The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 24, 2024
Removing asbestos and lead paint from the old Getchell Brothers ice plant in Brewer could cost up to $330,000. An assessment of the site found materials with asbestos and lead-based paint within the building, as well as drains that connect directly to the Penobscot River. In some areas, the surface soil has lead and polyaromatic hydrocarbons, which come from burning materials like coal and oil and can cause various health problems.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 23, 2024
Rockland is the latest Maine community that’s going through the laborious and expensive work of closing a municipal landfill, with plans to complete the job this fall. In addition to paying a few million dollars to cap the 4-acre dump — much of which will be reimbursed by the state — the city will also have to continuously collect and remove the liquid leachate and gas that are produced there. Because of state regulations and the structure of the landfill, officials also say that plot will likely have to remain vacant forever. Brunswick closed its municipal landfill in 2021. Other Maine municipalities that have active landfills include Augusta, Bath, Lewiston, Presque Isle and Fort Fairfield.
MAINE PUBLIC • July 23, 2024
Maine regulators have approved new rules advocates said could offer a financial lifeline to Maine farms contaminated with toxic chemicals. Under a measure authorized by the Maine Public Utilities Commission, the state will open a competitive bidding process to develop nearly 600,000 megawatts of new clean power, equal to 5% of Maine retail electricity sales in 2021. The process will prioritized proposed developments sited on agricultural land tainted by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS. More than 50 Maine farms have been found to have unsafe levels of PFAS in water and soil. Some farms have had to stop selling produce, milk, eggs and meat from their land.
WASHINGTON POST • July 23, 2024
Global temperatures hit the highest levels in recorded history on Sunday, according to preliminary data from Europe’s top climate monitor – another worrying sign of how human-caused climate change is pushing the planet into dangerous new territory. The results from the Copernicus Climate Change Service show the planet’s average temperature on July 21 was 62.76 degrees Fahrenheit – breaking a record set only last year. The historic day comes on the heels of 13 straight months of unprecedented temperatures and the hottest year scientists have ever seen.
MAINE MORNING STAR • July 23, 2024
A public interest law firm that helped get the Chevron doctrine overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court is part of the legal battle over public access to shorelines in Maine. The Pacific Legal Foundation, which typically champions conservative and libertarian causes, is representing a defendant in a case involving public access to intertidal land in the town of Wells. The firm, which represents clients for free in cases nationwide involving individual and property rights, like the one in Wells, brought in more than $25 million in 2023. Meanwhile, those fighting for public access rely on donations to cover their legal fees. Donna M. Cummings, who has lived one street back from Moody Beach for 25 years, says it feels like an “agenda” that pushes private ownership over public access.
MONGABAY • July 23, 2024
Journalist and author Judith Schwartz lives near a forest in New England where a company plans to install an 85-acre solar power project and export the resulting energy to Connecticut, 100 miles to the south. She discusses why these types of projects are ecologically inappropriate for developing atop natural forests and how they can make adapting to climate change harder for local residents. Massachusetts offers a snapshot of the kind of damage that can occur without a policy preventing it: clearing forests and using natural working lands, such as farmland, has already converted more than 5,000 acres for solar energy production.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 23, 2024
The state is spending $6.6 million from Washington to strengthen independently operated electric grids that, along with Maine’s two dominant investor-owned utilities, face increasing threats from destructive storms. Eastern Maine Electric Cooperative, the Fox Islands Electric Cooperative at Vinalhaven and North Haven, Van Buren Light and Power and three power projects will benefit from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. When combined with matching funds provided by the recipients, more than $11 million will improve the resiliency of Maine’s electrical infrastructure, Gov. Janet Mills said Tuesday.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 23, 2024
It’s hard to believe that the U.S. electorate would vote for someone who, using the terminology of the UN secretary general, is steering us “on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.” It’s even harder to believe that the Republican Party’s platform is devoid of any mention of addressing the climate crisis, which is beginning to devastate our planet. Their goal most closely related to climate is to become the world’s dominant energy (aka oil and gas) producer, which is only adding (fossil) fuel to the fire. The absence of the inclusion of the climate crisis in the Republican platform presents an imminent danger to our country and planet. ~ Tony Ferrara, Brooksville, retired associate professor and coordinator of Climate Action Net
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 23, 2024
The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association joined a federal lawsuit on Tuesday against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to regulate the amount of forever chemicals allowed in sewage sludge. “MOFGA has had to divert significant staff time and financial resources to assisting farmers dealing with PFAS contamination from land-applied sewage sludge,” the lawsuit alleges. “The organization responded with nearly all staff hands on deck to provide affected farmers.” MOFGA is country’s biggest state organic farming group. It created a PFAS Emergency Relief Fund that has handed out more than $1.5 million in direct support to more than 50 affected farm families.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 23, 2024
The midcoast has the highest rates of tick-borne illnesses in Maine, which is why the state’s biggest health care system chose its Rockport hospital — Pen Bay Medical Center — as the site for research on a proposed new vaccine for Lyme disease. If the vaccine is determined to be safe and effective, it would be a huge advance, as there has not been a Lyme disease vaccine on the U.S. market in more than two decades. As of July 15, there had been 135 cases of Lyme confirmed in Knox County so far this year, which translates to a rate of 328 cases per 100,000 people — the highest in Maine. Several other coastal counties also lead the state in Lyme disease rates for this year, with 251 cases per 100,000 in Lincoln, 247 per 100,000 in Hancock and 216 per 100,000 in Waldo.
