Morning Sentinel
Farmers want action to stem erosion of agricultural land along river
BY BETTY JESPERSEN
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 05/19/2008

BY BETTY JESPERSEN

Staff Writer

Standing on a large gravel bar jutting out into the Sandy River in Farmington, dairy farmer Herbert "Bussie" York points to the 30-foot high banks of prime agricultural land sliding into the water on the other side.

Up and down the river that meanders through Franklin and Somerset counties, entire trees, some more than 100-years-old and 3 feet in diameter that once set far back from the water's edge, are now toppling into the water as currents erode the ground beneath them.

Tree trunks can be seen sticking up from the shallow river bed, deflecting the current to one side or the other, a factor that keeps the erosion cycle going.

"Once the current goes through the tree line, it eats into agricultural land. The urgency of this situation has reached a critical point," said York, who owns Sandy River Farm.

"There are now 154 separate gravel bars from New Sharon to Phillips and they are creating a multitude of opportunities for that river to eat away at the sides," he said.

"The river right here used to be a straight line when the town was allowed to remove the sand and gravel to the water level," he said.

"I've lived along this river for 50 years and I've never seen it this bad."

Local experts and farmers say costly and stringent state environmental regulations have effectively eliminated gravel harvesting that in the past, helped communities manage the river.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection stands by its policy that any removal of these bars requires a full Natural Resources Protection Act permit complete with a study by a professional river management biologist that proves there would be "no significant adverse economic and environmental impact."

Gravel and sand banks form when large boulders or trees interfere with the flow and send the current against one bank or the other, according to University of Maine at Farmington geology professor Dr. Tom Eastler who has studied the Sandy River for 30 years.

The current turns toward one bank and aggressively digs away at it then bounces off against the opposite side where is slows down, leaving behind deposits of sand and gravel.

"Banks that are primarily agricultural soil, made up of silt, clay and sand erode rather easily, even if there is vegetation," he said.

"One side is growing, one side is eroding," he said. "That is the natural course of a river like the Sandy."

State policies changed

For generations, these bars were removed by farmers, towns and private contractors, often will little oversight. In 1974, the state halted the practice and the bars grew in number and size. Five years later, the devastating flood of 1979 took out acres of farmland when ice backed up, Eastler said.

After that, the DEP agreed to allow permits to remove sand and gravel.

"They understood that as the sand grows out into the river, it tends to make the river shallow and catch ice," Eastler said.

That practice continued until about 2000 when the DEP changed its policy, he said. Now, an applicant has to hire a consultant and go through a complicated process to prove there will be no impact downstream. "No matter what man does, there is some adverse activity. You can't go in and remove gravel without causing some erosion downstream," Eastler said.

"The question is which is the most adverse? The loss of agricultural land that produces food for us is much worse than the small price you might have to pay if you took out gravel," he said.

More than 90 percent of the agricultural products grown in Franklin County come from fertile land along the river and the bulk of that land is in Farmington, Eastler said.

Paul Hersey, director of the Franklin County Soil & Water District, specializes in working with landowners on erosion control issues. He said he hopes there is a way DEP, his office, experts from the University of Maine at Farmington and local municipalities can work together to make the permitting process more accessible.

"Prime agricultural land is being washed into the river and we may need this farm land in the future for growing food in Franklin County," he said.

"If a case can be made why a sand or gravel bar needs to be reduced in size by removing material, and we have scientific people to back it up, hopefully, DEP will consider it," Hersey said.

Outflow pipe at issue

Farmington Town Manager Richard Davis said $350,000 was spent two years ago to install a new outflow pipe into the Sandy River from the town's wastewater treatment plant. The DEP ordered the pipe moved because a gravel bar changed the course of the Sandy River and Temple Stream tributary and the dilution ratio of the treated effluent was reduced.

The town asked for a waiver.

"Relocating the outflow will be extremely expensive and, in the town's opinion, unnecessary," Davis wrote to the Bureau of Land and Water Quality in 2003. "Since the reduced flow is the result of a gravel bar blocking Temple Stream from entering the Sandy River above the outflow, it makes sense to simply remove the gravel bar."

"The DEP would not even consider it," Davis said this week.

The DEP's Jeff Madore, the director of Bureau of Land and Water Quality, said it has not been scientifically proven there is a direct connection between removing gravel bars and the loss of farmland.

"The bottom line is, show us how your project will comply with all the environmental standards. If the gravel is taken out in one place, can you assure us it won't cause problems downstream?" he said.

The problem became a Catch-22 situation for potential applicants. Until recently, there was no one in the state with the expertise in river systems that could put together a scientific argument that met the DEP standards, he said.

Madore met with York, Hersey, Pamela Proctor from the Maine Farm Bureau and farmer Bruce Tracy in March when they came down to Augusta to appeal for DEP's help.

During their visit, they provided Madore with an extensive and scientific report on the river's sand and gravel bar development done over six years by UMF geology professor Julia Daly and her students. He told them at the time a waiver was not possible.

Madore said the UMF report is being reviewed by state geologist Dr. Robert Marvinney.

"Hopefully, Bob will be able to offer some suggestions," Madore said.

Farmers want action

Local farmers are not waiting for an answer. They have organized the Sandy River Watershed Association and plan to lobby legislators in the fall and present their case to Commissioner of Agriculture Seth Bradstreet.

They want to find new ways to handle an old problem. They would like to see a management plan developed specifically for the Sandy, and they want to be able to use the expertise of local experts, familiar with the river, to determine which bars can be removed and how it can best be done.

"We are having significant loss of agriculture soils and we feel you don't take one bar at a time. You have to look at the whole river system," Eastler said.

Betty Jespersen -- 778-6991

bjespersen@centralmaine.com

Bookmark and share this story: digg del.icio.us Reddit


Reader comments

Click here to view or add reader comments