The Maine Department of Environmental Protection on Monday directed the owners of the controversial hydropower corridor project to clear temporary crane mats and previously cut trees.
A condition of the original permit limits the length of time the crane mats can remain in place to 18 months. The mats have to be removed by NECEC Transmission LLC, the Central Maine Power affiliate running the project, before the ground freezes. The company also must remove trees cut before project construction was suspended or chip and spread them.
The company was not immediately available for comment.
No new vegetation can be cut as long as the license for the project is suspended. The DEP suspended a key permit for the project in November 2021. The company also voluntarily stopped work on the project after Gov. Janet Mills pressured it to do so after a referendum vote went against the $1 billion project, which would bring hydropower from the Canadian border through western Maine.
In July the Board of Environmental Protection, tasked with enforcing laws, denied appeals to the permit the DEP had granted for the project. It said that if Maine’s high court ultimately rules the referendum unconstitutional, then construction would have to resume within two years for the permit to remain valid.
The court ruled in August that one part of the referendum was unconstitutional, but it referred the case back to a lower court, leaving the project in limbo.
The DEP’s order on Monday states that removal of the matting and felled trees does not constitute restarting of construction, and that its suspension order remains in effect.
The order specifies that the CMP-affiliate must remove 11,800 crane mats and 14.67 miles of trees from now until Oct. 11 in segment 1 of the project. It must remove 17,600 crane mats and no trees from Oct. 26 to Nov. 29 in segment 2 and 7,175 mats and 7.25 miles of trees in segment 3 from Nov. 29 through Dec. 14.
