Wal-Mart hearings to resume BEP to examine wildlife impact of proposed Bangor Supercenter

BREWER – It will be a tale of birds, beavers and big boxes Thursday as the Board of Environmental Protection resumes its hearings into a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter near the Penjajawoc Marsh in Bangor.

With no love lost between the friends and foes of the project, the hearing will center on perhaps the most contentious aspect of the 224,000-square-foot development: its potential impact on the area’s wildlife.

The hearing will begin at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 8, at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer, and could, if needed, continue into Friday, BEP officials said. There will be no public comment, although the board will accept written testimony. Reached late last week, the parties left little doubt that – despite a month’s hiatus in testimony – there remained little common ground over whether the project would harm the nearby marsh, particularly the rare and threatened bird species found there.

The development “will single-handedly degrade the valuable habitat the marsh provides,” said Hope Jacobsen, a Portland lawyer representing the Maine Audubon Society. “Its impacts are clearly unacceptable and we believe the project should be denied on that basis.”

But the Augusta lawyer for Widewaters, the developer, countered, “There is not a significant impact.”

Ginger Davis characterized the developer’s further efforts to conserve an additional 30 acres around the marsh as “incredibly generous.”

The hearings mark the latest step in Widewaters’ try to place a Wal-Mart Supercenter on a 27.4-acre parcel west of the Penjajawoc, considered by state officials to be a significant wildlife habitat.

Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development, a local conservationist group, emerged as the project’s most ardent opponent, arguing both in court and with state regulators that the massive project comes too close to the sensitive marsh.

Thursday’s hearings are expected to open with an appeal of BEP Chairman John D. Tewhey’s decision to allow into the record information that nearby property owner Marion Rudnicki breached a beaver dam that had helped maintain the marsh’s water level.

Maine Warden Service officials confirmed the breach, but explained that the Rudnickis historically have had “tacit permission” to adjust the water level on their farmland as they saw fit.

Considering the sensitive nature of the Wal-Mart project, however, Sgt. Douglas Tibbetts of the Warden Service advised the family in a July 17 letter not to breach another dam without the needed permit.

Rudnicki’s attorney, Roger Huber, called the breach “irrelevant,” saying it was designed to reclaim some of the family’s farmland from rising waters and, furthermore, had no bearing on the Widewaters application.

While Widewaters is expected to appeal Tewhey’s decision, BACORD spokeswoman Valerie Carter said evidence of the breach was both relevant and telling.

“When you have serious damage to wildlife habitat in the middle of breeding season, that’s not good,” Carter said. “It points out the need for some kind of protection.”

Thursday’s hearing is the continuation of the June proceedings that were cut short to allow Department of Environmental Protection staff to review new evidence regarding sound levels around the Widewaters project.

The BEP hearing will continue – and conclude – Aug. 15 in Augusta with one final witness and closing arguments.