East Machias to hear salmon weir appeal

EAST MACHIAS – The appeals board will take up the subject of a proposed salmon weir on the East Machias River on at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 9, at the East Machias Municipal Building.

The Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission is asking the board to reverse an Aug. 14 planning board decision to deny the commission a permit to construct the weir.

The planning board maintains that the weir would violate the town’s shoreland zoning ordinance.

According to the salmon commission’s formal notice of appeal, the commission believes the planning board’s decision is “erroneous and clearly contrary to the provisions of the SZO [shoreland zoning ordinance].”

The East Machias River is one of eight Maine rivers where wild Atlantic salmon are an endangered species. The purpose of the weir is to prevent escaping aquaculture salmon from entering the East Machias and intermingling with the wild fish.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service – the two agencies that listed the salmon as endangered – identified disease from farmed fish and genetic intermingling of wild and farmed fish as one of the threats to the existence of the wild salmon.

Since aquaculture pens are located near the mouths of all five Washington County salmon rivers, the federal agencies gave the state $1.2 million to construct weirs on the Dennys, East Machias, Machias and Pleasant rivers.

There already is a fish trap on the Narraguagus River and one is planned for the Machias River. Weirs were installed on the Pleasant and Dennys rivers two years ago.

This summer – several weeks after the commission began work on the East Machias weir – the town’s code enforcement officer issued a cease work order on the grounds that the commission hadn’t obtained a town permit for work in the shoreland zone.

The commission applied for the permit and attended planning board meetings to discuss the project, but the planning board vote to deny a permit was unanimous.

At the time, the board gave the salmon commission a two-page explanation of how the weir would violate the purposes of the shoreland zoning ordinance.

Those include:

. The weir wouldn’t maintain safe and healthful conditions because it would be a safety hazard for children.

. The weir wouldn’t protect habitat for fish, aquatic life, birds and other wildlife because it would interfere with loons, ducks, bald eagles, ospreys, gulls, terns, and other birds that frequent that area of the river.

. The weir would interfere with visual impacts and the natural beauty of the area because it would be in the middle of the view point from Route 1 to the Rim Road and Dike Gaddis Road.

. The weir would interfere with the free-flow of a Class AA water body.

. The weir would interfere with recreation and navigation because it would interfere with canoe touring and kayaking.

The salmon commission responded to each of those points in its appeal. The commission also pointed out that the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers issued permits for the weir.

“Both agencies have a responsibility to consider the issues of safety, environmental impacts, navigation, water quality, and aesthetics in their permit processes that were included in the Planning Board denial,” wrote Fred Kircheis, the executive director of the salmon commission.