Editorial: Brunswick spill a ‘never again’ moment for Maine

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • September 15, 2024

The fire suppression system in question at Brunswick Executive Airport was deemed “deficient” in the months before the PFAS leak. It is a sorry state of affairs when it takes a catastrophe like this one to sharpen the focus of our regulatory bodies and our codes. Our treasured local environment is not a testing ground. We know more than enough about what needs to be done and insisted on when it comes to curtailing toxic chemical contamination. Accountability and liability need to be crystal clear; the buck has to stop somewhere. And the consequences, where it doesn’t stop, need to be grave enough to be effective.

Letter: PUC must prioritize vetting Iberdrola’s Avangrid plans

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • September 15, 2024

Iberdrola’s plans to buy out Avangrid and take the company private would be a sketchy deal for Maine people. Corporate interests seldom align with the public good. It’s clear that this $2.5 billion deal was not concocted with the interests of Maine ratepayers in mind. We need our regulators at the Public Utilities Commission to stand up and figure out exactly how ratepayers might be affected by the proposed ownership change. ~ Deb Fahy, Hallowell

The health benefits of ocean air may not just be an old wives’ tale

BANGOR METOR • September 15, 2024

If you’ve ever spent a summer day by the sea’s edge, with salt water splashing over your toes, the sun tingling on your skin and the salty fresh air filling your lungs with its magical effects, then you’ve probably witnessed the healing powers of the cold Atlantic waters. But is that salty fresh air actually healing? The Victorians thought so, and now science is backing up some of those old-timey beliefs.

Bigger park and an amphitheater among recommendations for former Maine State Prison site

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 15, 2024

An expanded park and outdoor amphitheater are among the recommendations for the former site of the Maine State Prison that a committee will present to Thomaston later this month. immediate actions include looking into purchasing land surrounding the park to expand it, adding gateways at two entrances to the park, and extending water and electricity to the gazebo and flagpole. The committee’s recommendations also call for letting the area of the park that overlooks the St. George River to grow wild and pursuing a Certified Wildlife Habitat for the area. In the long-term, the recommendations include an outdoor amphitheater at the west end of the park.

This mountain in Baxter State Park is great for beginner hikers

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 14, 2024

Alone in the southwest corner of Baxter State Park, Sentinel Mountain has a fitting name. Surrounded by pristine ponds and lowlands, it rears up out of the forest, standing guard over one of Maine’s most beloved swathes of conserved wilderness. The mountain tops off at just 1,842 feet above sea level, making it one of the smaller peaks in the park. Yet from its bare granite ledges, hikers are rewarded with open views of Maine’s tallest mountain, Katahdin, as well as neighboring behemoths such as Doubletop, OJI, Barren and The Owl.

Soy foam product seen as safer firefighting alternative to ‘forever chemicals’

MAINE MORNING STAR • September 14, 2024

In the search for a more eco-friendly firefighting foam, soybeans may be the answer to moving away from “forever chemicals.” While PFAS contamination is very effective as a firefighting foam, one alternative may be a foam based out of soybeans that is completely biodegradable. Cross Plains Solutions demonstrated its firefighting foam at the Big Iron Farm and Construction Show in North Dakota this week.

Forever chemicals found in Androscoggin River after foam spill

CBS 13 • September 14, 2024

Forever chemicals have now been found in the Androscoggin River. A nonprofit group took water samples after a massive spill of toxic firefighting foam last month at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. Now, the results are in. “The contamination from the outfall pipe was very high, the highest we’ve ever seen it,” Friends of Merrymeeting Bay Chair Ed Friedman said. Test results show the total concentration of all the PFAS in the sample was 16,000 parts per trillion. “The highest we’ve ever gotten from the outfall pipe before has been two or three hundred parts per trillion,” Friedman said. Brunswick Sewer District General Manager Robert Pontau said, “We need to stop using these products. Get it out of the system all together.”

