The Waterworld Effect - May '06

[johnnyd]

Enough information about the disastrous flooding in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts has come in from officials and the citizen media to call it the worst ever.

The impact on small farms, local specialties and seafood could be immense.

So far, I've learned the following:

- Record rainfall, averaging a foot or more between Boston and Kennebunk, has fallen over a period of about seven days. The normal average for the whole month of May is just less than four inches.

- New England Cable News received a figure of 65 billion gallons of water as already flowed down the Merrimack River to the Atlantic Ocean, from disaster officials. The impact on nearby shellfish areas could be grim - especially since Haverhill, MA sewage main has been breached and is emptying 8 or 9 million gallons of sewage a day into the river.

- Gleason Farms of Litchfield NH eMailed a pic of their field of half-submerged, tomato hot-houses and added that they saw 100s of their tomatos float down the Merrimack on Monday morning. The river's flood stage is 15 feet - it's crested at 22 feet according to NH/MA officials.

I know many people who are sand-bagging their properties where threat of flooding has never existed before.

- Have just-planted gardens been washed away?

- Have your local farms lost the coming summers produce?

- Has the road and bridge failures caused restaurant and delivery inventories to spoil?

- Will New England see produce and shellfish prices double this summer?

Please post disaster updates, predictions and opinion here.

Edited May 16, 2006 by johnnyd (log)

[elrap]

- Will New England see produce and shellfish prices double this summer?

Please post disaster updates, predictions and opinion here.

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Well, on the personal level I had around 21" of water in my basement, but as of today, I'm feeling lucky.

There are clamming grounds that just opened in the flats of Newburyport, right where the Merrimack empties into the ocean. I expect these will be affected for a while, but they are routinely shut down for a week or so after any heavy rains. I think I'll be optimistic & predict no huge effect on NE shellfishing this summer. The floods themselves have been pretty localized.

My other thought is - lots of water, lots of nice raw sewage floating around - maybe it'll be a great year for wild mushrooms!

--L. Rap

[johnnyd]

maybe it'll be a great year for wild mushrooms!

I thought of you on this elrap. Seeing some of the footage off the streets and in the woods, I wondered if rushing/standing water of greater depth than usual would ruin, or enhance the normal mushroom development this year- and for that matter, perhaps call an end to fiddlehead season?

[johnnyd]

Shellfish Harvesting is officially prohibited from Cape Cod to the New Hampshire border until further notice.

[Chris Amirault]

Is this about sewage run-off, Johnny?

[Margo]

We've missed the worst of it in northern Vermont. My thoughts and sympathies are with those who were hit harder.

But. I planted asparagus last week. Water is standing in the trenches (with asparagus, you plant the crowns 6-8" deep, then gradually fill in the ditch as the plants poke up). I'm thinking this is not good. And that part of the yard is not as well-drained as I thought. Duh.

[elrap]

A friend told me someone on the radio was advising listeners not to eat lobsters for awhile. Personally, I hope the price drops, I'll pick up some up. Sewage isn't any worse than what lobsters eat normally.

Regarding mushrooms, it hasn't been a great morel season but there are a few around. Mostly, these rains are too early to help the more typical NE edible fungi, which don't get going until July. But I'm hoping it will help, last year was a really bad mushroom year.

I expect the shellfish will be back in a week or two but I'll be anticipating jonnyd's report!

--L. Rap

[johnnyd]

This is DMR Maine-only news for now - the run-off is still significant at this time.

The flood closure has been modified. There are two areas that remain closed. The first is from the ME/NH border to Nessler Point, Kennebunkport. The second is Pine Point, Scarborough to Bailey Island, Harpswell including the area west of the Orr’s Island bridge and the Gurnet Strait Bridge.

I don't see updates for MASS and NH, mostly cuz I'm getting lost in the warren of state-run websites...

I dunno about that lobster news - seems a little much, but they are stuck in pounds in-shore here in Maine. It's just that they are not affected like shellfish are. No one I know s harvesting Lobsters yet anyway. The season usually starts a few miles out.

Margo - good luck w/your asparagus - I hear they are awfully difficult to establish

Edited May 19, 2006 by johnnyd (log)

[johnnyd]

Tuttle Farm in Berwick was on the AM News today. Their fields are covered in mud and tractors are unable to work them owing to high saturation.

The piece concluded that even though their spinach and other seeds are gone or rotting, theirs and other local farm produce will hit the markets later than usual and will not rise in price.

[ninetofive]

I've been craving fried whole belly clams for weeks ... oy, it's going to be a long, long summer!

[Jason Perlow]

I'm sure Legal Seafood will be able to get their stuff from other sources, if you really need to have clams. I'm going to be spending a few weeks up in Boston myself shortly and I'll berserk if I can't have them.

[johnnyd]

There is plenty of harvesting east of Rockland that will take up the slack from closures in southern New England. They may be slightly more expensive to reflect the additional gas used to get them south, but who cares? As Jason says, folks will go beserk without 'em!

[esme]

A friend told me someone on the radio was advising listeners not to eat lobsters for awhile.  Personally, I hope the price drops, I'll pick up some up.  Sewage isn't any worse than what lobsters eat normally.

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I'm from Boothbay Harbor and my high school boyfriend was a parttime lobsterman. Some days, I would go hauling with him and he would always catch a few in this old overboard discharge pipe of this big resort that was fined hundreds of thousands years later because this pipe wasn't as unused as previously thought.

[johnnyd]

Spoke with Ben, owner of Harbor Fish Market in Portland and he said mussels were not to be harvested in the Gulf of Maine for the time being. He is getting his supplies from Prince Edward Island purveyors - except that they were spawning so they're not so hot right now.