Sears Island (A RANT about Pending Development)

This whole deal with Sears Island and the JUPC is shameful. Come on, you clowns, take off your masks. This prank's gone on long enough! Okay, you sleepy-eyed community members, take note – Sears Island IS going to be developed, and it's going to most certainly happen quickly and right beneath your sleepy little eyelids. Oh, don't go crying to one another bemoaning the loss of your sleepy little community, the loss of your sweet little view, the loss of what you hold near and dear to your heart about what makes this community your home.

Oh, no – don't blame a single soul other than yourselves for the great misfortune ahead as Searsport's municipal representatives snooker up alongside the likes of the good state senator Damon and the good DOT Commissioner Cole in uncritical trust that these rascals have the town's best interests at heart. The first time, in 2004, the DOT tried to jam a rigged memorandum of understanding concerning Sears Island down Searsport's throat, most of the town's representatives, to their credit, stood up to the bureaucrats. Perhaps this was because at the time these officials had only recently witnessed the community-wide outrage that was raised by a backdoor DOT deal to build an LNG terminal and regasification plant on the island. But the DOT persisted with the very same MOU and all the town's representatives gave up.

Since then they've capitulated to every demand the state has made. Whatever the issue, they didn't dare to speak. Preservationist voices ignored? They didn't dare to speak. Questionable assumptions about both basic economics and what constitutes best "use"? They didn't dare to speak. A planning process inherently flawed in assuming real and truly representative consensus was even possible over such a fundamental matter as public wildland preservation versus development of any sort? They didn't dare to speak. Secret meetings of select planning participants to draft critical document language? They didn't dare to speak. A scandalous final JUPC process to divide up the island at which, 15 months into the entire public planning period, the DOT for the first time introduced some outrageous provisions it steamrollered through without challenge. They didn't dare to speak. As a result, the DOT ultimately secured an exemption for island developers from federal 4F environmental review. And Still, they didn't dare to speak. The former Bangor and Aroostook Railroad was allowed to extend its proposed domain over even more shoreline and to enclose 80-plus acres of wild land inside a truck highway loop. They didn't dare to speak. But most outrageous of all, by assigning two thirds of Sears Island as its initial "deposit" the DOT successfully prepared for the introduction of something that has proved disastrous to the environment everywhere else in the U.S. -- what would be New England's very first federal wetlands mitigation bank. THEY DIDN'T DARE TO SPEAK.

Think your pals over at the land trusts and at the mighty Sierra Club have been looking out for you? Think again – they bought into the most childish of all cop-outs, "If we don't win, we'll loose the whole island to who knows what." What nonsense! Good God, you dumb bunnies, haven't you heard the wisdom of "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"? But what's even more shameful is that even when you had the chance to bring the whole thing to a screeching halt by using your community voice to cry, "Foul Play!" -- you didn't. And why not? Because you were smug. You let your ego guide you into playing against wily opponents on an unlevel field.

It should be about as plain as the nose on your face that a port couldn''t be built on Sears Island without the state's newly acquired ability to secure mitigation credits based on the portion of the island set aside allegedly in the interests of conservation. But not only that -- with your silence you just gave the greedy land-mongers the green light to bank conserved land as legal tender for the destruction of financially desirable yet environmentally fragile land throughout the state of Maine. You see, it's like this, my sleepy-eyed friends, while you eased your troubled soul in the faith your pals at the Sierra Club and the so-called land trusts had your back, you lost your shirt.

Sure, they told you not to worry because the new Sears Island Joint Use Plan specifically says Mack Point on the mainland has to be considered first in planning port expansion at Searsport. And that's true. It does say that. Unfortunately, what you chose to ignore is that the Maine Port Authority's strategic plan favors development of a container port. That's all the speculators with the bankrupt B&A's former assets have spoken of being interested in. Container ports require marginal rather than finger piers and these must have deepwater berths (in excess of -40 feet MLF). As it turns out, the shore immediately off Mack Point' is relatively shallow. Unlike the already designated portion of Sears Island's western shore, at Mack Point a truly unfeasible amount of spoils would have to be dredged out and somehow disposed of in order to accommodate a marginal pier for a container port there.

Everybody knows that. Penobscot Bay pilot David Gelinas, long a proponent for a container port at Sears Island, has underscored that basic difference between the two contemplated sites in public discussions before those taking part in the island planning process. But guess what? Everybody will play dumb and after a certain amount of media spin it will be announced that, a diligent assessment having been made, it has been determined that although building a container port at Mack Point would not be appropriate after all, it so happens that Sears Island would. Some public official might even be shameless enough to claim that Sears Island is the environmentally responsible place to site a container port. And then everyone will pat themselves on the back for being such good stewards of the land because they so wisely "saved" 601 acres. Fools.

And while I'm on this rant, let me also scold you people for this insane rhetoric about having saved some 601 acres for recreational use of the island. For pete's sake, people, have you lost your wise little ecological minds? Have you thought about what saving 601 acres looks like? Have you thought about the size of a container port? Think the Jersey shore. Think bright lights. Think noise, trucks, trains, cranes. Imagine the smell of diesel fumes. Who in their right mind can honestly think that they are doing a good deed by carving up a property as small as a 931-acre island? Who in their right mind can possibly believe Sears Island's sweet wild nature won't be destroyed?

Who can believe this nonsense with respect to even the supposedly conserved portion of the island after looking at the terms of the easement. It allows Maine Coast Heritage Trust, a private institution answerable only to its board of directors, to construct a campus of two- and three-storied educational and office buildings covering up to 10,000 square feet plus associated access roads, parking lots, and other permanent structures. Naturally, there will be a fee.

Think the economy will deter development? Think again. Something is afoot in the good state legislature and I say it's got port development screaming from every backroom deal taking place in the good city of Augusta. Did any of you notice how quickly that slick deal passed through the transportation committee? Bam! In November committee members, most of them smelling a rat, unanimously vote to put the directive for full implementation of the plan on hold. But then, mysteriously, on a Tuesday afternoon in January, Sen. Damon, the chairman, announces out of the blue that the governor wants this passed and they can vote YES now or on Thursday – but they've gotta pass this because Dianne Smith of Searsport and the others worked so-o-o-o hard on it.

Are you kidding me? Where is the integrity that doing this kind of work requires? Can you say "somebody was strongarmed"? Hey, whatever happened to the notion of a good clean work ethic that takes the attitude that if you discover a fatal flaw ahead, if you discover foul play, then you stop the engines. You slam on the goddam brakes. You don't push on just because you're almost there. The risk is too great. Don't you bozos get it? You've sat idly by as this thing rolls right on through. And it's not just that you give Sears Island away without a whimper by doing nothing to stop the Army Corp of Engineers from using the island as a test for its wetlands mitigation banking scheme, you have also given the green light for the destruction of other precious lands henceforth throughout Maine. Why? Because the damage to these lands can be bought off -- that is, exchanged for credit from the lands "saved" and thus banked. It's bad, bad policy folks, and your sleepy little eyes are letting it spool right on by. What's that? Are you rubbing the sleep out of your eyes? Paying attention now, are you? Well, guess what, there is, in fact, SOMETHING YOU REALLY CAN DO. Show up at the upcoming informational meeting of the Army Corp (set to be announced later this week) and demand a hearing to judge the wisdom of adopting New England's first federal wetland mitigation banking scheme. Then -- do your part! Say NO to WETLANDS MITIGATION BANKING in MAINE

- Zaney and P