Wednesday, April 15, 2009

More nonsense from Maine's Department of Transportation

Click on the Headline above to link with the full story!

Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine DOT is quoted as saying the following:
The state, said Latti, has not received questions or concerns from state officials or the public regarding the state's proactive approach to marketing a port site in this economy. "That hasn't been much of an issue," he said.

Pardon me Mr. Latti... the public has said loud and clear: Marketing the island IS AN ISSUE.
Grrrr.

Friday, April 3, 2009

WERU's Amy Brown interviews PEER's New England Director Kyla Bennett

Community Radio at its best: WERU

RadioActive 4/02/09
April 2nd, 2009
Producers/Hosts: Amy Browne & Meredith DeFrancesco
Segment 1: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have scathing criticism of the Maine Department of Transportation’s plan to start a federal Umbrella Wetlands Mitigation Bank on Sears Island— and they have made their concerns known to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who is currently considering MeDOT’s proposal. We talk with Kyla Bennett, Director of the New England branch of PEER, to get the details. FMI: http://www.peer.org/

Thursday, April 2, 2009

EPA publically denounces Maine DOT's Request for Umbrella Wetland Mitigation

Advocates working to protect Sears Island received a welcome boost yesterday when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as reported by PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Protection) strongly recommended against approval of the Umbrella Wetlands Mitigation Scheme as requested by the Maine DOT to the Army Corp of Engineers.

The state of Maine announced last week that it has $100K to hire a consultant to market the island (ostensibly for a Cargo Port).

See the following story links:
http://waldo.villagesoup.com/Government/story.cfm?storyID=151860

http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1175

We posted a clip from the Army Corp meeting last week - see on Utube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4OYLonk8bo

And finally check out this lovely post by Doug Watts:
http://tispaquin.blogspot.com/2009/04/epa-kicks-maine-dot-in-nads-over-sears.html