DEP hopes bond will aid cleanup

On Nov. 5, voters will be asked to approve a $24.1 million bond aimed in large part at continuing the cleanup of Maine’s environment.

This isn’t the state’s first environmental bond covering a number of small projects, nor will it be the last, said Bill Brown of the DEP Bureau of Land and Water Quality.

“The correction of the environmental problems we have is going to stay with us year-in and year-out,” he said.

The Department of Environmental Protection would receive $10.5 million, with the majority going to water quality projects, Brown said.

Of that amount, $7 million would make Maine eligible for $12.5 million in federal funds for pollution-reducing construction projects, including new water treatment facilities in Corinna and Vinalhaven.

“We really need that money,” Brown said, adding that the plants would not be built this year if the bond fails.

Smaller chunks of the bond money would go to communities and homeowners for replacing failing septic systems, treating wastewater, and providing alternatives to discharging waste into lakes and the ocean, Brown said.

Past funding of these programs has resulted in the opening of more than 14,000 acres of once-polluted shellfish habitat, he said.

Some projects, like the revolving loan fund that helps communities replace their aging water treatment plants, have been continuing for 20 years, sustained by Mainers’ tradition of supporting environmental work with bond issues.

The bond also includes funds to help stop water pollution at its source, with $3.5 million marked for such DEP projects as encouraging recycling and keeping hazardous waste out of landfills.

The Department of Agriculture would receive $1.5 million for reducing water pollution from farmland and promoting water conservation.

“These nonpoint pollution sources are some of the hardest to fix,” Brown said.

The bond’s largest portion for a single project, $7 million, would go to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, to add water pollution controls for its 30-year-old fish hatchery system.

“Our technology is 1950s technology,” said Steve Wilson, superintendent of fish hatcheries for DIF&W. “We’re chipping away at things as best we can, but for the big stuff, we need the big money,” Wilson said.

The fisheries bond money would also be used to begin a massive effort to double the production of game fish by Maine’s nine hatcheries.

The project is being supported by sportsman’s groups, as well as legislators who want to increase Maine’s portion of the multimillion-dollar fishing tourism industry.

“Our hatchery sites are just as important to the state of Maine as Baxter State Park,” Wilson said.

The following projects are also included in Question 2;

$500,000 for the Potato Marketing Improvement Fund, money which will be available for farmers to improve their storage systems.

$2.3 million, to match $1.6 million in federal funds to complete an Internet-based library of geographic information about Maine. The state has been working on digitizing maps for the past decade, said Dan Walters, from the Maine Office of GIS. Most of the money would be distributed to local communities for digitizing their local zoning maps and standards to add to the library, he said.

$500,000 for the Bureau of Public Land’s dam repair and reconstruction fund.