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PFAS pollution bill
The Maine Monitor is recapping the 131st Legislature by highlighting legislative bills you should know about. View all of our recaps. Legislators amended Maine’s landmark law regulating the use of “forever chemicals” by setting a 2032 deadline to remove PFAS from most products, and exempting those from the medical and transportation manufacturing industries.
Burning tires for fuel behind Maine's increase in toxic chemicals
Editor’s Note: The following story first appeared in The Maine Monitor’s free environmental newsletter, Climate Monitor, that is delivered to inboxes every Friday morning. Sign up for the free newsletter to stay informed of Maine environmental news. A few weeks ago, a series of press releases from the Environmental Protection Agency hit my email inbox in quick succession.
Bucksport officials continue to urge closing of defunct landfill
The proposed sale of a defunct landfill in Bucksport appears to have fallen through, prompting town officials to push for the company that owns the facility to plan to close it by 2026. It’s the latest twist for the facility that was once attached to the Verso paper mill, which closed in 2014. While the mill was demolished and converted to an industrial office park with a salmon processing facility, the landfill remains, although it has not accepted waste since 2020.
Legislation gives Maine power to enforce environmental regulations
The town of Raymond has spent three years trying to hold a developer and his contractors accountable for violating shoreland zoning provisions. Officials claim the developer replaced 400 feet of trees and other vegetation along Sebago Lake with stones, which goes against local provisions on tree removal and shoreland construction. The battle has played out in the courts, with appeals drawing out the process.
Maine farm works to generate solar power and blueberries at once
Paul Sweetland brings a bucket-like object with him to work on a blueberry farm in Rockport — not to collect Maine’s hallmark fruit, but to protect his head. That’s because this farm is a little unusual: Looming over the narrow rows of wild blueberries are 8-foot-tall solar panels. It’s both a farm and a power plant, which means he needs a hard hat. “Some panels are above my head and some are down at my head level. Some end up down closer to my waistline.
Worcester files after-the-fact permits for unpermitted cabins
The company behind the scrapped Flagpole of Freedom project met a March 1 deadline required to keep its campus of 52 cabins, a restaurant and accompanying roads in the woods north of Columbia Falls, at least for now. A consent agreement approved by Maine’s environmental board late last month required Worcester Holdings LLC to submit an after-the-fact site law application by March 1 and fined the company $250,000 for building its “Flagpole View Cabins” without permits.
Dover-Foxcroft weighs dam removal
The most common argument Dover-Foxcroft select board chair Tom Lizotte hears for keeping the town’s defunct dam on the Piscataquis River is it’s always been there, for as long as residents can remember. That was the mindset Lizotte himself had when he joined a committee studying what to do with the aging Mayo Mill Dam, which has failed to comply with federal regulations for over a decade.
Floods expose weaknesses in Maine's notification systems
Farmington Town Manager Erica LaCroix was in only her second week on the job when the Sandy River swelled in December, spilling six feet of water in the Intervale area by Main and Front streets, submerging businesses like McDonald’s and Walgreens. As the river and its tributaries flooded and road closures mounted, LaCroix said Farmington relied on town employees and firefighters to field calls from residents on how to travel around safely.
Gardiner businesses hurt by insurance coverage revelations
A foot and a half of murky water had already breached the brick walls of Bintliff’s Corner Brew cafe in Gardiner last month when Roger Bintliff made alast-ditch effort to save the restaurant he had owned for almost five years. Bintliff, a 56-year-old veteran restaurateur, waded through icy waters in the pitch-black basement with only a headlamp illuminating his path. Desperately he attempted to set up a water pump to send the floodwaters back toward the swollen Kennebec River.
Police training in mental health lags behind new reality
Law enforcement’s readiness to handle mental health situations has come under scrutiny since October, when a Bowdoin man killed 18 people in Lewiston in the worst mass shooting in Maine history, and the disclosure that the Sagadahoc County sheriff’s office was warned twice about the shooter’s declining mental state.
How we investigated mental welfare checks in Maine
Documents released after the Oct. 25 mass shootings in Lewiston that left 18 dead and 13 injured revealed a scattered response by Maine law enforcement and Army officials to warning signs, weeks and months beforehand.
