Tag Archives: Maine Department of Environmental Protection

Long-sunken trawler leaks diesel fuel into Mackerel Cove

A trawler that sank to the bottom of Mackerel Cove, Bailey Island, in the 1990s leaked diesel fuel into the cove on Monday, July 10. A local diver plugged the leak late Monday afternoon and the U.S. Coast Guard plans to pump out the rest of the fuel, according to Harpswell Harbor Master Paul Plummer.  The Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Orr’s and Bailey Islands Fire Department, and U.S. Coast Guard Station South Portland responded to assist. But it was local diver Alex Lund who stopped the leak around 5 p.m., using marine putty and other materials. The fishing vessel Miss Plum was the source of the leak, according to Plummer.  >click to read< 07:50

Maine: Fishermen oppose large salmon farm

Alley, Backman, Briggs, Coombs, Dunbar, Faulkingham, Knowles, Perry, Torrey and Whalen are among the surnames of multi-generation fishing families on the Schoodic Peninsula, whose working fishermen and women signed a petition opposing American Aquafarms’ proposed salmon farm comprising two 15-pen sites in Frenchman Bay. The 100 petitioners’ “Statement of Opposition” to the project to raise 66 million fish annually in their historic fishing grounds was delivered last week to the Gouldsboro Select Board. “This is going to take away more of our lobster fishing ground,” 75-year-old South Gouldsboro fisherman Jerry Potter said. Potter has fished in Frenchman Bay throughout his working life. “We’re worried about disease. And I’m very concerned it would pollute the bay and destroy the bay’s entire ecosystem.” >click to read< 13:26

DEP officials hear opposition to salmon farm – “I am still shocked that we are talking about it”

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s will and capacity to adequately appraise American Aquafarms’ proposed plan to discharge a combined 4.1 billion gallons of diluted wastewater daily from both the Norwegian-backed company’s two 15-pen sites in Frenchman Bay were questioned during a 2.5-hour public meeting held online by the state agency Thursday night. The scientific studies and analysis underlying the industrial-scale project also were disputed and independent scientific data, which paints a different picture, submitted. “It’s just a big accident waiting to happen. I am still shocked that we are talking about it,” >click to read< 09:36

Many Questions Unanswered Following DEP Statement on Fish Die Off at Black Island

A Maine Department of Environmental Protection statement on the massive of die-off of nearly 116,000 salmon at pen sites off Black Island in mid-August raises more questions than it answers, according to groups concerned about industrial-scale aquaculture in Maine waters. The die-offs were discovered at the Cooke aquaculture pen sites on August 16 and weren’t reported to the DEP for almost two weeks. In a news release today, the DEP said that it had found no permit violations associated with death of the fish. Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Executive Director Crystal Canney said, “So the obvious question is – what killed the fish? You won’t find answers in the statement issued today, and we are still waiting to hear from the Department of Marine Resources, the primary regulating agency on net pen salmon. DMR was very quick to say that it was a dissolved oxygen issue, but the DEP has already ruled that out in its statement today.” >click to read< 16:48

“No Industrial Scale Fish Factory in Frenchman Bay” – American Aquafarms reps, critics take sides

Longtime South Gouldsboro lobsterman Frank Hammond has fished for decades in “The Hop,” an area northwest of Long Porcupine Island, where one of American Aquafarms’ sites would be located. He estimates about 15 to 20 lobstermen fish there from South Gouldsboro, Hancock, Sorrento and Lamoine. “I am dead against it. There is nothing to gain from this,” Hammond said at Saturday’s event. “The fishermen will never go for it if they’re going raise the fish in The Hop.” Another South Gouldsboro lobsterman, Jerry Potter, echoed Hammond. >click to read< 08:34

Falmouth beach closes after lobster boat spills diesel fuel

The northern beach at the Falmouth town landing is closed after a lobster boat spilled diesel fuel into the water Monday morning. According to the Department of Environmental Protection, a local lobsterman had beached the boat on purpose to do maintenance. When the tide came up, the boat didn’t. When the tide went back down, the boat tipped over and spilled the fuel. photo’s, >click to read< 15:08

Developer: Belfast woman has no standing to challenge $250M Bucksport salmon farm

A Belfast woman lives too far from a proposed $250 million indoor salmon farm in Bucksport to appeal a wastewater discharge permit state regulators have issued. That’s the argument Whole Oceans LLC is making in a motion filed with the state Board of Environmental Protection earlier this week to dismiss Holly Faubel’s appeal of the wastewater permit the Maine Department of Environmental Protection granted the company in November. Whole Oceans hopes to start building the aquafarm this spring at the former Verso Paper mill site. >click to read<14:04