![]() “Aquaculture is a really important industry for the world going forward,” said Peter Stocks, a South Portland representative on the harbor commission. There is available space, theoretically, but the reality is you can’t get into it because it’s silted up.”ĭredging would also allow South Portland to take advantage of aquaculture opportunities. You have to wait for two or three other boats. “Let’s say you’ve got a fishing boat that’s coming, and unfortunately you’re coming in at low tide,” he explained. Part of the impact is the creation of jobs, particularly in fishing and seafood processing, which are now hampered by the harbor’s condition, Mann said. The project has an estimated $50 million economic impact, according to the Portland Harbor Commission, and they believe that is conservative. Undertaking the project under one permit, instead of stakeholders dredging separately, is more feasible. “At some point people are going to be in the situation where they can’t hold off anymore.” “That’s why a lot of marinas and piers have not done it,” said Mike Soucy, director of operations at Port Harbor Marine in South Portland. That’s on top of permits and the actual dredging process. Workers take samples of the sediments in Portland Harbor. That sediment has “partially or fully impaired between 25% and 40% of the berthing space in the harbor,” Mann said. You need to dredge around those because, overtime, runoff from the land will build up sediment.” ![]() The same is true for our docks and piers. “You need to change the oil, you need to put new tires on periodically. ![]() ![]() “At points in our history, we dumped things over the side of a vessel or things went into the harbor that today we think, ‘Wow, I can’t believe we did that.’” “The way we do things in 2021 is not the way we did things a few years ago – certainly not the way we did them a half century ago or even a century ago,” Mann said. The cities of Portland and South Portland, the Portland Harbor Commission and the Maine Department of Transportation have banded together to plan a $31 million dredging project, but their request for a federal grant to fund 80% of the project was denied last month.Ĭenturies of bad habits and storm runoff have led to the buildup. ![]()
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