Maine police lack direction for how to conduct welfare checks
On the afternoon of Sept. 15, Ellsworth Police Corporal Kelvin Mote sent an email to the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office requesting the agency conduct a “well-being check” on a Bowdoin man named Robert Card. At 2 a.m. the night before, a “Sargeant Hodgson” texted Mote, who was also Card’s superior in the Army Reserve, saying he was worried about his friend.
How Maine rewards cutting down emissions and wastewater
To Clinton tax assessor Garnett Robinson, any industry making money from its real estate or property should pay its entire share in taxes to the municipality it’s based in. Otherwise, Robinson says, the burden falls on individual taxpayers to fund the public services that businesses use.
$1.6 million on the line in dispute over nuclear waste facility
The town of Wiscasset looks set to go to court over a Maine Department of Environmental Protection decision to give tax breaks to a facility that stores spent nuclear fuel from the decommissioned Maine Yankee power plant. The exemption, which has been in place for decades, is intended to incentivize companies to install “pollution-control equipment,” but threatens to cost Wiscasset $1.6 million in annual revenue, almost one-fifth of its budget.
Mills ready to hear proposals to further gun safety
The deadly shooting in Lewiston turned attention to the gun policy positions of Gov. Janet Mills, who has opposed bans on assault-style rifles but backed other gun safety measures in a state with a deep hunting and gun rights culture. Mills’ views will heavily influence the viability of any gun control bills as safety activists and legislators consider reform before the legislature reconvenes in January.
Ellsworth Police officer notified of Robert Card’s threats in mid-September
An Ellsworth police officer was one of several law enforcement officials notified of the Lewiston mass shooting suspect’s threats of violence in the months before he killed 18 people and injured 13 more at a bar and bowling alley last Wednesday. Ellsworth police chief Glenn Moshier told The Maine Monitor on Tuesday one of his officers served as shooting suspect Robert Card’s superior in the same military training unit.
Vast rural expanse complicates search for Lewiston suspect
It takes about 13 minutes to drive from Schemengees Bar and Grille in Lewiston to the Papermill Trail/Miller Park boat launch in Lisbon. The fastest way is along Route 196, leaving the area locals call Lincoln Street Flats, cutting southeast across the city, past businesses, homes and places of worship and into neighboring Lisbon where the road crosses the Androscoggin River. The tree-lined streets look quintessentially New England this time of year with the leaves’ red-orange hues.
A city, and a state, in shock
With residents under a shelter-in-place order, the streets of Lewiston were mostly empty for much of Thursday, but for a heavy media presence and scores of local, state and federal officials gathered at City Hall in the morning. In the wake of shootings that left at least 18 dead in Maine’s second largest city, local residents and officials expressed shock that the nation’s epidemic of mass shootings had come to their community and grappled to make sense of the past day’s events.
What to know about Maine's ‘right to repair’ ballot question
A citizen initiative on Maine’s November ballot brings the state into a national “right to repair” movement that backers say helps give consumers more control over how and who can fix the products they buy. Proponents say “right to repair” legislation levels the playing field and allows buyers more options in how they fix their products by allowing consumers the same ability to maintain their products as the manufacturers that make them.
Long-excluded tribal section of Maine constitution may be re-added
Hidden beneath the murky phrasing of Question 6 on the Nov. 7 ballot is an amendment that would reintroduce language, long out of print from Maine’s constitution, honoring the state’s historical obligations to tribal nations. Section 5, Article X of the constitution was taken out of circulation by a statewide vote in 1875 and hasn’t appeared in copies since 1876. The section has remained in “full force” legally, however, and is available on the state legislature’s website, though omitted elsewhere.
Walgreens fined for violating closure requirements
Walgreens has been fined $10,500 by the state because two of its Washington County pharmacies closed without notification, as regulators continue cracking down on unreported closures and the chain begins to shutter other locations in Maine and around the nation.
Rumford Police takes to Facebook to answer criticisms
Disappointed by the judicial outcomes of his department’s criminal cases, Rumford Police Chief Tony Milligan turned to social media last month to provide a window into the frustrations he and his officers faced. Cases were getting dismissed, and questions from residents mounted. They asked why Milligan’s department wasn’t doing more to stymie increases in crime and the burgeoning effects of the opioid epidemic.
