NRCM Blog

Weathering the Storm and a Dip in the Icy Atlantic

Having survived (can I say “enjoyed?”) NRCM’s New Year’s Eve day Polar Bear Dip & Dash and welcoming in the New Year with a sunrise walk with the dog through the Spurwink Marsh, I feel like I am entering 2012 with a good reserve of energy and optimism. Looks like we will all need lots of both. Before I go further, let me thank all those runners and dippers who joined us for the Dip and Dash (that's me in the middle, with NRCM Board Treasurer Chris Bond and Executive Director Lisa Pohlmann). Record numbers and lots of enthusiasm—put it on your calendar for December 31, 2012, bring an old pair of sneakers, and the rest is easy.

No sooner had I submitted a letter-to-the-editor of the Portland Press Herald praising the EPA and our Congressional delegation for finally enacting strong controls on mercury than our governor’s administration garners front-page attention by stating it costs $6,000 to keep a pound of mercury out of our environment. This mercury, if not reclaimed, could end up in our land, or water, or head to be burned in an incinerator and become airborne.

Our long-standing commitment to the North Woods faces another key test January 10th when the Superior Court hears oral arguments on our Plum Creek appeal. Remember, we appealed the initial LURC decision based on two key areas. First, was the issue of “paid mitigation,” an oxymoron if there ever was one. Plum Creek was reimbursed for conservation that they were required to provide to offset the damage that would result if the company’s  massive Moosehead development becomes reality. Second was the impropriety of LURC commissioners voting to approve Plum Creek’s revamped development application without proper and required public input. We won our appeal, and this most recent court appearance is the appeal of that decision. Our attorney, Russ Pierce, has done great work throughout this process and will be representing us.

I’d like to end with a sincere thanks to you all for your loyalty to and generous financial support of NRCM. You have helped us weather the “perfect storm” of challenges, continued economic recession, a transition at the senior leadership position, and a hostile state administration and Legislature. To have faced those challenges and emerged in our current strong position is really a testament to your commitment to protecting the nature of the state we love. Full speed ahead.

Tony Owens, MD
NRCM Board President

Mean Mr. Grinch Thwarted this Holiday Season

On a recent blustery winter day, I found myself skulking and slinking around Portland’s Monument Square dressed as Dr. Seuss’ the Grinch. Sporting a three-piece, pinstriped suit and hauling bags of dirty coal over my shoulder, I spread holiday fear wherever I went. But why, you ask? I have never considered myself a Grinch by any means, especially during the holiday season. I love all that this time of year offers, especially here in Maine. I enjoy the powdery snow that blankets our rolling hills, skating on frozen ponds, and breathing the crisp, clean air. So why the Grinch outfit, you ask?

I was acting in a fun street theater performance co-sponsored by NRCM applauding new standards that will clean up Maine’s air! Thanks to new standards issued by the EPA regulating air emission of mercury, arsenic, nickel, selenium, and cyanide from the nation’s dirtiest power plants, Mainers can all breathe a bit easier this holiday season! The new Mercury and Air Toxics Standard will slash domestic mercury air emissions by 90 percent by requiring all power plants to utilize existing pollution abatement technology.

To raise awareness about this important new public health safeguard, we pitted the Grinch (think dirty coal-fired power plants) against Santa Claus (think EPA) in a street theater performance. As Santa stuffed Maine’s Christmas stocking with presents representing clean air, safe children, and healthy wildlife, the Grinch tried to put dirty coal in Maine’s stocking. Thanks to the EPA’s new rules, I think we all know how that turned out.

The EPA estimates that the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard will prevent 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks a year in the United States. The standards will also help America’s children grow up healthier – preventing 130,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms. This is especially good news for Maine which is downwind from so many coal-fired power plants and has one of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country. This is why Maine has been dubbed the “tailpipe state” of the nation.

Power plants are responsible for half of the mercury and over 75 percent of the acid gas emissions in the United States.  Today, more than half of all domestic coal-fired power plants already utilize pollution control technologies. Once implemented, these new standards will ensure the remaining plants – about 40 percent of all domestic coal-fired power plants - take similar steps to clean up their act. This will save lives, prevent diseases, protect our children’s healthy, and reduce mercury pollution in our lakes, rivers, and streams.

NRCM is pleased that the Obama administration made good on its promise for clean, healthy air this holiday season. We urge Maine Senators Snowe and Collins not to be Grinches and to protect the health of Maine families by voting against all efforts to delay air pollution rules in Congress.

-Todd Martin, NRCM Outreach Coordinator

Speaking Out to Protect Children's Health

I just came back from a press event where I got to speak alongside physicians, small business owners, public health advocates, concerned parents and their children, and legislators in support of Maine’s chemical safety laws. We worked with our friends in the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine to hold the event to celebrate and defend the Kid-Safe Products Law and Maine’s other chemical safety laws.  

Maine’s Kid-Safe Products Law helps parents protect their kids by convening a scientific process to identify and phase out the “worst-of-the-worst” toxic chemicals in products we use every day. It offers common sense solutions to reduce the heavy burden of costly chronic disease that affects every family, school district, and business in Maine – preventable diseases linked to toxic chemicals like learning disabilities, lead poisoning, asthma and cancer. 

We had originally convened the press event as a way to celebrate these laws and thank legislators who had sponsored and voted for them. Unfortunately, Governor LePage proposed repealing the Kid-Safe Products Law and others earlier this week in the Phase I Regulatory Reform Proposal. 

