The seventh grade at Leonard Middle School in Old Town is gearing up and getting excited to launch our Nonpoint Source Pollution project on Pushaw Lake! With support from the Natural Resource Council of Maine, we were graciously awarded one of the grants through the Engaging Maine Middle School Students in Protecting the Nature of Read More
water pollution
Support of LD 543, An Act To Protect Public Health through Subsurface Wastewater Disposal System Inspections
Senator Carson, Representative Tucker, and members of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee: My name is Nick Bennett, and I am the staff scientist for the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM). NRCM is Maine’s largest environmental advocacy group with more than 20,000 members and supporters. I am testifying in support of LD 543. This Read More
Trump Administration Pushes to Gut Clean Water Rule, Putting Maine’s Clean Water at Risk
Statement of Emmie Theberge, Federal Project Director, Natural Resources Council of Maine “The Trump Administration’s proposal to scrap the Clean Water Rule is the wrong move for Maine and for our country. If finalized, this ‘Dirty Water Rule’ would strip safeguards from streams and wetlands across the country. In a state like Maine, it would Read More
Estimated Cost of Penobscot River Mercury Cleanup Balloons to More than $240M
By Bill Trotter and Judy Harrison, BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story The recommended remediation of the Penobscot River estuary due to mercury pollution from a defunct chemical plant would cost between $246 million and $333 million, according to a report filed Tuesday in federal court in Bangor. That is far higher than a Read More
Survey of Casco Bay Finds Microplastics in Four Distinct Regions
The Friends of Casco Bay assessment identifies pieces of the plastic waste, which marine life can ingest and which attract toxins. But none of the microbeads banned in Maine in 2015 showed up. By Mary Pols, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story The first survey of Casco Bay for microplastics, the troubling, hard-to-see fragments Read More
Susan Collins, Angus King Oppose Plan That Could Allow Drilling Off Maine Coast
By Mal Leary Maine Public news story Maine’s two U.S. senators say they are opposed to President Donald Trump’s proposal that would open federal waters on the East Coast to oil and gas drilling. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced the proposal this week that would allow new offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all Read More
Maine Rep. Pingree: Republican Budget Bill Will Dismantle Environmental Protections
The legacy of Muskie’s Clean Water Act is on the line in the budget’s assault on our air, water and land. by Rep. Chellie Pingree, member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment, which oversees Environmental Protection Agency funding Portland Press Herald op-ed WASHINGTON — As Republicans in Congress rush through a partisan Read More
Canadian Company Presents Plan for Mining Thousands of Acres in Northern Maine
by A.J. Higgins Maine Public news story Dreams of excavating mineral riches in northern Maine have persisted since the late 1970s, when a geological survey confirmed significant deposits of zinc, copper, silver and lead in the region. Since then, mining companies have had their eyes on the Pickett Mountain area north of Patten, but have Read More
Clean Water Act has Transformed Androscoggin River Over Past 45 Years
by Steve Collins, Staff Writer Sun Journal news story Watch the Androscoggin River today as it flows down from the Great Falls at Lewiston-Auburn and it seems scarcely believable it was once little more than an open sewer, full of toxic chemicals, a channel for every throwaway thing that could be swept to the sea. Read More