A helicopter survey will be taking place from July 13 through 18 in and around Half Moon Cove with flights in a grid pattern that will encompass adjacent areas of Pleasant Point, Eastport, Perry, Cobscook Bay and Passamaquoddy Bay. The helicopter will fly at an approximate altitude between 450 to 900 feet.
      The survey is part of a $1 million causeway feasibility study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Sipayik tribal government that was signed in September 2021. The objective of the study is to determine the best option to improve aquatic connectivity and restore tidal flows that were altered when the Route 190 causeway was constructed.
      Ralph Dana, the Passamaquoddy tribal point of contact with the Army Corps and the study, explains that he was part of a group who went out to collect data for the helicopter survey instrument calibration. "We went out at low tide and took depth measurements at designated spots."
      The study is expected to take two years but cannot extend to more than three. "The study is all about the tidal flows," Dana notes. "The next step goes from data collection; they will use that hydrological data to allow for better information and decisions about the causeway." The Army Corps will produce the report and included will be different options for changing the causeway for the tribe and other interested parties to consider, including the cost and possible funding sources.
      Project Manager Keith Hannon, Army Corps Plan Formulation Branch of the Navigation, Coastal & Environmental Planning Section in the New England District, explains that when the causeway was built in the 1930s as part of the Quoddy Dam project, it filled in a railroad trestle that ran between the small islands between Sipayik and Moose Island. "Habitat has degraded over time," he says. "There is significantly reduced fish connectivity" between the cove and the bay on either side of the causeway.
      The helicopter LIDAR survey "will be done during low tide with the mudflats and with low water," creating very accurate measurements, says Hannon. After the data have been collected it will take a few months to be processed, resulting in information that can then be used to begin formulating different iterations of change. This might be multiple culverts to a bridge, but ultimately it is the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) that owns much of the causeway. The Army Corps is there to create a study of what could be done, not what will be done, he stresses. The MDOT is a stakeholder in the survey project.

Possible causeway alternatives
      At the September 21, 2021, meeting of the Eastport Port Authority board, with representatives from the Passamaquoddy tribal government at Sipayik present, Eastport Port Authority Executive Director Chris Gardner discussed possibilities for the causeway, saying that when the causeway was constructed it reduced the tidal flow in Half Moon Cove and diminished the marine life there. Possible options include breaching the causeway with culverts or flapper gates or removal of the causeway and constructing an arch bridge. But he noted that if a bridge were to be built, a better location should be considered.
      A new bridge could include both a road and rail line, Gardner said at the time, with two options being considered: the former toll bridge site and one closer to Pleasant Point that would connect Johnson Point in Perry with Carlow's Island. Since the toll bridge location has issues concerning wetlands and residential areas, the bridge to Carlow's Island would be preferred. Gardner maintained that the proposal "could solve the economic needs of the port, right a cultural wrong, as it returns Pleasant Point to being Pleasant Point" and also help with restoring the ecosystem of the Half Moon Cove area. "The environmental, economic and cultural lines can all cross at once," he said.
      During the September 2021 meeting, Passamaquoddy Vice Chief Ernie Neptune of Sipayik said the tribal government "is very much in support of this project." He added, "We're looking at ecosystem restoration."