Maine’s energy efficiency agency is bullish on electric heat pump installation

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 14, 2024

Maine’s quasi-state agency that promotes energy efficiency says the state is on track to reach its goals in electrifying buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In July 2023, Maine surpassed its goal of installing 100,000 new heat pumps two years early. Gov. Janet Mills set a new target of installing another 175,000 heat pumps in Maine by 2027. Maine will receive up to $72 million from Washington to install heat pumps for home heating and cooling and hot water heaters. But a business owner Thursday questioned a shift in a rebate program to incentivize electric pumps that heat an entire house, rather than a few rooms. The Maine Climate Council has set a goal of 487,000 homes – 90% of single-family homes in Maine – that will meet their entire heating load with electric heat pumps in retrofits and new construction.

Jay Planning Board to consider reapplication for shoreland zoning permit for transmission project

SUN JOURNAL • September 13, 2024

New England Clean Energy Connect Transmission is reapplying for a shoreland zoning permit for its corridor running through the town of Jay. The proposed 145.1-mile, high-voltage, direct current electric transmission line will run from the Quebec border to Lewiston to connect with the New England power grid. The Planning Board approved a permit in May 2021 and extended the permit for another year in 2023. With all the delays in the project, including posted roads this spring and other issues, the portion of the project in Jay is not complete. The existing permit will expire on Nov. 9.

Brunswick Landing board says fire system shutdown neither ‘legal nor possible’

TIMES RECORD • September 13, 2024

After a tense Thursday press conference where local leaders called for the resignation of Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority Director Kristine Logan and the shutdown Brunswick Executive Airport fire suppression systems, MRRA Board Chair Herman “Nick” Nichols said that the fire suppression system shutdowns are neither “legal nor possible.” “The truth is, MRRA has been relentless in addressing the deficiencies identified in the report even though there is no indication that these deficiencies led to the accidental spill.” Nichols said that MRRA — a quasi-state agency created by the Legislature to manage the redevelopment of the 3,100-acre former Navy air base — has been looking for ways to remove aqueous film forming foam from the Landing and replace it with safer alternatives.

The Biden administration is taking steps to eliminate protections for gray wolves

ABC NEWS • September 13, 2024

The Biden administration on Friday asked an appeals court to revive a Trump-era rule that lifted remaining Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the U.S. If successful, the move would put the predators under state oversight nationwide and open the door for hunting to resume in the Great Lakes region after it was halted two years ago under court order. Environmentalists had successfully sued when protections for wolves were lifted in former President Donald Trump’s final days in office.

How scientists debunked one of conservation’s most influential statistics

THE GUARDIAN • September 13, 2023

The statistic seemed to crop up everywhere. Versions were cited at UN negotiations, on protest banners, in 186 peer-reviewed scientific papers – even by the film-maker James Cameron, while promoting his Avatar films. Exact wording varied, but the claim was this: that 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity is protected by Indigenous peoples. When scientists investigated its origins, however, they found nothing. In September, the scientific journal Nature reported that the much-cited claim was “a baseless statistic”, not supported by any real data, and could jeopardise the very Indigenous-led conservation efforts it was cited in support of. Indigenous communities play “essential roles” in conserving biodiversity, the comment says, but the 80% claim is simply “wrong” and risks undermining their credibility.

Development and rising seas threaten Maine’s salt marshes, a key carbon sink

MAINE MONITOR • September 13, 2024

Maine salt marshes are a key tool in the fight against climate change, acting as a buffer against storms and soaking up planet-warming emissions. These reservoirs of “blue carbon” can be 10 times more effective at absorbing and trapping carbon than tropical forests. Marshes are also some of the state’s richest habitats, home to a wide variety of plants, birds and animals. University of Maine researchers once estimated, acre by acre, a healthy salt marsh anchors a food web “more productive than most midwestern farmland.”  For centuries, many of Maine’s coastal marshes were able to slowly build their surface, moving and growing to avoid rising seas. But as a warming world causes oceans to rise more rapidly and storms to intensify, the marshes are having a harder time keeping up — and as development presses in, they have little place to go. 

