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:

MOTION REQUESTING ADDITIONAL TIME TO REVIEW AND COMMENT

The comment period deadline is currently 5 PM next Monday, 30 December.

Having now carefully read Mr. Kelley’s motion for extension for the second time, all I can say is that I am sorry that this DRAFT water level order didn’t come at a more convenient time for him, I’m sorry that he hasn’t been able to consult with his attorney, and I’m sorry that his travel plans will interfere with his attention to this matter. The fact of the matter is, Mr. Kelley should have seen this coming. He has had amply opportunity over the past 2 years to present his side of this matter but the time for talking is now over: the evidence has been heard, the decision made, and the sentence is about to be imposed.  Mr. Kelley better get busy. It’s time to get to work.

Thomas Gillette has submitted his prepared comments to the Department of Environmental Protection and the Service List  in regard the recently issued DRAFT Clary Lake water level order. They are short and to the point.

Thomas has been an intervener in these proceeding from the start and he testified at the public hearing back in August 2012. He is a long-time Clary Lake Association member and resident on Clary Lake though he is currently no longer a land owner himself. He has written these comments on behalf lake shore owners Kate Seba, Christopher Gillette, and Baxter Gillette as well as his next door neighbor lake shore owner Ken Rapp:

Gillette comments on Draft Water Level Order

Many thanks to Thomas for his continued support and assistance in this matter.

There’s a comprehensive, fact-filled article in this weeks Lincoln County News about the Draft Clary Lake Water Level Order:

DEP Seeks Comments on Draft Clary Lake Water Level Order

We’re still out of power today, Christmas day. I’m still running on battery backup so I can only afford to stay online briefly. I have hopes they’ll get the ice storm damage repaired and the electricity flowing soon. If you’re in an area without power, remember to check on your neighbors.

DEP Seeks Comments on Draft Clary Lake Water Level Order [Archived Copy]

Cut wood, carry water. Merry Christmas Everyone 🙂

I called and spoke with Assistant Attorney General Thomas Harnett this afternoon, he’s been handling the 2 Clary Lake petitions (the water level petition and Kelley’s petition for release from dam ownership or water level maintenance). It turns out that Mr. Harnett was in a car accident this past fall and he has been away from work for some time recovering. Apparently, the draft water level order has been sitting on his desk awaiting his return.

Mr. Harnett told me when we spoke today that he has recently returned to work and as of this morning had completed his review of the draft Clary Lake water level order and returned it to the Department. While Mr. Harnett didn’t know what the Department’s plans were, it is reasonable to assume now that AG review of the draft water level order is complete that there is little to stop the Department from issuing the water level order in short order. A number of sources have indicated the water level order could be issued any time including most recently Senator Christopher Johnson’s correspondence which cited the Senate Chair of the Natural Resources Committee, Senator Jim Boyle as saying that DEP Commissioner Aho had indicated the order would be released “in early December.” It would appear now that the hangup has been waiting for Mr. Harnett to return to work.

I did not ask Mr. Harnett for details of the water level order and he didn’t volunteer any. As I understand it, the Presiding Officer will issue the water level order as a Procedural Order and interested parties will be given an opportunity to review it and comment. From past experience I would expect the comment period to be at least 2 weeks and possibly as much as a month. That’s about as much speculation as I’m going to engage in just now.

Senator Chris Johnson

Looking back, I see I haven’t posted to this site since November 21st. There are several reasons for this, the primary one being I didn’t have any good news to report and for another I’ve been rather busy with work, which is a welcome change. Today I received an email from Aaron Miller, Whitefield Town Clerk with a couple of documents from Senator Chris Johnson. One is a letter dated 11 September 2013 to DEP Commissioner Patricia Aho and the other is a letter to the Whitefield Selectmen just last week dated 05 December 2013.  The letter to the DEP Commissioner was posted to the Town of Whitefield’s Facebook Page today. I thought I’d post them here.

I’ve been in close contact with Senator Johnson around this issue for the last year and a half and I’ve found him to be sympathetic, very responsive, and very helpful. He had sent a letter to Commissioner Aho back in late August of this year, asking for an update on the status of the water level petition. I corresponded with him on September 9th at which time he told me of a response he’d received from the Commissioner the previous week stating that it would likely be another 6 weeks before the order was issued (implying a date of somewhere around the end of October). He also told me he intended to respond to her and he did send the following letter, which I had not seen until today:

11 September 2013 Letter to Commissioner Aho

Here’s Senator Johnson’s response to a letter from the Whitefield Selectmen:

05 December 2013 Letter to Whitefield Selectmen

Continue reading →

Paul Koenig has written an article that appears in today’s Kennebec Journal. I was interviewed for the article late last week.

DEP says no timetable on Clary Lake water level decision

The notion that a “historic” mill building located down stream from and designed to accommodate the outflows from Clary Lake and use them to generate power should after over 100 years suddenly be at risk from high water damage is bad enough. Concluding that the water level of Clary Lake should be drastically lowered so as to severely restrict outflows to protect this building is just wrong. To then impose these flow restrictions on the dam property via restrictive covenants is ludicrous.

The mill pond dam head wall leaks and the original outlet weir has been filled with concrete, severely limiting the amount of water that the mill pond can accommodate. These issues were pointed out in a 2003 engineering study conducted for Pleasant Pond Mill LLC, the original owner of the mill property. The study recommended reopening the original outlet weir. This step has not been taken.

The KJ provides opportunity for people to comment on articles. I recommend you do so.

This just in to the Service List: Tony Buxton himself has responded to the request for comments in Procedural Order #8 and I’m posting it only having skimmed it. So far, I like mine better.

• Response of PPM and AQF to Procedural Order 8

OK so I’ve had a chance read Mr. Buxton’s comments carefully, several times. I still like mine better. I can only imagine how Ms. Parent will enjoy reading this.

Moments ago I posted the Petitioner’s Comments on the Restrictive Covenants that Paul Kelley recently placed on the Clary Lake dam to the Service List. I can’t wait to see what Kelley comes up with. I mean, I am holding my breath. I am on the edge of my seat. I am- Oh well, you get the idea. If Kelley follows his standard procedure and waits till the last minute, we can expect them sometime shortly before 5 PM. So hours to wait, ho-hum. No need to guess what I think of these covenants, here are my comments:

• Petitioner’s Comments on Kelley’s Restrictive Covenants

And no, there’s no particular significance of a Bugs Bunny thumbnail on this post. I just happen to like the little guy.

The Department wasted no time in addressing my submission last Friday of Kelley’s Covenants, issuing this afternoon Department Procedural Order #8. The Order is short and sweet as is the time given for comments: 3 days. The Order included an updated Service List, a copy of my email, and  all 17 pages of the Declaration of Restrictive Covenants. The Order proper is short:

On August 9, 2013, GEORGE S. FERGUSSON, spokesperson for the petitioners, submitted to the Department correspondence stating that a flow restriction of no greater’ than 50 cubic feet per second had been placed upon the Clary Lake Dam. As support of this statement, Mr. Fergusson submitted a Declaration of Restrictive Covenants, which was stamped as recorded on August 5, 2013 at the Lincoln County Registry of Deeds in Book #4696 on Page #59.

Future Course 0f Proceeding:

Parties may submit written comments on this documentation to the Department no than August 15, 2013. Comments must be copied to all parties on the Service List.

DONE AND DATED IN AUGUSTA, MAINE, THIS 12th DAY OF August, 2013.

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTÍON

Heather L. Parent, Presiding Officer and Policy Director

Here’s a copy of the order:

L22585BN_Procedural Order_8.pdf