WASHINGTON POST • July 23, 2024
Mistakes were made, an instructive combination of inexperience and overconfidence. On June 30 we drove up to Baxter State Park and hiked the comically rocky 3.3 miles from Roaring Brook to Chimney Pond, perched halfway up the north side of Mt. Katahdin in a spectacular bowl of cliffs. My 19-year-old son, Mica, and I set off to climb Katahdin, because our Appalachian Trail starts at its summit. Katahdin is not especially big. But it is, out of all proportion to its height, a difficult mountain to climb. We ascended the Saddle Trail from Chimney. The last four-tenths of a mile is straight up a loose sand and gravel landslide scar, on a continuous forty-degree slope. Despite that, I’ve seen more than one person climb Katahdin in Crocs. Mistake Number One: Underestimating how much energy climbing Katahdin took out of me. ~ Rusty Foster
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 23, 2024
Not voting or, worse, switching sides because of the upcoming change, will have dire consequences for this country, its citizens and the world order. What is the potential danger? The answer: Project 2025. Authored and supported by hundreds of far-right Republican extremists and organizations, Project 2025 is a “cook book” for implementing authoritarian rule and MAGA ideology. A sample menu includes gutting laws protecting workers and the environment. Indigestion or “bon appétit?” ~ Sigrid R. E. Fischer-Mishler, Harpswell
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 23, 2024
Republicans have turned into themselves to find agreement, and that agreement is one of denouncing the other party vs. coming up with ways to solve our many pressing issues of the day. Global warming is real. The Republican agreement is founded in hate and otherism, and that is not the American way. Or at least I hope it is not because if it is — and we will learn on Tuesday, Nov. 5 — no one will be safe when the party in power decides that our community, and what we believe in, are not welcome. ~ Tracy Floyd, Cape Elizabeth
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 23, 2024
After multiple rounds of destructive flooding and storms dating back to December ravaged a vast chunk of Maine, environmentalists took the state to court and argued that Gov. Janet Mills is not acting with enough urgency to meet her own climate goals. The Conservation Law Foundation, Maine Youth Action and Sierra Club filed their lawsuit in April against the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and Board of Environmental Protection. The DEP released an update in June that showed emissions were 30% lower than 1990 levels as of 2021 and that Maine was 91% of the way to meeting the 2045 carbon neutrality goal, thanks largely to carbon storage in trees and wood products. But the environmental groups suing Maine argued the state has missed statutory deadlines. Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office has asked the court to dismiss the case.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 23, 2024
“In the 1990s the Atlantic Salmon Commission gave IFW some captive broodstock that they were not going to use any more for egg production. We then stocked a number of waters with these retired brood Atlantic salmon in late fall,” according to state fisheries biologist Greg Burr. How many of these Atlantics are actually getting up the Penobscot River tributaries and into Maine lakes? Historically regarded as an anomaly or a fluke, is this fisheries event more commonplace than we once thought? So far this year, a little more than 200 Atlantic salmon have been tallied at the fish passage counting station on the Penobscot River. Another question: “Will Atlantic salmon breed with landlocked salmon?” Why not? DNA wise, they are identical fish.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 23, 2024
The walls of a straw house are under construction in a former boat shop at a Rockland industrial park. They aren’t the stacked bales of a hand-plastered homestead; they’re panels of compressed Maine plants industrially sealed in Maine wood. Croft, a young company that expanded here from a former sardine cannery nearby, hopes to shake up the building industry — plus many other aspects of housing, farming and life in Maine. It’s part of a growing network here and across the country reexamining plant-based building materials. The underlying concepts aren’t new, but much of the movement today is focused on capturing carbon from the atmosphere in response to concerns about human and environmental health tied to modern construction.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 22, 2024
Dog waste has long been a problem in public outdoor spaces, in trail networks and on beaches. In addition to being disgusting, it is a public health concern, and can harm the environment and wildlife. Dog waste has become such a concern that Acadia National Park changed its regulations, making it a citable offense for pet owners to leave their pets excrement anywhere in the park. In June 2018, the park launched a new Bark Ranger Program to encourage dog owners to learn and practice good etiquette. In the program, BARK is an acronym for:
— Bag your poop.
— Always wear a leash.
— Respect wildlife.
— Know where you can go.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 22, 2024
Offshore wind development is an unparalleled economic investment for Maine. Building an offshore wind port itself would provide thousands of jobs. This port would harness skills Maine workers already have, from manufacturing and metalworking to engineering and design. More young Mainers finishing their education, whether studying engineering at the University of Maine or building trades at technical colleges and high school tech programs, would have the opportunity to join Maine’s workforce. An influx of young workers and families into our historic communities such as Searsport would keep our economy healthy, strong and sustainable well into the future. ~ Cason Snow, Bangor
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 22, 2024
The Environmental Protection Agency is awarding $4.3 billion in grants to fund projects in 30 states to reduce climate pollution. The money will go to 25 projects targeting greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, electric power, commercial and residential buildings, industry, agriculture and waste and materials management. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine will get a total of $450 million to accelerate adoption of cold-climate heat pumps and water heaters.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 22, 2024
Maine stargazers may be able to see the northern lights again, with another solar storm forecasted to wash over some of the state’s skies this week. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that a moderate solar storm will begin around 8 p.m. Tuesday before peaking at around 2 a.m. Wednesday, giving central and northern Maine another chance at seeing the aurora borealis. Locally, the agency predicted the best viewing would be happening in the Skowhegan area and points north.
