WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives
Audio archives of spoken word broadcasts from Community Radio WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill (weru.org)
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Segment 1: Documents recently discovered by the Friends of Penobscot Bay describe disturbing details of a 1960s site visit of the chemical company on Kidder Point on the shore in Searsport — we discuss the findings with FoPB Director Ron Huber
Segment 2: What question would YOU ask the candidates running in this year’s elections?
FMI: www.penbay.net
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
The site of the GAC Chemical plant on the shoreline in Searsport has been the location of chemical & fertilizer
companies dating back to the early 1900s. The beach is littered with relics of the industrial past, but little was
known about what toxic legacy was left behind — until local residents, tired of refusals from state and federal
agencies, took matters into their own hands. In recent days news broke that DEP may be stepping in — but can they be counted on to conduct a full assessment? We talk with Ron Huber, Executive Director of Friends of Penobscot Bay; Sheila Dassatt, Executive Director of Downeast Lobstermen’s Association; Nick Seeger, Friends of Penobscot Bay.
(Photos that accompany this story can be found on the WERU facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/werufm )
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
We check in with Ron Huber, Executive Director of Friends of Penobscot Bay, for an update on that group’s efforts to determine what was left behind on the shoreline near GAC chemical in Searsport, by generations of industry there. We also talk with DEP spokesperson Jessamine Logan for a response to Huber’s allegations that a FOAA records request to the agency did not yield requested phone records.
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
We check in with Ron Huber, Executive Director of Friends of Penobscot Bay, for an update on that group’s efforts to determine what was left behind on the shoreline near GAC chemical in Searsport, by generations of industry there. We also talk with DEP spokesperson Jessamine Logan for a response to Huber’s allegations that a FOAA records request to the agency did not yield requested phone records.
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Rebroadcast of a segment of the WERU Special on the Searsport dredging controversy that originally aired at 10am on 8/25/14
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Studio Engineer: Joel Mann
The US Army Corps of Engineers and Maine DOT are proposing a dredging project in Searsport Harbor that would result in nearly a million cubic yards of materials being dumped in Penobscot Bay near Islesboro. The project would deepen and widen the shipping channel. Supporters say that would improve commerce in the port, but opponents say the economic and environmental risks far outweigh any potential benefits.
Joining me in the studio today are Joel Pitcher of the Maine Lobstering Union, and attorney Kim Tucker. She represents the Maine Lobstering Union, Pemaquid Muscle Farm, and the Sierra Club of Maine as well as some individual members of the Zone D lobster council. The program also features excerpts from an interview with Dr. Kevin Yeager- an independent scientist who previously worked on the Holtrachem/Mallinkrodt mercury case in the federal court system. He is the author of a new report that raises serious concerns about the plan– among them the possibility that inert mercury in the sediment may be converted to a more toxic form and make its way into the food chain in Penobscot Bay. He also criticizes the methology the Army Corps used in their sediment sampling.
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Today we’re talking with Ron Huber, Executive Director of Friends of Penobscot Bay, about that group’s efforts to enlist the assistance of state and federal environmental protection agencies to help access the impact of decades of chemicals and fertilizer companies on the shoreline at Kidder Point in Searsport.
FMI: http://www.penbay.net/ and http://penobscotbay.blogspot.com/
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Continuing with our on-going coverage of the Searsport dredge and dump controversy, today we hear the impressions of Penobscot bay lobstermen and people who work in the shell fish industry, following a private presentation by state and federal officials, organized by the Maine Lobstermen’s Association