Maine has public-health advisories against eating fish from 14 bodies of water contaminated with mercury. By Andrea Sears Public News Service News Story March 20, 2019 AUGUSTA, Maine – Do your job, protect our kids. That’s the message dozens of mothers from 15 states took to Washington, D.C., this week. The Environmental Protection Agency has Read More
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Court Upholds EPA Power-plant Emission Standards
The case has potential air-quality ramifications for Maine, which has been described as the ‘tailpipe’ of the nation. By Pete Yost The Associated Press Portland Press Herald news story WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s first emission standards for mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from coal- and Read More
Maine’s Advanced Recycling Programs Succeeding
Keeping Mercury and Other Toxics Out of Environment NRCM news release Today, DEP officials presented a report to the Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee showing that Maine’s five advanced recycling “product stewardship” laws are a huge success and have prevented more than 45 million pounds of electronic waste and hundred of pounds of toxic Read More
State Plan Changes after Delay in Reporting Mercury in Lobster
Portland Press Herald news story by Scott Dolan, staff writer State Toxicologist Andrew Smith received an urgent message in 2011: A team of independent scientists had discovered dangerously high levels of mercury in black ducks in a marsh near the mouth of the Penobscot River. But what Smith didn’t know was that the same scientists Read More
Contamination of Maine Lobster Shows Value of Regulations
Kennebec Journal editorial The lobster fishery has been the one bright spot in Maine’s seafood industry for years — at least until last week. On Feb. 18, the state Department of Marine Resources ordered a two-year shutdown of lobster and crab harvesting in a 7-square-mile region at the mouth of the Penobscot River. Mercury contamination Read More
Honoring Rachel Carson on Earth Day
I got up early one morning and happened to look out my second-story bedroom window. There in an oak tree, directly across from me, was a Bald Eagle as tall as a skateboard. We were eye to eye, and gazed at each other for a minute or so, before he spread his wide wings and Read More
Maine Sporting Groups Want Congressional Support for EPA Mercury Reduction Rule
Diverse groups agree it is time to end pollution from coal-burning power plants National Wildlife Federation A coalition of environmental, hunting, fishing, and shooting enthusiast groups from across the state today called upon the state’s Congressional delegation to support a new national rule to drastically reduce mercury pollution from coal-burning power plants. Ten local and Read More
The Joys of a Maine Winter!
These cold January days have not deterred me from enjoying Maine’s outdoors. Those of us who love to fish in Maine can’t stay idle waiting for spring to wet our fly lines. Instead, we bundle up and explore Maine’s lakes and rivers—through the ice. Last weekend, I finally got a chance to get out on Read More
Big News from the Big Apple: E-waste Lawsuit Withdrawn
Good news for extended producer responsibility (EPR) in the United States! (i.e., manufacturer responsibility for end-of-life collection and recycling of unwanted consumer products). Yesterday, a large consortium of electronics companies formally withdrew their lawsuit challenging New York City’s EPR e-waste recycling law (which I testified in support of in 2006). While a recently passed New Read More
