At my request, Beth Callahan has forwarded me a compilation of all the comments received by the Department on the DRAFT Clary Lake water level order. These include 3 emailed comments sent directly to Beth Callahan that, through understandable oversight, never made it to the Service List. These include emails from Senator Christopher Johnson, Steven Sheppard of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and Jeff Murphy of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service.
Upon review it is easy to see why these “comments” were not forwarded to the Service List. Steven Sheppard of the USF&W’s comment consisted of the single sentence “The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service supports the provisions of the Draft Order.” Likewise, Jeff Murphy of NOAA asked a simple question and got a simple answer. Senator Johnson’s comment consisted of pointing out a grammatical error. Still, as trivial as these comments were, everyone is entitled to read them. Regarding Chris Johnson’s comment, I should point out that I was carbon-copied on Chris’s email to Beth Callahan and it never dawned on me that by all rights and purposes it should have been shared with the Service List.
I’ve separated out the extra comments into 2 files:
Comment by Senator Christopher Johnson on the Draft Clary Lake water level order
Agency Comments on the Draft Clary Lake water level order
Here’s the compilation of ALL the comments received by the Department
All Comments Received on the Draft Clary Lake water level order
Here are links to the comments I’ve already posted:
Petitioner and Clary Lake Association comments
Paul Koenig of the Kennebec Journal has written yet another article that has appeared online today and should be in the print edition tomorrow. According to the article, Senator Christopher Johnson, the US Fish & Wildlife Service, and the National Marine Fisheries Service also submitted comments. I was not aware of this. I’m looking into it. In the meantime, here’s the article:
Well Mr. Kelley did finally submit his written comments at 4:40 PM this afternoon, but only to a subset of the addresses on the Service List which incidentally didn’t include my address or the addresses of a number of other people. I’m sure this was a mistake and I would prefer to think that Mr. Kelley is just email-challenged rather than that he intentionally left a number of people off the distribution list.
I have submitted comments to the DEP On behalf of the Petitioners on the 
There is a new article by Paul Koenig in yesterday’s Sunday January 5th Kennebec Journal about Pleasant Pond Mill LLC’s travails in obtaining more time to comment on the Draft water level order. I was interviewed for the article by Mr. Koenig on Friday. I didn’t get a Sunday paper but a few people who did said they didn’t see it in the paper so it may only have appeared online. In any case, here it is:
The Town of Whitefield has been publishing a monthly newsletter since last July and they’re quite enjoyable. If you happen by the North Whitefield Superette you’ll find the latest issue on the counter, free of charge. Otherwise they’re available online on the 
The DEP responded in record time to Pleasant Pond Mill LLC’s motion to withdraw, reconsider, or elucidate sent to the Service List earlier this morning. I expected a quick response, but I didn’t expect them to dismiss it so perfunctorily and with so little fanfare. They did not bother with a procedural order, they simply sent this short email:
At 9:33 AM this morning Paul Kelley of Pleasant Pond Mill LLC sent a message to the Service List in which he filed a 5 page Motion with the Department of Environmental Protection addressed to Hearing Officer Heather Parent and Project Manager Beth Callahan. If anyone had any questions as to whether Paul Kelley was going to quietly submit to the Department of Environmental Protection’s water level order, this should dispel them. I certainly didn’t have any. The Motion is as follows:
Long about this time of year it is customary to reflect on the past and consider what the future holds so I thought I would do just that. It makes even more sense now considering we’ve reached not just the end of another year but for all intents and purposes, the end of the Clary Lake water level petition initiative as well. This is a huge milestone that seemed almost unattainable just a few short weeks ago. It’s amazing how one’s outlook can change so quickly.
At 2:15 this afternoon, Beth Callahan sent out the Department’s Procedural Order 9 being their response to 
After much consideration and after re-reading the motion several times, I decided that I must object on principle to Pleasant Pond Mill LLC’s request for an extension to the comment period. To that end, I have just sent Petitioner’s objection to the Service List. It’s time for these delaying tactics to stop. That said, I fully expect Ms. Parent to grant an extension, but not for 30 days.
Pleasant Pond Mill LLC has just submitted a request to Presiding Officer Parent for an extension to the comment period provided to review and comment on the Draft water level order:
Thomas Gillette has submitted his prepared comments to the Department of Environmental Protection and the Service List in regard the recently issued 
There’s a comprehensive, fact-filled article in this weeks Lincoln County News about the Draft Clary Lake Water Level Order:
We’re without power here in Whitefield- I’m online now as long as I keep running on the treadmill… I wanted to let everyone know there’s an article in today’s KJ about the draft order:
A number of people have asked me for to explain the DRAFT Clary Lake water level order that was issued the other day. It is a very detailed and complex document with many subtle (and some not-so-subtle) elements and there is certainly a lot to ponder. I have reviewed it at length and will state for the record that I think the water level order is FANTASTIC. It is essentially what we asked for, and it was worth waiting for. I have begun preparing comments on behalf of the Petitioners to submit to the Department and which are due on or before December 30th, so I’m not going to go into a lot of detail now. I will however go over the highlights. I encourage everyone to read the actual 
Our friends at Avian Haven have prepared Yet Another Slide Show of bird pictures from 2013. It is a 1.4 megabyte PDF file and is well worth checking out:
Late this afternoon, the Department of Environmental Protection issued a draft water level order for Clary Lake.