Penobscot BayWatch

Will breaching Sears Island causeway revive Stockton Harbor's clams?
At 2001 meeting, stakeholders pondered issue. Meeting details below.

On May 25th 2001, Scientists, fishermen, conservationists and state officials met at the Penobscot Marine Museum to take a look at the idea of restoring tidal flow between Stockton Harbor and Long Cove by breaching the Sears Island causeway with a bridge or culverts.

Participants at the meeting included Maine DOT's Brian Nutter, Penobscot Bay Watch Ron Huber, marine circulation scientist Huijie Xue, Conservation Law Foundation Attorney Peter Shelley, and retired fisherman Herbert Hoche ( marine worm harvester Tom Atherton was unable to attend).

The meeting examined the existing information about the state of Stockton Harbor and what is known or observed about the impact of the causeway closing off the water circulation between Stockton harbor and Long Cove

Participants discussed what needed to be known before a preliminary decision can be made whether there would be enough benefits to the ecology and fisheries from breaching the causeway to justify carrying it out.

MDOT's Nutter agreed to supply a report created by Normandeau Associates describing the baseline marine ecology of the area. That information was prepared as part of the ill-fated Sears Island Cargoport proposal of the early 1990's.

Dr Xue said that in order to develop a circulation model of those waters, a current meter should be installed in the channel between Sears Island and Cape Jellison. It was considered that The GoMOOS system (Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System) may have a 'spare' buoy that, deployed for a month, would lsupply the data needed by Dr Xue. to create her model. With sufficient information, she can produce a modelof how the currents around the harbor would flow with and without the causeway, and how they would flow through with the different types of openings in the causeway. (A follow up inquiry to the Maine Coastal Program however has found that that there is not one available at this time. Other avenues are being explored.)

Dr Xue also suggested that information about the total size of the intertidal area within those two Long Cove and Stockton Harbor would be important for modelling the water circulation.

It was also noted that Pen Bay Watch has information from the NOAA vessel RUDE mapping the channel between the Island and Cape Jellison We have some data from the NOAA vessel RUDE. If a fishing boat or other vessel could do transects of Stockton Harbor with a sonar plotter, this, too, would be helpful. that would be helpful. Island Institute boat could do this?

MDOT's Brian Nutter said that MDOT would endorse carrying out the basic review to see if the breach-the-causeway project would be worth committing time and money to. He says the project team needs to show that the gains in water quality & shellfish productivity would be worth the expense.

He noted that because the federal government paid for the construction of the causeway, they are going to insist that the culverted causeway must still have the strength to hold a railroad track and a two lane truck route, pipelines for water, powerlines for electricity

A general discussion of observations and questions followed:
* Other sources of tidal and biological information would be CMP, Corps of Engineers, Normandeau Associates, Federal Highway Administration.
* Get core samples from different areas to get information about the types of benthic habitat and pollution.
* Are there other problems affecting the shellfish? Would cleaning up the General Alum waste out of the mud be helpful? What other historic residues are in the Harbor and the Cove. Is global warming changing the temperature too much for the clams?
* Should core sampling be done? Who "owns" the clam flats? Low tide lines ownerships
* Get community members of the two towns into discussing the issue. See if we can stir up support on a large scale or among leaders. Getting information together and then holding a public meeting in Searsport would be useful. Need to be significant pubilc support for breaching causeeway with a bridge or culverts.
* Money: is there money to pay a grad student to do the study of the circulation etc - $15,000 per year.
Use an intern from the School of Marine Sciences. DMR supports graduate students, get them involved. Seagrant next funding cycle. The federal Estuary Restoration Project may have money. EPA has funds.

The action group agreed to meet again once some of these questions have been answered.

Background:

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