Clam Flat Closures Hurting Diggers

Lincoln County News:

"The July 25 movement of a pollution line, closing much of Broad Cove in Bremen to the harvesting of shellfish, has caused a big stink and is a pattern that has rippled from one working waterfront in Maine to the next.

'Something's not going right at the DMR,' said Bremen town selectman Bob Miller, speaking of the schedule by which clam flats are tested and the governing body which regulates the Dept. of Marine Resources, the Food and Drug Administration.

Much of the debate is between what DMR scientists need in order to establish accurate testing results, and the current test results, showing an improvement in water quality and the need to continue harvesting a crop so many in this community rely upon for their livelihood.

According to Amy Fitzpatrick, Director of the Public Health Division at the DMR, the mud flats bordering Broad Cove in Bremen were not meeting the department's clean water criteria in 2006. The DMR tests for fecal matter in water samples taken from the many mud flats up and down the coast of Maine." more...