By Ann Baldelli, The Day, New London, Conn. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jun. 25--More than four years ago, the Mohegan Tribe decided to get into the clamming business.

Two dozen tribal members met as a strategic planning group to look at possible economic opportunities, and the Mohegan's aquaculture venture was born.

The tribe began leasing state property in Fishers Island and Long Island sounds, and hired an expert to fine-tune its plans. The tribe wanted to diversify its income base and believed the public would support ventures other than casino gambling. Shellfishing, it figured, would be an easy sell.

The Mohegans couldn't have been more wrong.

Since the Army Corps of Engineers made details of the proposed aquaculture business public this spring, critics have been hammering away at the plan.

On Monday, the tribe will defend its proposal at a public hearing on the application conducted by the Army Corps at 7 p.m. at the Groton Inn & Suites, off Route 184. The state Department of Environmental Protection will be there, too, concurrently holding its public hearing on the project. Hundreds of people are expected.

In recent weeks, the Mohegans have been meeting with opponents to listen to their concerns and consider ways of minimize them.

They have scaled back portions of the project and hope to eliminate many of the buoys they had proposed setting in local waterways to support nets and cages. But the tribe is determined to make a go of its clam and oyster project and has already invested $2.7 million in the business.

"We have good intentions here," said Peter Schultz, the tribe's vice chairman, and its spokesman for the aquaculture project. "We want to do the right thing. And we're still actively seeking ways to mitigate the effects of this."

Eventually the tribe will require Army Corps and state DEP approval for its project. The DEP will determine whether the proposal satisfies Connecticut's Coastal Management Program.

Schultz said the Mohegans hope to hear criticisms of their project Monday night, and deal with them.

"We will catalog the concerns and work very hard to address them with the Army Corps and DEP," said Schultz. "I'm hopeful we can reach some type of compromise."

Schultz and other tribal members will join Paul D. Maugle, the Mohegan's director of aquaculture, at Monday's meeting. From 5 to 7 p.m., the Mohegans will meet with the public to informally discuss their project and answer questions.

Maugle said he would bring samples of lines and buoys that will be used in the project, and detailed maps and charts.

Under its revised proposal, the tribe is asking to use 67 acres of the almost 1,500 acres that it leases from the state in the first year of its project. Over five years, it is proposing to use as much as 232.2 acres, assuming the best shellfish growing conditions.

"I've looked at the original proposal and the revisions, and the revisions are a lot better, but we're not there yet," said state Sen. Catherine W. Cook, R-Mystic. "I'm impressed with the willingness of Peter Schultz, and I can't take a stand that no one should ever do shellfishing in Long Island Sound. So we have to decide, how can we fund the right balance?"

Most objectionable to critics have been the extensive series of lines and floats that the tribe wants to use for rearing shellfish. Lantern nets and cages with immature shellfish would be suspended from the lines.

The tribe's application seeks permission to conduct its business in the waters off southeastern Connecticut's shoreline from the Niantic Bay to the Pawcatuck River.

The business would be headquartered in the tribe's Stonington borough property, at 70-72 Water St., where it plans to operate a hatchery.

Over time, the tribe plans to invest about $10 million, rearing oysters and clams in the borough and nearby waters, and operating fish barns in rural areas. The tribe would hire farmers to convert their pig, chicken or cow operations to tilapia farms, and buy the fish from them. The Mohegans long-range plans call for building a processing plant on their reservation.

But the early stages of the business would focus on the hatchery, and the leased beds, where oysters and clams would be reared.

Concerned that the tribe's apparatus would clog popular waterways and foul their propellers and keels, commercial and recreational boaters and fishermen have voiced objections to the project.

The Mudheads, a Mystic-based sailing club with more than 400 members, has raised questions about the configuration of the lines and suspended nets and cages, and the location and size of "upwellers," floating shed-like buildings that will also be used to raise oysters.

"We're not against development of the waters," said Mudhead Secretary Frank Intelisano, who has developed a web page (www.mudhead.org) detailing Mudhead members' questions and comments about the project.

"We're boaters, and we're concerned with placement and size (of these shellfish-rearing systems). And what if there is a nor'easter? What will happen to all this gear?

"People out there, if they don't know any better, they'll be all wrapped up in those wires," Intelisano said.

Stonington's commercial fishing fleet was among the first to voice objections to the plans, and Maugle and others have met with them to hear their concerns and try to address them.

In Groton, town leaders have gone on record to oppose the project, following vehement objections from boaters in Pine Island Bay.

The Army Corps said it has received more than 1,000 letters and e-mails, almost all opposed to the project.

Schultz, the tribe's vice chairman, has done public access television shows, legislative sessions and yacht club meetings to meet adversaries face-to-face and answer their questions.

"We've had all kinds of meetings, and we're going forward," Schultz said. "We fully expect (the final project) to be less than what it is now. But we're going forward."

Schultz said the tribe has had meetings with the state Department of Environmental Protection to talk about ways of minimizing the impact of the lines and floats.

If the DEP would let it, the tribe would eliminate most all the buoys in many of the objectionable areas, he said, anchoring its growing beds only at the four corners, not with extensive lines of buoys.

"We've asked them, but it's up to them to decide if we could do that," he said.

And rather than suspend its nets 8 feet down from the water's surface, Schultz said it would suspend them 10 feet to 15 feet underwater, allowing boats to freely pass above them.

"We think we can all share the water," Schultz said.

The project has supporters, too.

Allan Jacques, of The Niantic Bay Scallop Company, said shellfish cages on the water's bottom are no different than lobster pots and will provide additional habitat for fish.

Jacques said he understands boaters' concerns, but believes the Mohegans' proposal is miniscule when compared to the thousands of acres available for recreational boating.

"The effect of an abundant clam, scallop and oyster fishery in the area will have a measurable economic impact ... as shellfishermen from all over the state come to the area," he said. "I believe the tribe's initiative is a very important step forward for southeastern Connecticut and is not only a business, but will spawn a shellfishing industry."

But critics clearly outnumber supporters.

Fishing and boating groups and marinas have been organizing their members to attend Monday night's public hearing. Harbor managers and shellfish boards and waterfront commissions are mobilizing, too. Legislators have kept on top of constituents' concerns and passed them onto the tribe and Army Corps.

Cori Rose, who will run Monday's public hearing for the Army Corps, is unsure how many people will turn out.

"I'm just not sure what to expect," she said. "Sometimes people object in advance, and don't show up. And other times, they just come out. I'm assuming we'll have about 500 people."

Every comment on the project will be considered, Rose said.