EAST COAST’S LARGEST UNDEVELOPED ISLAND SLATED FOR CARGO PORT

[nosmokes]

original-peer

For Immediate Release: March 17, 2008
Contact: Carol Goldberg [phone]

EAST COAST’S LARGEST UNDEVELOPED ISLAND SLATED FOR CARGO PORT

— Development Scheme for Maine’s Sears Island Resurfaces Again after 12 Years

Washington, DC — The Maine Department of Transportation wants to turn Sears Island in Penobscot Bay into a cargo container port, according to an agency scenario released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Under the plan, more than a third of the largest uninhabited island on the Eastern Seaboard would be paved over. The rest of the island would be used as a “mitigation bank” to facilitate wetlands destruction in other parts of the state.

Sears Island, called “Place of Shining Sands” by the Penobscot Indians, shelters more than 200 varieties of turtles, birds and mammals, including six state or federally protected species. Sears Island also has 73 different wetlands, covering 223 acres, with most of the rest of the island consisting of forested uplands. The planned cargo container facility would occupy 341 acres of the nearly 1,000 acre-island.

This latest plan comes twelve years after a similar scheme by the Maine Department of Transportation (DOT) was withdrawn “following minor site work” and “under a cloud of controversy” (in the words of its January 2008 “Wetland Mitigation Bank Prospectus”). What the Prospectus does not mention is that in the early 1990s, DOT and its consultants told numerous federal agencies that there were no wetlands on the island – and then proceeded to illegally fill more than 10 acres of them. The U.S. Environmental Agency (EPA) filed a civil enforcement action against DOT and its contractors. DOT settled the case for $800,000 worth of wetland restoration and preservation efforts.

The earlier plan to build a cargo port on Sears Island was not withdrawn because of this controversy; rather, it was withdrawn because the EPA felt the severe environmental impacts associated with a cargo port on Sears Island were un-permittable.

“Carving up Sears Island was a bad idea a decade ago and is even a worse idea now,” stated New England PEER Director Kyla Bennett, a biologist and lawyer who formerly worked for the EPA, noting that the DOT Prospectus brags that “protection of parts of Sears Island would add a significant jewel” to Maine’s conservation efforts. “If protecting ‘parts’ of Sears Island would add a jewel, saving all of Sears Island would be like appending the Hope Diamond.”

A mitigation credit bank allows developers to buy the right to fill in naturally functioning wetlands by purchasing the promise of the creation or restoration of wetlands elsewhere. In the case of Sears Island, DOT proposes that some lands be saved only in exchange for the destruction of wetlands elsewhere in the state. In addition, there are big questions about whether Sears Island could function as a mitigation bank.

“Offering Sears Island up for a wetland mitigation bank does not even pass the straight face test when the only restoration opportunities on the island consist of two sites, totaling three-eighths of an acre,” Bennett added. “The Governor of Maine should put an end to these ridiculous development scenarios and save Sears Island once and for all.”

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complete release including links to related sources here

[peace13]

1. To say nothing of the crap the container ships will introduce

when they pump their tanks dry. In Lake Erie we have had an Octopus, dead of course, in the marina. Who knows what there might be that is too small to see. Gotta love it.

[dysfunctional press]

2. that's how we got zebra mussels, for one.

and they're clogging water intake systems throughout the great lake states.

[NWHarkness]

3. That's not really an issue at this point

Sears Island sits right next to the port at Mack Point, so as far as the introduction of invasive species, that horse has already left the barn in this case.

[KamaAina]

4. Oh for Pete's sake. Doesn't Maine have an underutilized deep water port?

right up the coast at Eastport? At one time, someone wanted to put an oil refinery there. :scared: A container port, while messy, looks positively green compared to a refinery!

edit: header

[mainegreen]

6. I think you're thinking of the LNG terminal they wanted up there.

And it would have been placed there except that Canada controls the deep water passage into that port, and they nixed that project.

[KamaAina]

7. I distinctly recall a refinery proposal

it was described in the New England chapter of Joel Garreau's "The Nine Nations of North America". The local opposition to it was held up as an example of New Englanders' environmental consciousness, even in a place that could have used the jobs. He mentioned that at a parade one year, the Little League's vastly popular Red Sox float was defeated for first place by a conservation group with the slogan "Don't Let Eastport Become a Pits Town" (Pittston was the company involved). The LNG thing must have come later.

Speaking of green things up there, wouldn't that be about the best place in the U.S. to generate tidal power?

[mainegreen]

9. There are a few propositions to do just that.

Currently though there is more focus on wind.
There are some mountains here that are phenomenal spots for wind power, and several locations are either in planning or under construction.

I did not know that Eastport was also under consideration at one time for an oil refinery too.
Crazy.

[mainegreen]

5. We nixed the LNG terminal there. I wouldn't be suprised to see this nixed as well.

There is major pressure though here in this state to expand port tonnage.
Portland is already one of the biggest ports on the east coast for oil (if not the biggest) and the state wants to add cargo to that as well. We are trying to compete directly with Halifax on that, and I don't doubt that cargo port will be placed somewhere, I just don't think Sears Island will be it.

I would expect it to end up either further north or closer to Portland where the rail links are much better and a lot of the infrastructure is already in place.

[haymakeragain]

8. Probably because it works nicely if there is no ice at the North Pole.

No?

[mainegreen]

10. Also, Maine is the ideal location for ports serving Montreal - Quebec.

It's a real pain to them how our state juts up into Canada.

[haymakeragain]

11. It makes sense actually, too bad about the consequences,

the environment and all that. Just think about the savings in shipping if they can go over the top from say.....china or russia or Alaska or Japan, to get to the East coast. I know there are those that are thinking that this global warming thing will be great for reasons just like that.

It's going to be a wild ride for the next 20 years. I wonder how it will play out?

[mainegreen]

12. I just hope that they place the port in a sane location.

It would make sense in say South Portland. Our port is already a major port for other reasons.
Sears island is just stupid. Mainers wont go for it.
We like our environment.

The next 20 years is going to be daft.