Kelley Quoted in Free Press Article on Proposed Searsport Dredging Project
Joseph Kelley, a professor of marine geology in the University of Maine School of Earth and Climate Sciences and Climate Change Institute, was quoted in a Free Press article on a proposed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) dredging project in Searsport. The decision on whether to approve the project to dredge 929,000 cubic yards of bottom sediments from Searsport Harbor is likely to be made by the end of the year after a public hearing this fall, according to the article. The project aims to enlarge the shipping channel and deposit the dredge spoils in the bay six miles away off the tip of Islesboro, the report states. One concern among residents is the dump site, which was chosen by the USACE because it has natural depressions that can be filled with dredge spoils. According to Kelley, the methane that created the pockmarks is still there. He conducted studies of the area two decades ago and advised against dumping dredge spoils at the site when he served as state geologist. Kelley recommended conducting dump tests in the area and tracking resulting sediment plumes to see if they spread, the article states.