SEARSPORT, Maine — June 10, 2015 — Lobstermen, environmentalists and others concerned about the health of upper Penobscot Bay crowded into Searsport District High School cafeteria Tuesday night to share their thoughts about a proposed $12 million Searsport Harbor dredging project.
Many wore red shirts as a sign of solidarity during the Maine Department of Marine Resources public hearing on the impact to the fishing industry of the dredging project. All who spoke warned of the possible negative effects the dredging and dumping of 900,000 cubic yards of silt and sediment could have on the bay.
“The spoils from this project might affect my ability to make a living,” David Black, who lives in Belfast and has been a lobsterman in the area for 50 years, said. “I’m not opposed to maintenance dredging, but I am opposed to this project.”
As proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers, the project would do two things. It would dredge the federal navigation channel to a depth of 40 feet in order to maintain it, generating an estimated 37,000 cubic yards of material. The channel hasn’t been touched since it originally was dug to a depth of 35 feet in 1964 and now contains portions that are only 33 feet deep. More controversially, according to many who spoke Tuesday night, the project also would greatly enlarge the entrance channel and turning basin that leads to the Mack Point industrial port, generating nearly 900,000 cubic yards of dredge material.
Searsport Harbor is the busiest deep-draft commercial port north of Portland and handles cargo including heating oil, diesel, forest products, road salt and gypsum. Army Corps officials have said the size of ships that come to Mack Point has increased and that the existing depths in the navigation channel are inadequate for existing and future vessel traffic.
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News