Former Maine CDC director Shah: State must prepare for health impacts of climate-driven flooding

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 13, 2024

Maine leads the way in managing tick-borne illnesses and high heat in a changing climate, but it could learn from other states with more experience managing the public health impacts of climate-driven flooding, a federal health official said Friday. This particular health official – Dr. Nirav Shah – should know. He was the top public health official in Maine for four years and participated in the state’s climate action plan before he left in 2023 to become second in command of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Countless birds die each year flying into windows. This group is doing something about it.

NEWS CENTER MAINE • September 13, 2024

According to statistics cited by Maine Audubon, nearly a billion birds in the U.S. are killed each year when they crash into windows. "Birds don’t know what windows are," Nick Lund of Maine Audubon said. "Windows are reflective, so if you’re a bird, you think you're seeing the sky or habitat. Or if lit from within, windows are just invisible." A group called BirdSafe Maine—composed of Maine Audubon, the University of Southern Maine, and the Portland Society of Architects—has been working to raise awareness of the bird strike problem and its solutions. It recently honored several companies, schools, and individuals for taking action that is, happily, not particularly difficult. Merely putting bird-safe decals on windows reduces strikes dramatically.

Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority Board supports Executive Director after toxic foam spill

MAINE PUBLIC • September 13, 2024

The Board Chair of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority said he fully supports Executive Director Kristine Logan, who is facing calls to resign. State lawmakers and others are scrutinizing Logan for failing to disclose the findings of an inspection last year that revealed deficiencies in the fire suppression system at the Brunswick Airport, the site of a massive toxic foam spill last month. Authority Board Chair H.A. Nichols issued a statement Friday saying that he is 110% behind Logan and her team, and that the success of the redevelopment of the former Brunswick Naval Air Station has surpassed all expectations.

Access to PFAS-free water remains an issue in Hallowell

KENNEBEC JOURNAL • September 13, 2024

While long-term plans are underway to eliminate forever chemicals from Hallowell’s public drinking water, some residents say there are hurdles to obtaining clean water in the meantime. The public water system, the Hallowell Water District, plans to have a $10 million facility constructed by the end of 2027 that would drastically reduce levels of the forever chemicals, or PFAS, in the city’s drinking water to meet new federal regulations. But before the facility is built, the only PFAS-free source of public water for the Water District’s 912 customers — including restaurants and businesses downtown — is a spigot at the Water District building at 52 Winthrop St., where residents are allowed to fill up with 5 gallons per day.

Hallowell to build $10 million PFAS-filtration facility by end of 2027

KENNEBEC JOURNAL • September 13, 2024

Amid concerns from residents about levels of forever chemicals in Hallowell drinking water, the Hallowell Water District is working toward long-term solutions. By the end of 2027, the district hopes to have constructed a $10 million facility to eliminate detectable forever chemicals, or PFAS, in the city’s drinking water. PFAS exposure at even small levels has been linked to health issues.

Ellsworth City Forest hopes to triple in size thanks to new state funding

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 13, 2024

State officials have approved funding for a piece of property near Branch Lake that will help triple the size of Ellsworth’s city forest. The Land for Maine’s Future board has decided to award Ellsworth $92,500 to pay for half the cost of acquiring roughly 280 wooded acres on the eastern side of Branch Lake. The land separates the existing 238-acre lakefront Ellsworth City Forest, which is publicly accessible, from another 285-acre wooded lot that the city owns to the north off Phillips Way. Branch Lake is used as the city’s water supply.

What Maine hopes to learn from its offshore wind research array

MAINE MORNING STAR • September 13, 2024

Last month, the state and the federal government reached an agreement on a lease for an offshore wind research array that will sit about 30 miles southeast of Portland. It will take up about 15 square miles in federal waters and include up to 12 floating turbines that will help inform how floating offshore wind operates and interacts with ecosystems in the water. The next step in that process is to understand how to responsibly deploy the budding industry and actually transmit the energy back to shore, all while reducing impacts to the fisheries that are vital to the economy and culture of Maine.