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History
of Sears Island
Recent History
In 1978 the Maine
Department of Transportation (MDOT) proposed a cargo terminal on the island. In
1984, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to
prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for a Cargo Port project for its Clean
Water Act permit review. The Corps refused.
The Sierra Club then requested a
preliminary injunction of the project, filing court claim that the Corps
violated the Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act by not requiring
an Environmental Impact Statement. The causeway to the island was begun in 1985 without proper permits.
After years of challenges by the
Sierra Club, EPA, and others, the EPA, Conservation Law Foundation and the
Sierra Club signed a consent decree settling the Sears Island wetland
enforcement case, requiring restoration. The state bought the island to be
overseen by the MDOT. In 1997 Governor King called the cargo port project to a
halt over concern for the cost to the state and in recognition of the negative
environmental impacts.
In October 2004
following controversy over a proposed LNG terminal on the island, environmental
groups met with the MDOT, representatives of several other state agencies
and officials from Searsport to begin crafting an open and inclusive public
participation process regarding the future of Sears Island.
In the spring of
2005 the Sierra Club and others fought off a bill that would have required that
Sears Island be managed primarily for industrial and commercial purposes.
We supported an amendment that changed the title and removed language from the
bill that required Sears Island to be managed primarily for industrial and
commercial purposes. However, the law requires that the Commissioner of
DOT bring before the joint standing committee of the Legislature, having
jurisdiction over transportation matters for review and approval, any proposal
that would alter the current land use, ownership or jurisdiction of lands owned
by the State within the Port of Searsport (presently under the jurisdiction of
the Department of Transportation).
Following many meetings and conversations with MDOT and the Governor, asking for
public input to agree upon a common solution for the island’s future, Governor
Baldacci provided an opportunity to demonstrate that 30 years of acrimony and
controversy can be put aside during his administration in favor of a sound,
inclusive process designed to produce a good outcome. In January 2006 a Scoping
Session attended by stakeholders including the Sierra Club, was convened by the
Governor to agree on a design for a
stakeholder/public participation process which would consider future uses for
Sears Island, and develop a consensus plan for those uses. From this and
subsequent scoping meetings a facilitator was chosen and the concept of the
Sears Island Planning Initiative (SIPI) planning committee evolved. The first
meeting was held in Searsport on May 25, 2006. The committee was made up of
a diverse group which included environmentalists, officials of
Searsport, Stockton Springs and Waldo County, business owners, mariners,
fisherman, people in the tourist industry and property owners.
During the next year of often contentious
meetings, a consensus agreement was signed on April 12, 2007 (Read
the agreement here).
From that a smaller committee, the Joint Use Planning Committee (JUPC), was
established to implement the SIPI agreement.
The JUPC was
charged with delivering a Memorandum of Agreement based on seven specific
categories according to the SIPI consensus agreement made earlier this year.
The charge was to neither plan a park nor to plan a port. The real purpose of
the SIPI agreement is to:
-
draft mutually acceptable buffer
easement language which references a baseline natural resource inventory,
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fix the boundaries of the two
areas in a way which reserves adequate acreage for a potential port while
creating a functional area for conservation, recreation and education,
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help convey a deed with easement
restrictions to the buffer easement holder,
-
determine appropriate access
issues,
-
develop a plan for annual
revenues to be paid to the Town of Searsport,
-
identify options for mitigation
for a potential port, and
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consider any other issues
necessary to effectuate this Consensus Agreement, and incorporate them into a
Memorandum of Agreement.
On January 13, 2009 Governor John Baldacci issued an executive order to accept
the recommendations of the Sears Island Planning Initiative’s Joint Use Planning
Committee. It was presented to the Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on
Transportation on January 15. On that date, the committee voted 10 to 2 to
accept the executive order.
The consensus agreement makes
specific restrictions on the potential future developments and grants a 601 acre
conservation easement to be held by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust with the
Department of Conservation as secondary holder of the easement. The remaining
330 acre parcel continues to be held by the MDOT for future transportation
usage. It has long been the Sierra Club’s position that the island should be
limited to compatibly managed marine transportation, education, recreation, and
conservation. The SIPI agreement reinforces the requirement that any future port
development must occur first on Mack Point and that other alternatives be
explored prior to any development on Sears Island. In addition all environmental
regulations will continue to apply to any future development, including EPA and
Army Corps of Engineer reviews. There is no port proposal and there is no
endorsement of a port by the Sierra Club or other members of the SIPI or JUPC.
Information and documents
of the Sears Island Planning Initiative and the Joint Use Planning Committee
process can be found on:
http://www.state.me.us/doc/initiatives/SearsIsland/SearsIsland.shtml
Early History of
Sears Island
What is now known as Sears Island was left behind when the last glacier
retreated 12,000 years ago. Indians living in the Penobscot Bay region
frequented the island. The island was first called Wassumkeag, “bright sand
beach”. Many English and French explorers came to the bay in the sixteenth
century.
Captain John Smith wrote about the region praising its, “…rocky isles so
furnished with good Woods, Springs, Fruits, Fish and Fowle.” The American
Revolution brought squatters to Sears Island. The first, Job Pendleton, arrived
sometime before 1775. An American ship “Defense” was sunk in the harbor next to
the island, and the squatters fled rather than face the enemy soldiers. Peace
returned, and six families were settled on the island by 1790. In 1813 the
island became a dairy farm owned by the Sears family. In 1905 The Bangor &
Aroostook Railway bought the island for a tourist destination, which failed with
the rising popularity of cars.
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