On Nov. 4, voters will be asked to approve a drastically scaled-down health and environment bond totaling about $6.9 million.

If approved, the bond would bring in $14 million in federal matching funds.

The yearly environment bond is one of the most consistently popular ballot items, and state programs that serve Maine communities have become reliant on the annual boost.

The 2003 health and environment bond request was initially twice as high, but legislators facing competing proposals for transportation and education projects approved only the smaller package.

Other projects simply won’t be funded this year.

Only once in Maine’s history have voters rejected an environmental bond. In 1991, at the height of the recession, water quality and landfill closing bonds were among the many bonds rejected by voters.

Since the first pollution abatement bond in 1964, Maine voters have approved more than $450 million in bonds to improve Maine’s air and water quality – with many of the annual requests exceeding $10 million or even $20 million.

Given a statewide budget shortage expected to keep departmental belts tight for the next few years, this year’s approval is crucial, several environmental managers said.

If this year’s bond is approved, the Department of Environmental Protection will receive $2 million, plus $10 million in federal matching funds, to be distributed among communities statewide through a revolving loan fund to help build and upgrade water pollution control facilities.

Ongoing projects – like effort in Bangor and Brewer to contain the rainwater that can overwhelm municipal sewage systems and pollute the Penobscot River during storms – rely on the low-interest loans to protect the environment and public health.

If the bond passes, communities and homeowners would benefit from $2.5 million in grants to help address sewer treatment problems that are degrading water quality.

Hundreds of communities have benefited from the grant and loan funds approved in past bonds. In recent years, coastal projects to reduce ocean-polluting sewage have resulted in the reopening of more than 15,000 acres of clam flats in 80 towns, according to DEP.

Over the next few years, the department expects to receive requests for $250 million in projects from the various water quality programs, mostly from towns struggling with sewer systems that are 25 or 30 years old.

This year alone, the department expects to distribute $40 million in grants and loans, said Andrew Fisk, director of the Bureau of Land and Water Quality.

“The need is out there. Their treatment plants are falling down and they need help,” said Steve McLaughlin of the DEP. “Hopefully, we can make a case that poor communities shouldn’t be left behind.”

The state’s efforts to clean up hazardous waste sites, some of which are listed in the federal Superfund program, would also receive a half-million dollars from a successful bond. Most of the projects that are expected to be funded this year are ongoing cleanups, including the Eastland Woolen Mill in Corinna and the sludge lagoons at Waterville Industries.

Last year the state spent about $20 million on cleanup and testing projects, said Hank Aho, acting director of the Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management.

And with federal support for the Superfund program waning, states are taking on more and more of the large hazardous waste sites. Decades-old pollution problems are being discovered all the time, and often, the companies responsible for the mess have long since gone out of business, leaving the state to take responsibility.

“As time goes on, we’re getting into some of the older problem sites,” Aho said.

The environment bond includes another $1.2 million that would bring in $4.14 million in federal matching funds for the Department of Human Services’ Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund.

The 6-year-old program has provided $65 million in grants and loans to towns that need to improve their drinking water by digging wells, replacing pipes or renovating their treatment facilities, said Nancy Beardsley, director of the Maine Drinking Water Program.

Without the bond, the state will lose much-needed federal funds, she said.

“There really is a desperate need for some of these water systems,” Beardsley said. “Every year, we have more projects than we have money.”

The Department of Agriculture is slated to receive the final $750,000 from the bond. In 2002, the state created a fund to provide farmers with grants to help them dig wells and build farm ponds so that they could irrigate their crops without draining local lakes and rivers.

The program was developed during a period of drought, partially in response to conflicts between blueberry farmers and advocates for the endangered Atlantic salmon over the use of water in Down East rivers.

Since its creation, the program has funded 56 projects, protecting about 2,800 acres of farmland and $8.7 million in crops each year. This year’s bond money could fund as many as 50 additional projects.

Grant recipients have been scattered the length and breadth of the state, said Deputy Commissioner Ned Porter.

“They’ve ranged from big blueberry operations to a small organic truck farmer,” he said. “It’s the whole spectrum.”

Question 4

Bond Issue)

“Do you favor a $6,950,000 bond issue for the following purposes:

The sum of $2,000,000 to construct and upgrade water pollution control facilities, providing the state match for $10,000,000 in federal funds;

The sum of $1,500,000 to provide grants to construct water pollution control facilities;

The sum of $500,000 to clean up uncontrolled hazardous substance sites;

The sum of $500,000 for the small community grant program to provide grants to rural communities to solve local pollution problems;

The sum of $500,000 for the overboard discharge removal program to provide grants to municipalities and individuals to eliminate licensed overboard discharges to shellfish areas, great ponds and drainage areas of less than 10 square miles;

The sum of $1,200,000 to support drinking water system improvements that address public health threats, providing the state match for $4,140,000 in federal funds; and,

The sum of $750,000 to construct environmentally sound water sources that help avoid drought damage to crops?