The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
MORNING SENTINEL • October 9, 2024
The Planning Board voted 7-0 Tuesday to approve a final plan for a solar farm on about 10 acres at 244 County Road. The 1.99-megawatt solar farm, to be developed by BD Solar Holmes Farm LLC, will be on land leased to the business by property owner Kevin Violette. One megawatt can serve power to roughly 1,000 homes, according to ISO-New England.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 9, 2024
I write to express my wholehearted support for the offshore wind turbine proposal for Maine. Supporting renewable energy projects like this one is not just about environmental responsibility; it’s also about enhancing national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Let’s harness the power of wind not just as an energy source but as a symbol of progress and unity for all Mainers. ~ Cassie Nedwell, Cape Elizabeth
TIMES RECORD • October 8, 2024
About two-thirds of the inspection and and testing reports for Brunswick Executive Airport hangars showed deficiencies in fire suppression systems, according to records the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority submitted to the Town of Brunswick on Friday. The trove of documents, released to the public today, included a packet of over 30 inspection reports dating back to 2016 for Hangars 4, 5 and 6 — all of which are MRRA-owned — showing deficiencies in many of the reports. The revelation comes nearly two months after 1,450 of highly toxic aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) concentrate mixed with 50,000 gallons of water spilled in Hangar 4. The system was later revealed to be out of date and had multiple deficiencies in its latest inspection from 2023. The foam spill was Maine’s biggest in 30 years.
SUN JOURNAL • October 8, 2024
Mountain Valley Middle School will be closed the remainder of the week due to the air quality, Regional School Unit 10 Superintendent Deb Alden wrote in a letter to staff, parents and families. The issue is “forms of mold spores,” Alden said Tuesday. “This is the third (test) we’ve had done and each time it was different areas that showed problems. This time it was really bad,” she said. “There is a reason we’re building a new school,” she said.
MAINE PUBLIC • October 8, 2024
State regulators have fined Versant Power $90,000 for failing to meet customer service standards last year. The Public Utilities Commission said the power company did not meet targets for answering calls within 30 seconds. Commissioners denied Versant’s bid to exclude several days of poor performance following a powerful storm in December 2023 from its overall service quality record. The company said it had 97,000 customers without power and its call volume was five times higher than other times in the year.
TIMES RECORD • September 8, 2024
About two-thirds of the inspection and and testing reports for Brunswick Executive Airport hangars showed deficiencies in fire suppression systems, according to records the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority submitted to the Town of Brunswick on Friday. The revelation comes nearly two months after 1,450 of highly toxic aqueous film-forming foam — or AFFF — concentrate mixed with 50,000 gallons of water spilled in Hangar 4. The system was later revealed to be out of date and had multiple deficiencies in its latest inspection from 2023. The foam spill was Maine’s biggest in 30 years.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 8, 2024
Our air, water and soil support an $11.7 billion agricultural sector, and our 17.5 million acres of forest support an $8.1 billion forest products sector. The marine products sector contributes $3.3 billion to our economy annually, and together these assets support a $7 billion tourism industry. Maine ranks in the top five states for outdoor recreation as a percentage of GDP. Yet the state agencies charged with protecting the well-being of Mainers, visitors, wildlife and the land and water resources that define Vacationland remain stretched too thin. Gov. Mills should ensure that the Maine Drinking Water Program and departments of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, Environmental Protection, Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and Marine Resources have the staff and funding to meet the moment before us. ~ Cathy Breen, Maine Conservation Voters, and Sarah Woodbury, Defend Our Health Action.
MAINE PUBLIC • October 7, 2024
The former owner of the trash incinerator in Orrington is filing suit against the company that bought it at a foreclosure auction. Penobscot Energy Recovery Company, or PERC, argues that Eagle Point Energy Center bought only the physical assets of the incinerator, not the contracts with cities and towns that pay to have their waste processed. PERC also said Eagle Point has taken possession of $2 million worth of spare parts and other gear were not part of the sale. In a statement, Eagle Point said the allegations are "baseless" and that the company is committed to remediating the fire that started at the Orrington plant last week, and eventually, resuming operations there.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • October 6, 2024
There are no longer any credible climate change deniers in the scientific community, but the Republican Party stubbornly refuses to acknowledge reality. Trump ridicules global warming as a “hoax.” Regardless of our politics, we need Republicans to accept that climate change is real and to engage in a sustained bipartisan effort to meet the difficult challenge of halting additional global warming. The only way I can see this happening is if Republicans are soundly defeated in November, from the local level to the national. We need to force a reckoning upon them that is harsh enough to provoke an abandonment of this reckless disregard of science and reality. ~ Nigel Calder, Newcastle
SUN JOURNAL • October 5, 2024
A new 'Rail Link' between North and South stations in Boston would ease passenger rail between Maine and the rest of America.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 4, 2024
A sprawling lawsuit to expand public access to intertidal land in Maine was filed in Cumberland County Superior Court in 2021 against more than a dozen private property owners, some of whom had called Maine Marine Patrol on alleged trespassers picking rockweed from their shores. The plaintiffs are asking the justices to declare that all intertidal land in Maine should be considered public, undoing a 1989 decision in which the court held the land could be privately owned. The lawsuit has garnered most publicity for the questions it raises on recreational access to sandy beaches. But the effort also seeks to undo a Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruling from 2019, in which the court unanimously ruled that the public does not have a right to harvest rockweed on privately owned, intertidal land.
