There is an article in today’s Centralmaine.com papers by staff writer Jessica Lowell about the Petition we submitted to DEP last week. The article is in the Kennebec Journal, the Morning Sentinel, and was also picked up by the Portland Press Herald. I love all the publicity! Everywhere I’ve been this week people are mentioning Clary Lake, the petition, and asking me what’s new:
Whitefield and Jefferson residents list frustrations in petition to DEP
I assume the “good faith effort by DEP to bring relief to the residents around Clary Lake” referred to by DEP spokesperson David Madore was the 13 or so months of court-ordered mediation that ended in March 2015. The Notice of Violation (NOV) mentioned was subsequently issued in late September 2015.
My only complaint about the article: they could have used a new photograph! They’re still using a picture included in a story from August 2015.
I think the “good faith effort” refers not to the mediation, but rather to the negotiations that took place last fall between DEP and the parties to come to an agreement on a Consent Decree that would get them out from under the NOV in return for repairs to the dam. It was to this end that they got the engineering assessments and tried to do major fund raising. I think it came to nothing because DEP/the AG’s office would not agree to Tony Buxton’s requested changes to the Water Level Order language.
I at first thought so too but concluded Madore was talking about the mediation because he followed that up by saying the NOV was issued, whereas the “good faith effort” you’re referring to happened AFTER the NOV was issued, in 2016. But it’s a moot point: DEP has repeatedly worked to bring about a settlement with Kelley and Smith, as has the Clary Lake Association.