Teen’s air quality bill becomes law

AUGUSTA – Jenna Shue of Hampden stood alongside the governor Friday and watched as two years of her hard work became law in the space of about five seconds.

Her brief visit with Gov. John Baldacci worked out just fine, because the Hampden Academy junior had to get back to class.

Shue, 16, initiated LD 1408, a bill that requires the state Department of Environmental Protection to provide data on hazardous emissions from the state’s four waste-incinerating facilities.

Curious about the plumes of smoke she saw rising across the Penobscot River from the Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. in Orrington, Shue two years ago began doing research on air emissions, which ultimately led Friday to the governor’s signing of LD 1408.

“It felt really good,” Shue said Friday outside Baldacci’s office. “It was a really good experience.”

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Kaelin, R-Winterport, does not impose new air testing requirements but instead directs the state DEP to share test results already routinely performed at waste-incinerating facilities.

“They should be under the microscope,” Kaelin said Friday at the State House.

The state’s four waste-incinerating facilities are PERC in Orrington, Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp. of Auburn, Portland Regional Waste Systems, and Maine Energy Recovery Co. of Biddeford.

The information will be provided to the Air Toxics Advisory Committee, a group formed through the DEP’s Maine Air Toxics Initiative.

The initiative was developed in 2003 after the federal Environmental Protection Agency deemed toxic air levels in Maine unacceptable.

The bill also calls for the creation of a subcommittee to review the emissions data and subsequently to determine whether additional air monitoring is necessary.

Though she initially faced resistance from waste industry representatives worried that the bill required costly additional testing, Shue said she now feels the legislation was fairly well-received.

“Money’s a big issue here,” she said of her experience with Augusta politics.

“They said it was going to cost a lot of money, but it wasn’t,” Shue added later.

The goal of her work is to better identify potential health hazards from toxic emissions, Shue said. Her interest in the issue was piqued after she conducted interviews with people living near the Orrington PERC facility.

“Some people complained about how they got asthma when they moved here,” the student said.

As the culmination of years of work, Shue has been appointed to the Air Toxics Advisory Committee and its subcommittee, which will start up in September. The teenager said she didn’t know how often she would have to make the trip to Augusta.

Shue said she learned a lot about the legislative process – including how to sit through a five-hour public hearing when one is second to last on the agenda and have a softball game to get to.

Her plans will shift next to the health effects of another environmental issue, she said.

“Global warming interests me,” Shue said.