Dear Editor: 

Many Maine towns are not prepared for a shiny new thing to come along, promising tax relief and jobs;  Wiscasset has two. 

Both a data center and geothermal technologies are unlikely subjects in comprehensive planning, let alone towns' land use ordinances. 

In the case of Wiscasset, two proposed projects are a spit away from a fault line that existed long before Maine Yankee promised free electricity. That shiny new thing lasted 25 years, leaving spent fuel rods in its wake. 

According to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission file, a fault line runs along the back river of the Sheepscot River, a stone's throw from Peregrine's proposed geothermal project that would poke the earth maybe a mile down. And then there's the data center, which requires an enormous amount of water and electricity, with potential to impact the temperature of the Sheepscot.   

Familiarly known as the Robinhood Fault, this was the epicenter of a 1979 earthquake felt as far away as Portland, and announced by Walter Cronkite on national news (he pronounced Wiscasset wis-CASSETTE). 

Risk analysis ought to be considered by all the towns who share the river, including Georgetown, Westport and Southport islands, Edgecomb and Boothbay, not just Wiscasset, whose website boasts the Sheepscot as its biggest asset.

Martha Frink 

Bremen