$24.1M environmental bond passing

With 81 percent of the vote tallied, a $24.1 million environmental bond was passing by a comfortable margin early Wednesday morning. Just under 60 percent of voters expressed their approval.

Question 2 was winning by an overwhelming margin in southern Maine. In more easterly, rural areas, however, the vote was closer, with voters in Hancock, Waldo, Piscataquis and Washington counties defeating the measure

In a statewide exit poll of about 2,200 voters earlier in the day, 67 percent indicated they had voted in favor of Question 2, while 33 percent said they had opposed it. NewsInMe.com, a Portland-based Internet news service, surveyed voters in 65 communities.

Voters said they were for the measure despite the fact it contained a laundry list of unrelated projects.

“On the whole, there were more things that I wanted than I didn’t want – a lot of that cleaning up and fixing stuff,” Richard Coleman said at the polls Tuesday afternoon.

The Bangor voter said that he almost didn’t support the bond because of its scope.

“It’s kind of sneaky when they lump it all in together,” Coleman said.

Question 2 included 14 different funding categories, many of which will add money to state grant programs. The bond’s passage also would make Maine eligible for about $20 million in federal funds.

While the bond totals more than $24 million, no one community or facility would receive more than a few hundred thousand dollars.

The largest chunk of bond money, $7 million, is dedicated to improving the state’s game fish hatcheries. Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife operates nine hatcheries to raise more than a million trout and salmon each year.

The newest of Maine’s hatcheries was built in 1959, and the aging facilities no longer meet state water-quality standards. Infrastructure improvements must be made regardless of whether the bond passes, said Steven Wilson, a biologist who serves as superintendent of DIF&W’s hatchery system.

A portion of the hatcheries bond money likely would also be used to begin a 20-year, $30 million project to double production to a half-million pounds of fish annually. The Embden hatchery, where production could be quadrupled with the investment of a few million dollars, is first on the department’s list, Wilson said.

Recreational fishing already contributes $292 million to the state’s economy, and could become a larger economic force with state investment, said sportsmen who have pushed for the funding.

Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection will receive about $9 million of the total bond for a variety of projects, with most of the money directed toward water quality improvement, said Bill Brown of the department’s Bureau of Land and Water Quality.

A portion of the money would boost the DEP’s 20-year-old revolving-loan fund, which makes sewer treatment improvement grants to communities. Question 2 would bring new sewer treatment projects to fruition in Corinna and Vinalhaven.

Other DEP projects include cleaning up tire stockpiles, hazardous waste and aging landfills, as well as reducing the discharge of pollution into the ocean. In total, the DEP projects supported by the bond will make Maine eligible for $12.5 million in federal funding.

Many voters cited these small but necessary projects as their reason for supporting the bond.

“We need all the protection of the environment that we can get,” Jason Carlisle of Bangor said Tuesday afternoon.

The environment bond also supports a long list of smaller projects scattered among various state departments:

. $1.8 million for the Department of Human Services for drinking water system improvements, which would make the state eligible for $6 million in federal funds.

. $2.3 million for digitizing state and local geographic information and zoning maps, which will make the state eligible for $1.6 million in federal funds.

. $500,000 for repairs and improvements to dams and locks owned by the Bureau of Public Lands.

. $1.5 million to the State Planning Office to encourage public recycling with community grants.

. $2 million to the Department of Agriculture to help farmers meet environmental requirements for pollution control, water use and potato storage.