Healing the Disconnect

Part three of three

Ongoing collaboration was necessary for the Penobscot Indian Nation (PIN) to realize goals prioritizing a safe environment, food sovereignty, and traditional livelihoods. With goals like these in mind, many environmental justice, scientific, and ecological governmental organizations have developed tools to help identify where potential threats exist. Leaders, change-makers, and concerned citizens can access publicly available tools to bridge the gaps, assist problem-solving, build awareness, and educate affected communities as a step in the collaborative process of affecting positive change.

According to The Nature Conservancy (2018), successful collaborative efforts to restructure roads, bridges, and culvert systems, allowing for free migration of sea-run fish under these structures in river systems throughout the state have been ongoing since 2015. The Maine Statewide Barrier Prioritization Tool, SBPT, a web-based mapping tool, supports these projects by analyzing survey data from the field and data from fisheries and habitat, to identify crossings that act as barriers to natural waterways and fish migration. Ultimately the SBPT provides a means to assess the potential ecological benefits that could be realized by upgrading or removing these barriers. The tool helps to clarify the ecological context of individual barriers and can enhance other data, such as economic or transportation factors, to identify and prioritize ecologically beneficial projects (BEPs).

Damaged culverts were removed and replaced with new arched culverts. In some instances culverts collapsed and new ones were stacked on top of the old culvert, blocking water flow. These were removed and replaced with new, arched culverts, greatly improving waterway flow and watershed habitat. The documentary “Penobscot River Restoration: 10 Years After,” which can be found here: youtu.be/ikrkTlDcUtc?feature=shared and is hosted by the Museum of the White Mountains and the Pemi Chapter of Trout Unlimited, features Penobscot Indian Nation Fisheries Program Manager, Dan McCaw describing the culvert replacement process after the dam removals.

The following interactive map, Preserving Intact Habitat on US Native Lands, consists of layers showing Intact Habitat and types of land cover. (nativeland.info/blog/storymaps/preserving-intact-habitat-on-us-native-lands/). The Habitat Core layer was created using data made public by ESRI’s Green Infrastructure Initiative. The Intact Habitat Selector Tool (NLIS, 2023, March 17), nativeland.info/blog/thematic-maps/intact-habitat-explorer references a map containing Unique Core Identifier numbers for intact habitats. The number 33,229 for the Penobscot River project area near Viezie (site of the Viezie Dam) includes data such as:

• Stream Length (NHD) 49,134.44 ft.
• Core Size 1,100.19 acres
• Wetlands Area (NWI) 46.26 acres
• Water Body Area (NHD) 647.84 acres
• Water Area (NHD) 58.88%
• Forest (NLCD) 19.26%
• Shrub/Scrub (NLCD) 7.80%
• Grassland/Herbaceous (NLCD) 3.01%
• Wetlands (NLCD) 10.01%
• Endemic Species Max Count 3

TNC Ecoregion Name Northern Appalachian/ Acadian

Core Score 2.98

Reconnecting waterways, restructuring roads, bridges, and culverts, and dismantling and diverting hydroelectric dams helped fish to migrate and reproduce, but it did not make those waters clean or safe. Harmful toxins found in the river threatened fish, birds, and humans alike.  

Toxins Threaten Habitat, Water, Food Security for Tribal and local communities

Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), used in fluoropolymer coatings and products to make items resistant to heat, water, stains, and oils (CDC, 2022) are in a variety of common products, such as bedding, clothing, upholstery, carpet, and tents. The organization Environmental Working Group (EWG), explains that even low exposure to PFAS, known as “forever chemicals” because they remain in the environment for so long, are linked to cancer, thyroid disease, diminished childhood immunity and other serious health issues (EWG, 2023, February 22). According to EWG, tests reveal the most common PFAS found in freshwater fish come from perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), used for waterproofing fabrics. The EWG website states,

“PFAS contamination of freshwater fish not only poses risks to fish health but also creates environmental justice concerns for the communities that rely on those fish for their diets, since they are being exposed to PFAS when they consume the fish.” 

The following 2014 analysis, based on samples found in smallmouth bass, are taken from the Pleasant River in Maine:

PFAS         Result in ppt (parts per trillion)

PFOS         3,800

PFUnA         1,130

PFHxA             610

PFDoDA          512

PFDA             380

Total PFAS   6,432

Source: EPA, Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO), PFAS National Datasets, Ambient Environmental Sampling for PFAS, echo.epa.gov/trends/pfas-tools

According to the CDC (2022), plans were in the works for ways to keep more ‘forever chemicals’ out of waterways and soil, including discussions with the Department of Defense, other government organizations, and NGOs.

However, PFAS weren’t the only problem. Mercury contamination, a dangerous neurotoxin found in the fish, soil and water of the Penobscot estuary, had to be remediated to meet environmental health goals for restoring river habitat. 

Mercury is a waste product of chlor-alkali production used to make chlorine. Since 1967, four incarnations of a local chlor-alkali plant had been dumping mercury into the Penobscot River. In 2000 The Maine People’s Alliance (MPA) and Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) filed a case against Mallinckrodt, LLC, and the most recent of its predecessors under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, according to  Jesse Graham, Co-Director of MPA. The lawsuit sought an independent investigation into toxicity levels and an order to remediate contaminants from the river. A court-appointed panel identified the source and found Mallinckrodt liable for the harmful concentrations of mercury in wildlife and sediment. The panel further recommended remedial clean-up of the estuary (NRDC, 2021). www.nrdc.org/bio/nancy-marks/proposed-settlement-aims-clean-mercury-penobscot-river-estuary

Official warnings against consuming waterfowl in 2011 and a lobster ban in 2014 sparked a trial to assess the initial findings of the scientific panel, prompting the court to appoint an engineering firm to further evaluate cost effective methods of remediation. This took four years and the total cost of both sets of evaluations was $30 million. 

By 2021, NRDC and MPA, together with Mallinckrodt, devised a Proposed Consent Decree based on the engineering recommendations submitted to the court in 2018. (NRDC, 2021). The public was invited to participate and the decree was presented to a federal court for approval in 2022. Mallinckrodt was ordered to pay a minimum of $187 million to a court-appointed trustee to oversee the remediation project and disperse funds, and another $80 million if needed. In June of 2024, the trustee announced thirteen beneficial environmental project (BEP) recipients consisting of local and Tribal governments and several non-profit organizations (NRDC,2024). The full story can be found here www.nrdc.org/press-releases/multi-hundred-million-dollar-clean-penobscot-river-begins

Graham of MPA and many others were ecstatic over these results. Finally there was hope after decades of hard work by so many people. Graham stated that the BEPs would go a long way toward “righting this long-time wrong” and to restoring the Penobscot River, which he described as “fundamental to the lives of people who live in this part of Maine.”

(Contact Aliyah Kleuthan at kestreldancing@gmail.com)

The post Healing the Disconnect first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

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