The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), part of the federal Department of Commerce, is holding a public hearing at the Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission’s office, 297 Bath Road, Wiscasset on Wednesday, May 3 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. 

Under the Coastal Zone Management Act, the NOAA Office for Coastal Management is required to review state programs every five years. The last review of Maine’s Coastal Program, housed at the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, was in 2011. The review covers the strengths and challenges of the program since the last review.  The outcome is a report back to the program with two types of feedback from NOAA – “necessary actions” and “program recommendations.”  The latter are particularly helpful as they reinforce the need for certain types of programming (e.g. grants) that bolster efforts at the state level to keep these program elements in the mix.

This is a statewide meeting open to the public. Lincoln County has been successful in receiving Coastal Communities Grants, which are funded by NOAA and administered by the Maine Coastal Program.  NOAA-funded projects have included the county-wide Google Earth-based sea level rise study, the Boothbay Harbor and Wiscasset wastewater treatment plant flood studies, the Damariscotta downtown flood study, preparation and distribution of waterproof Category 1 hurricane inundation maps books for local emergency managers, the downtown Boothbay Harbor flood study and a local flood ordinance-sea level rise project.

The public hearing is an opportunity for communities and the public to learn about NOAA’s activities in the state, offer feedback on the Maine Coastal Program, and briefly discuss their coastal management challenges.  It is also a chance to suggest potential future NOAA funding programs that could focus on rural coastal areas such as Lincoln County. 

For more information, please contact Carrie Hall, NOAA evaluator, at 240-533-0730 or carrie.hall@noaa.gov or Bob Faunce, Lincoln County Planner, 784-2617 or rfaunce@lcrpc.org.