The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
TIMES RECORD • August 26, 2024
Despite Midcoast residents’ recent run-ins with rabid animals, confirmed rabies cases are down dramatically compared to last year. So far, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed 35 rabies cases in Maine, down from 51 cases to this point in 2023.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 25, 2024
Nobody knows how much toxic firefighting foam concentrate there is in Maine, where it is, or if it is safely stored. But state environmental officials do know Brunswick Executive Airport isn’t the only place still using this kind of chemical concentrate to fight fires, nor is it the only place where the foam has been dumped on the ground, washed down sewer or storm drains, or spilled into streams and seas. It wasn’t until two years ago that Maine passed a law requiring people to report foam discharges to the state, so state records before that are spotty. But federal records show this week’s Brunswick spill is the biggest accidental discharge in Maine since it began keeping records in the 1990s.
MAINE MONITOR • August 25, 2024
The Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association estimated at least 60% of Maine’s working waterfronts were heavily damaged or destroyed in the January storms. Since then, many coastal businesses have had to decide whether to abandon their enterprises or rebuild, hoping to fortify their properties against future major storms – in some cases with a cash infusion from the state.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 25, 2024
A dam malfunction this spring caused the water in Dundee Pond to drain, offering a short-lived glimpse of what Maine's rivers looked like before industrialization. It also likely devastated an ecosystem. Landis Hudson, executive director of the nonprofit Maine Rivers, described it as a “fascinating combination of profound ugliness and unexpected beauty.” No one knows yet the impact on the fish that swim and spawn in the river. Even before the Dundee dam malfunction, conversations have been happening more frequently in Maine about removing dams. The mills that needed them are no longer there, and residents are placing more value on recreational opportunities and on protecting habitats that have been disrupted for decades.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 25, 2024
The accidental discharge last week of more than 1,500 gallons of firefighting foam concentrate from Brunswick Executive Airport – thick with PFAS, the forever chemicals that have already wrought so much loss and damage in our state – was more than 10,000 times the federal limit. As alarming as the incident itself – a public health nightmare that will have negative environmental ramifications for the local area for years to come – was the slipshod nature of the official response, and what that response reveals about insufficient oversight of storage of this type of foam concentrate, and harmful spills of it, across the state. The information made available to the public was conflicting and confusing. That the process of securing answers and establishing accountability has required a spill of this magnitude, with square feet of noxious foam blowing in the air we breathe and slipping into the water we use, is galling.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 24, 2024
Maine is taking a first step to establish small-scale wind power as another tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Distributed energy, or on-site, decentralized power generation, accounts for several thousand solar projects in Maine – such as panels on rooftops and in yards. Not so for distributed wind energy projects, which, at 80 to 150 feet in height, are roughly one-third the size of industrial-scale wind projects. A meeting in Freeport on Aug. 21 drew nearly two dozen federal and state energy and agriculture officials, environmentalists, business owners and others to make introductions and swap ideas about how to launch small-scale wind power.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 23, 2024
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention is warning people not to eat fish from four water bodies located on and near the former Brunswick Naval Air Station because testing by the Navy last October revealed elevated levels of dangerous forever chemicals. Elevated PFAS levels were found in fish tissue from Mere Brook (also known as Mare Brook), Merriconeag Stream, Picnic Pond and Site 8 Stream, which are all east of the base that closed in 2011. The CDC’s advisory follows the accidental release of 1,450 gallons of firefighting foam concentrate at Brunswick Executive Airport early Monday, when a fire suppression system malfunctioned.
NEW ENGLAND FORESTRY FOUNDATION • August 23, 2024
Henry David Thoreau is well known for his musings while living at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts , but it was his travels to the North Maine Woods that truly shaped his perspective on the natural world. The influence of Maine’s landscape and Penobscot Guides on Thoreau are still honored to this day by the community surrounding a festival in Greenville, Maine—the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail Festival.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 21, 2024
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is downplaying the risk to the public water supply and nearby drinking water wells from an accidental discharge of 1,450 gallons of toxic firefighting foam at the Brunswick Executive Airport on Monday. But a state toxicologist at the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Maine does not yet understand the public health risk that might be posed from inhalation of foam. After the spill, the foam could be seen blowing in the wind around Hangar 4, drains and manholes, and nearby retention ponds.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 21, 2024
The U.S. Navy had been planning to remove thousands of gallons of PFAS-laden firefighting foam from Brunswick Executive Airport next month, when a large portion of that foam was instead released during a spill on Monday that sent some of the toxic chemicals into the environment. During a news conference held by state and local officials on Wednesday afternoon, Kristine Logan, executive director of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, said that the navy is still planning to come to Brunswick on Sept. 16 to remove the remaining foam from the airport that wasn’t part of the accidental dump. Because of health and environmental concerns surrounding PFAS, which can cause cancer, birth defects and other health issues over long periods of exposure, the U.S. military is required to remove PFAS-containing firefighting foam from airports by October of this year.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 20, 2024
If developers of solar and wind projects want to build on Maine farmland, they soon will have to pay an extra fee. A state law enacted last year requires such developers to pay into a fund that helps mitigate the environmental impacts of the project or conserve farmland elsewhere in Maine. It’s meant to protect agriculture while also advancing the state’s clean energy goals. Now, officials are trying to decide how much developers should pay. The Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry has drafted rules detailing how the law will be enforced, establishing a permitting structure for renewable energy developments built on “high-value agricultural land.”