MAINE PUBLIC • October 4, 2024
A statewide land bank that's intended to help communities revitalize blighted properties is officially up and running. The Maine Redevelopment Land Bank Authority launched Friday with its first project in East Millinocket. The land bank, which the Legislature created two years ago, is intended to help communities repurpose old mills and former commercial and residential properties into productive use. Tuck O'Brien, the land bank's first executive director, said Maine Redevelopment will work with all-volunteer group that has been trying to revitalize the former Great Northern Paper Mill as its first project. The town had purchased the property back in 2020, and a number of projects have been proposed for the 215-acre site.
NEWSWEEK • October 4, 2024
During her 12 years as secretary of labor, Frances Perkins transformed work in the United States. She advised President Franklin D. Roosevelt on creating a public works program that put unemployed Americans back to work building critical infrastructure across the country. She was the powerhouse behind many of Roosevelt's New Deal programs, establishing a federal minimum wage and overtime pay and banning child labor exploitation. And she was the chair of the committee, which created the blueprint for Social Security. As the first woman to lead the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest federation of labor unions, I am deeply inspired by the example that Secretary Perkins set. President Joe Biden has an opportunity to recognize her remarkable legacy by designating the Perkins Homestead in Newcastle, Maine, as a national monument. ~ Liz Shuler, president, AFL-CIO
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 4, 2024
The town of Gorham has two rock quarries and one asphalt plant close to the center of town. Quarries affect air quality, increase health risks, create noise pollution and water contamination, cause habitat destruction, decrease property values and challenge structural integrity of surrounding residences. Yes, we need quarries. However, quarries can be regulated in such a way to decrease the impact on the neighbors and surrounding environment. The Gorham quarry regulations are inadequate, and no asphalt plant regulations exist. Gorham should place a moratorium on all quarry expansions, limit the size of blasting and the amount of aggregate and traffic leaving the quarries each month while monitoring air emissions 24/7. ~ Charles Hamblen, Gorham
MAINE PUBLIC • October 3, 2024
A handful of state planning and community resilience programs will be reorganized under a new, standalone office in the Maine executive branch to better serve municipalities. The Legislature approved the idea for the Office of Community Affairs earlier this year. Gov. Janet Mills announced Thursday that Samantha Horn, a former science director for The Nature Conservancy of Maine and a former official with the Land Use Planning Commission, will serve as the office's new leader. The new office will help towns with limited resources apply for climate resilience grants and address local housing shortages.
MAINE MORNING STAR • October 3, 2024
Mainers are contending with the impacts of climate change, housing shortages and population growth. Gov. Janet Mills announced on Thursday a new official who will be tasked with unlocking future opportunities to support local communities in addressing these complex challenges. Mills selected Samantha Horn, an expert in land use and natural resource policy and planning, to serve as director of a new office called the Maine Office of Community Affairs, funding for which was included in the supplemental budget passed this spring. Horn currently runs her own consulting business and has worked in natural resource policy and planning for three decades, including as director of science for The Nature Conservancy in Maine and as a division manager for the Maine Land Use Planning Commission.
MAINE PUBLIC • October 3, 2024
The Department of Environmental Protection has issued an air quality alert for today and Friday for the Midcoast and interior areas of eastern Maine. Winds are dispersing smoke from a large trash fire in Orrington that began on Tuesday night. The fire started on Tuesday inside a trash incinerator plant formerly operated by the Penobscot Energy Recover Company. The PERC plant ceased operations in May 2023 but an estimated 8,000 tons of trash were left behind.
MAINE MORNING STAR • October 3, 2024
The federal department is awarding up to $425 million to Avangrid, the parent company of Central Maine Power, in a capacity contract for the Aroostook Renewable Project, a proposed energy transmission line that would connect a substation in Haynesville to the Independent System Operator-New England in Pittsfield with a 111-mile transmission line with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts.
MORNING SENTINEL • October 3, 2024
The news about Hurricane Helene with its record rainfalls and winds underscores once again the increasing effects of warming oceans on storm strength and destructiveness. The oceans would not be warming were it not for human impacts on the atmosphere. Yet, according to Project 2025, the conservative playbook for a next administration, our big problem is the “climate change alarm industry.” So far, 29 municipal governments have passed endorsements encouraging Congress and the president to enact a federal carbon pricing policy that will motivate a shift in the economy away from fossil fuels and their pollution. If enough towns do this, perhaps we can actually motivate Sens. King and Collins and Reps. Golden and Pingree to take action to save our future prosperity. ~ Cynthia Stancioff, Camden
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 2, 2024
The U.S. Navy must “take any and all actions necessary” to protect human health and the environment in the wake of the Aug. 19 toxic chemical spill at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In a Sept. 26 letter, the EPA informed the Navy it “retains ultimate responsibility” to address the forever chemicals, or PFAS, left behind by the former military operation and those in the toxic firefighting foam, or AFFF, discharged by a faulty airport alarm because the Navy still owns the land.
