting firm hired last year by Islesboro Islands Trust to assess the proposal, determined that virtually all of the proposal's objectives could be met by maintenance dredging the entry down to the already authorized 35 feet, dredging at the two piers down to 45 feet, and disposing of this far smaller volume of sediment at one or more appropriate upland locations. This Dawson Alternative would cost $12million LESS THAN the proposed dredging and, equally important, is a far less environmentally damaging option.
 
A spokesperson for Islesboro Islands Trust said, “We hope the Corps and MDOT arrived at the rational conclusion that the Dawson Alternative is the proper way to proceed. Any revised proposal to dredge Mack Point must first do no harm to the lobstering and other marine-dependent industries in the area.”
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"No need to sacrifice the lobster industry to improve Searsport shipping channel," Bangor Daily News, September 14, 2015.

"Searsport Dredging Bullet Points"

"Letter to DEP Commissioner Aho from Kim Ervin Tucker 6/1/15"

Assessment and Report on “Sampling And Testing Searsport Harbor Federal Navigation Project Searsport, Maine” – March, 2015

"Searsport planning board tables scrap yard application" 

"The Living Lawn: Free Workshops March 14 in York and Ogunquit"