Opioid crisis hits hard in River Valley communities
Frustrations boiled over for River Valley residents at a town hall meeting in Mexico on Friday night as they shared harrowing details of how substance use, homelessness and crime in the community has affected their lives. Some attendees shared their own personal stories of recovery from drug or alcohol use; while others described the deep pains of losing family members and loved ones from a fatal overdose.
Storms muddy future for ATV enthusiasts Original
After a summer of frequent downpours and intense flooding, state officials and some of Maine’s hardest-hit ATV clubs are wondering how they will restore their rain-battered trails for next year and the years to come. Their concerns arise from the hefty price of trail maintenance projects and the waning ATV club volunteerism that groups rely on to keep their trail systems safe and functional.
Forestry companies granted state funds despite environmental violations
Two forestry companies that were announced as recipients for hundreds of thousands of dollars in state grant money last December were issued environmental violations at their Maine facilities over the past several years. One of the companies, ND Paper Inc., had a $101,400 state penalty finalized in late August for chemical spills at its Old Town mill in 2020 and 2022.
Three Maine companies hit with environmental penalties
State and federal environmental regulators have issued fines against three prominent Maine companies, settling separate cases involving potentially damaging chemicals used in their production operations. A state penalty of $101,400 was approved against ND Paper in Old Town through an administrative consent agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection.
Lamoine approves temporary pause on “glampground” application
Lamoine became the latest Maine town to pause a big development, putting a temporary halt on proposed luxury “glampground” less than 10 miles from Acadia National Park. Voters at a special town meeting on Tuesday overwhelmingly supported a moratorium ordinance that halts Lamoine’s issuance of permits and application approvals for glampgrounds, hotels, motels and other resorts for the next 180 days.
Sumner couple left behind trail of mismanagement, report says
An investigation into the Sumner Fire Department found it was “mismanaged and unprofessional,” with few spending guidelines, outdated inspections and incomplete training. The husband and wife duo of Robert Stewart, former Sumner fire chief, and Kelly Stewart, former Sumner selectperson and fire safety officer, were arrested last week and accused of stealing up to $15,000 from the department, according to the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office.
Wilton opposes western Maine wildlife refuge, Carrabassett Valley abstains
A third Franklin County town signed on this week to a letter to Maine’s congressional delegation opposing a national wildlife refuge in the western Maine mountains, while a separate town abstained from a commitment. The Wilton Board of Selectpersons unanimously approved the letter Tuesday and the Carrabassett Valley Select Board decided not to take a stance after a discussion with a federal official and an opposition member.
Road to a popular Western Maine hiking spot falls into a jurisdictional limbo
After a torrent of late-June rain, the road to the popular Tumbledown Mountain hiking destination has taken on the rough look of a mountain trail — not a paved road meant for cars and trucks. Water washed out the pavement on the road’s edges and exposed chunks of loose rock, another portion in the road’s center buckled and cracked under the water’s pressure, and land around its culverts slipped into the brook they feed.
Maine detective sues SIG Sauer, alleges pistol unintentionally discharged
A Somerset County sheriff’s deputy is suing gun manufacturer SIG Sauer, claiming his holstered SIG Sauer pistol fired into his leg without him touching the trigger, causing serious injuries. The lawsuit filed by Detective David A. Cole in Somerset County Superior Court alleges the New Hampshire-based gun manufacturer designed a defective firearm and negligently marketed it without warning customers of its flaws.
State planners grappling with short-term rentals consider new regulations
Maine’s largest land use authority wrapped up a series of summer meetings Wednesday as it considers how to regulate short-term rentals across its over 10.4 million-acre expanse for the first time. Staff members for the Land Use Planning Commission entered a string of community meetings in June with rule recommendations that would fall well short of more stringent regulations passed elsewhere in the state.
Lamoine considers moratorium ordinance to temporarily block “glamping” project
Lamoine voters are likely to consider a six-month development moratorium at an Aug. 15 town meeting following months of resident opposition to a proposal for a luxury campground roughly eight miles from Acadia National Park. A petition sparking the moratorium was brought about by a local nonprofit, Growing Lamoine Responsibly, which sprouted in May in response to a “glampground” proposal from Clear Sky Resorts.
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