The ballot description of Question 2 is so long that it cannot be printed in its entirety here. The $24.1 million bond covers needed environmental and agricultural improvements with an Internet proposal tossed in to help municipalities with geographic data. Individually, the 14 proposals are worth supporting, so voters should be asked to overlook the extensive assemblage of requests and vote yes on this package

Among the largest parts of the bond is $7 million for water-pollution control – money for the state revolving loan fund to improve treatment plants, money for municipalities where there is an immediate need, a small-grants program and grants to help remove licensed discharges of treated wastewater from high-priority shellfish areas. Maine has passed this sort of bond, which is matched by federal dollars, many times before because it is a sensible way to fund long-term capital-intense projects that benefit generations of residents.

A second major portion of the bond will go toward improving the state’s fish hatcheries, which have become increasingly important because of the rapidly growing demand for improved fishing throughout Maine. Biologists at the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife estimate 500,000 more fish are needed to meet demand from fishermen now and double that over the next decade. The bond money funds the first phase of a project expected to last a dozen or more years, initially spending $7 million to upgrade waste discharge and water treatment at facilities in Embden, Casco, Palmero and Enfield and renovate the fish production units at the Embden facility.

The long list of other items on Question 2 include $1.8 million for upgrades to drinking-water systems; $1.5 million to collect household hazardous waste and public recycling; $1 million to remove and replace failing septic systems; $1 million for landfills; $500,000 for cleaning up tire stockpiles and $500,000 for public dam repair, among others. A new spending line on the list would provide $2.3 million to buy the technology and services for an Internet-based Maine public library of geographic data. The hope is that this will improve citizens’ access to this public data and allow municipalities to automate its zoning standards.

The money requested through this bond, if history is a guide, will be well spent. Voters have approved bond issues year after year to allow the state, mostly through the Department of Environmental Protection, to reimburse communities for landfill closure and repair, to upgrade water-treatment systems and to finally get rid of those tire piles, which are now chipped and used for filler for highway beds, among other uses. It is unexciting but necessary work that has become a permanent part of Maine’s bonding process and is likely to remain so for the long-term. The fact that the water-treatment money would be matched with millions in federal dollars is an added incentive.