TIMES RECORD • August 20, 2024
The local water district has shut down a public water source near the site of Monday’s chemical spill at Brunswick Landing and will not reopen it until tests show the levels of harmful forever chemicals in the drinking water fall within allowed regulatory limits. The discharged firefighting foam is believed to contain forever chemicals, or PFAS. Even trace amounts of some PFAS, which are used in many common industrial and household products, are now considered a public health risk.
TIMES RECORD • August 20, 2024
A fire suppression system malfunctioned inside a large airport hangar at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station early Monday morning, resulting in the accidental discharge of 1,600 gallons of firefighting foam concentrate that contains dangerous “forever chemicals.” The spill has alarmed neighbors and Brunswick residents who serve on the advisory board that oversees the environmental cleanup at the former military base, which closed and is being redeveloped as a result of a federal base realignment action in 2005. “The worst fears that we have had have happened,” said Suzanne Johnson, a Brunswick attorney who is co-chair of the Restoration Advisory Board
TIMES RECORD • August 19, 2024
The scale of the damage caused by Monday morning’s chemical spill at Brunswick Executive Airport is still being weighed, as Brunswick officials assess the fallout and eye a costly, potentially hazardous cleanup process. The Brunswick Town Council convened Monday night, about 11 hours after a fire suppression system malfunctioned and released 1,600 gallons of firefighting foam stored inside Hangar 4. “The deployment today was our worst nightmare to have happened,” said Kristine Logan, MRRA executive director. Brunswick Fire Chief Ken Brillant says that the cleanup of a firefighting foam spill is in motion, while council members, civilian groups and residents alike express concerns about contamination.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 19, 2024
A new $6,000 solar subsidy charge in the monthly Versant Power electricity bill for Milo Chip may force the factory to close, its office manager said. The factory, which employs four people and produces sanitary paper products in Milo, has been breaking even with surging labor, fuel and insurance costs, office manager Isabelle McKenna said. Prior to this new charge, an average monthly Versant Power electric bill was less than $5,000 for the factory, McKenna said. That additional monthly $6,000 is a cost the business cannot absorb.
SUN JOURNAL • August 18, 2024
Michael Altmaier's rescue highlights the increasingly important role played by Maine's search and rescue teams as more people seek the outdoors and officials deal with Silver Alerts. The Game Warden Service is statutorily tasked with organizing search and rescues when someone is lost, missing, stranded or drowned on inland waters or in the woods. Search and rescues are two separate operations — though sometimes a rescue is necessary when a person has been located after a search. When someone does go missing, often wardens will push a Silver Alert to the public, asking people to report if they have seen the missing person. So far this year, 18 Silver Alerts have been issued, mostly for older adults. In 2021, state legislation changed, expanding who a Silver Alert can be issued for, which is basically anyone over 18 now.
SUN JOURNAL • August 18, 2024
The first thing anyone who is planning a hiking, camping, canoeing or other type of trip should do is let someone know what their plans are. Bring a cellphone in case you need to call 911 for an emergency. Once you’ve realized you’re off a marked trail just sit down and relax. If you become injured in the woods stay calm and try to assess your injuries. Carrying some sort of first aid kit is always strongly recommended.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 18, 2024
For hunters, it’s a glorious time of year. The season we’ve waited for is close at hand. It’s time to tend bear baits, practice your bow shooting, tune up the moose calls and mend decoy lines. ~ Bob Humphrey
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 18, 2024
Caving the common name “muskrat” doesn’t do it any favors, since “rat” carries its own pejorative meanings, and “musk” refers to the smell coming from its musk gland. Then there is the often mis-association of muskrats with their larger (and quite distant) cousins, the North American beaver. Beavers, despite being one of the most fascinating and important ecosystem engineers, are often disliked for their ability to impact environments by cutting down trees and damming waterways. Muskrats are essentially the best of both animals: small enough (but bigger than a rat) to not do too much “damage,” and a native species that provides many benefits to an ecosystem. ~ Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist Doug Hitchcox
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 18, 2024
The simplest option for getting “arborist chips” delivered might be ChipDrop, a site for both tree companies and gardeners. You can sign up, pay an optional donation to cover delivery costs and wait for chips when they become available. It isn’t for everyone, the company warns. On social media posts, some Maine users praised the service, while others said they’ve waited for years. When a drop arrives, you could end up with a large quantity of chips dumped on your driveway without warning. It might not be the cleanest or the most finely chopped either. But, it’s free.
