“We had boats from Boothbay Harbor, Southport, Barter’s Island,” said Stott Carleton, a lobsterman and member of the North End Co-op. “About 35 lobster boats, but also pleasure boats in solidarity.  When we went past the town pier and all those folks cheered, it brought tears to my eyes. They were all out there supporting us, and our livelihood. It was very, very moving.”

The proposed plant would convert coal and to a lesser extent, wood, into electricity and a small amount of FT diesel.
The lobster fishery currently brings in an estimated $100 million dollars per year in the Sheepscot River alone.  The coal plant, when fully operational, is expected to bring in $50 million dollars per year.  If the fishery is harmed irreparably, which the lobstermen fear will happen, the net loss to the Sheepscot River’s economy will be $50 million dollars annually.

Twin River Energy Center said that the protest was “premature” because the company had not yet decided how to bring in the coal.  Scott Houldin hinted that there was a possibility of bringing the coal in by rail.  If the coal is carried in by rail, it would necessitate a coal train at least a mile in length every day, which would paralyze the City of Bath, which currently has no gated train crossings, the Town of Brunswick, including the crossings at Cook’s Corner and across Maine Street, and would run alongside many homes and schools, in some cases, within a few feet.

If the company elects to bring the coal up by barge, the Sheepscot and the Back River will effectively be taken out of the fishery permanently.

Moving lobster traps out of the way of barge traffic is no easy task, according to Dana Faulkingham, manager of the North End Lobster Cooperative on Westport Island.  “It can take days to move traps out of the way of a barge,” he said.  “One barge a day will shut down the industry in the river.”

While coal was barged up to the Mason Station, only one barge came up every six months.  The date of the traffic was published, and the lobstermen had plenty of time to get their traps out of the river.  Even so, family trap buoys, and commercial buoys that didn’t get out of the way fast enough, were often seen dangling from the barges like Christmas ornaments. 

In addition to the barge traffic on the river, which would occur on a daily or near-daily basis, the amount of water displaced by a seven-thousand ton barge is enormous.

Stott Carleton, who is a lobsterman from Edgecomb, and a member of the Co-op, told a chilling story about sailing in New York City at a recent meeting of nine towns’ selectmen at Bintliff’s last Thursday.  He and his wife were sailing on the East River as a coal barge bore down on them.  They barely managed to get to one side of it, but the wake from the barge hit them broadside and caused their sailboat to keel over.  Carleton grabbed his wife, and lost his radio, with which he meant to warn small boats ahead.  As the boat righted itself, a return wake from the Manhattan side sea wall almost knocked them over again. 

Constant traffic in the Sheepscot or the Back River would end small boating there, according to Carleton.  “It would simply be too dangerous for small craft,” he said.  “It would take all the docks out in the river.”

Carleton said that the plant’s coal needs will doom lobstering in the Sheepscot, and put many lobster fishermen out of business.  “If our traps are forced out of the channel, then what’s going to happen is that a lot of people are going to be out of work, and there isn’t enough room outside the channel and along the edges to absorb all the people who will be displaced.  Everybody agrees that you can fish the channel, no matter where what town you hail from.  It’s neutral territory.  If we move into non-neutral areas, we all lose.  Nobody wins in a trap war.

“Out of sheer greed ... multi-million dollar greed on the Connecticut people’s part, and petty greed on those favoring the program in Wiscasset’s part ... they are willing to turn the river into a barge canal,” said Carleton.

The lobstermen of Wiscasset, Edgecomb, and Westport Island traverse the Back River, which, as any sailor knows, has an interesting mix of currents and tides, and a very small bridge to the Island. Most of the fishermen believe that there is no way for a seven-ton barge to navigate the waters of the Back River. 

According to Steve Hinchman of the Conservation Law Foundation, it is unlikely that the midcoast’s aging rail system would be able to handle daily coal trains, either.  The City of Bath, with its defense contracts at BIW, cannot legally be shut down for several hours a day, the likely time frame for the several coal trains to pass Bath’s many road crossings. 
The most likely scenario, according to those who know the river systems and those who understand maritime law, is that the coal barges would be brought up the Sheepscot River, along the Coast Guard navigation channel, and offload at Mason Station, the site of Point East’s planned Maritime Village resort community.  Mason Station is the current terminus of the shipping channel.

“Mason Station,” according to Hinchman, “would become a two-million ton-per-year coal storage pile and loading zone instead of a world class resort.”  From there, the coal would most likely be shunted over to the plant by rail or truck, along Route 144.

No answers will be forthcoming from Twin River Energy Center until and unless Wiscasset voters approve the height change ordinance on November 6.  This will be the townspeople’s only vote on the issue.