On Sept. 19, Maine Sen. Susan Collins introduced the Working Waterfront Preservation Act to help the commercial fishing industry combat the loss of vital waterfront property and protect Maine and the nation’s maritime heritage.
Sen. Collins’s legislation would authorize $50 million in federal grants for each fiscal year from 2005 to 2007. The grants, which would require a 25 percent local match, would assist municipal and state governments, nonprofit organizations and fishermen’s cooperatives with the purchase of property or easements or for the maintenance of working waterfront facilities.
“Maine’s fishermen are losing access to waterfront property. Only 25 of Maine’s 3,500 miles of coastline are devoted to working waterfronts. There is no targeted, federal program to help the commercial fishing industry gain or preserve access to waterfront areas. At the same time, the pressures that drive the commercial fishing industry from these vital pieces of industry infrastructure are mounting,” Collins said. “I am committed to creating a federal mechanism to work in partnership with states, communities, and non-profit organizations to preserve our working waterfront. This new grant program would help preserve important commercial infrastructure for our fishermen.”
The grant application procedure would involve both the state fisheries agency and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Applications would first be submitted to a state fisheries agency. From there, applications would then be sent to the Department of Commerce for evaluation.
Applications would be evaluated by economic significance to the industry, degree of community support, threat of property conversion, and consistency with local land use plans.