Representative Dana Dow (R-Waldoboro) delivered powerful remarks in support of the law he co-sponsored and helped to pass with overwhelming bipartisan support (35-0 in the Senate and 129-9 in the House) when he served in the Senate in 2008.  Emily Cain (D-Orono and House Democratic Leader) also spoke eloquently about how protecting kids from toxic chemicals is “just common sense.”  We couldn’t agree more, and hope that the Governor can be persuaded to drop this part of his agenda.  Please make your voice heard on these matters by contacting your legislators here: http://www.nrcm.org/stop_environmental_rollbacks.asp

Here's my statement from today's event: 

I am pleased to stand here today with legislators, business people, physicians, and concerned parents to celebrate the progress made to protect Maine families from toxic chemicals. We’re here today to say: Maine’s safer chemical laws are working. They offer common sense solutions to reducing the heavy burden of costly chronic disease that affects every family and business in Maine - diseases that are almost entirely preventable. 

At least $380 million is spent every year in Maine on health costs related to toxic chemicals, including learning disabilities, cancer, asthma, and lead poisoning. We’re shocked that the Governor has chosen to target these laws and the rule that will get bisphenol-A out of baby bottles and sippy cups, something that 10 other states comprising more than half of the nation’s population have already done - a recommendation that was approved unanimously by the Board of Environmental Protection after they looked exhaustively at the scientific basis for why is it critical to phase out the use of this endocrine disrupting chemical from our reusable food and beverage containers. 

We believe the administration’s proposal takes us in exactly the wrong direction.  We need lawmakers to focus on keeping the Kid-Safe Products Act working as it was intended – helping parents protect their kids by getting the worst-of-the-worst chemicals out of products we all use every day. Children should be safe at school too. We need lawmakers to make sure kids aren’t exposed to pesticides on school grounds. And we need to help our communities get more dangerous chemicals out of our landfills and our ground water by creating more public/private partnerships that encourage recycling. These are the types of things lawmakers could and should be focused on, not doing the industry’s bidding by rolling back solutions that protect kids and support our small businesses.

The public supports these laws; legislators support these laws; the only group that doesn’t want these laws is the chemical industry.  We’re surprised and concerned that the Governor seems to be putting the desires of an out-of-state industry over the needs of Maine families and small businesses. We’re also dismayed that the Governor seems to think the federal government’s ‘bare minimums’ are good enough for Maine.  Congress hasn’t updated our federal chemical laws in over 30 years, despite mountains of new science that proves harm beyond doubt. 

Let’s face it, no jobs are going to be created by making children more vulnerable to disease. But by moving forward with more collaborative common sense solutions to the problem of toxic chemicals, we CAN create new jobs in innovation, manufacturing, and product recycling.

Our recognition and thanks go to the 164 Maine lawmakers who voted for the Kid-Safe Products Act in 2008, including the 74 who are currently serving in the 125th Legislature.  We appreciate your leadership and we look forward to working with you to keep Maine moving forward with safer chemicals, healthy families, and lower costs for everyone.

Thank you.

Matt Prindiville
Clean Production Project Director, Legislative Coordinator

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"Haul-o-well" - new trash reduction pilot project in place

Hallowell, where I live, does not have municipal trash removal—each household has to contract with a trash hauler on its own to get curbside pick-up.  Riverside Disposal of Chelsea, my hauler, is offering a pilot project in which they will cut the customer’s weekly fee if you can get down to a single, 10 lb. bag of trash per week. They will recycle the rest, which they’ve broken down into two categories: containers and paper. They pick up one category per week, alternating from one to the other. 

They are also providing food composting buckets to customers.  We already compost, but the 5-gallon plastic bucket (for short-term storage inside the house) has been a great improvement for us.

My household is enthusiastically taking part, with 20 or 30 other customers.  After we signed up for the pilot project, they monitored our trash for a couple of weeks and told us that we had 36 lbs per week!  If that is truly average, that equals over 1,800 lbs a year—almost a ton for our three-person, two-cat operation.  So just knowing that was an eye-opener. We have two cats and a toddler, so diapers and kitty litter will probably make it very difficult to get down to 10 lbs., at least for a while.  We change the kitty litter once a week (in theory); I reckon that is 10 lbs. right there.  We may switch back to a scoopable litter; Riverside suggests one called Swheat Scoop.  Any other ideas out there?

It’s interesting that Riverside is doing this by weight, not by volume.  Some towns do pay-per-bag municipal trash pick-up (the residents must pay for bags) that are based on volume, at least nominally—though once the trucks get to the landfill the issue is weight. We are recycling a lot more plastic now, but it doesn’t weigh that much. Kitty litter, food and diapers seem to account for most of the weight.

But even recycling more stuff is kind of a “tailpipe” strategy. As I pondered our trash last weekend, I thought, “Reduce, re-use, recycle.” There’s a reason the words are in that order.  Start by reducing what you buy or bring in to your house. Think about the packaging of the products you buy, especially food, and favor items whose packaging is easier to re-use or recycle. Lastly, think about what you can re-use before tossing it into a bin.

There are more subtle strategies you can use.  We will move our recycling bins closer to the kitchen, the center of a lot of activity, and move the trash barrel further away.  (We also moved the paper towel roll far away from the sink, where they were always close at hand when I “needed” one.  I know we shouldn’t be using paper towels at all, blah blah blah...So sue me.)

I don’t think it’s much of a direct savings for the customer: Riverside already picks up recycling at no additional cost, as mandated by the city of Hallowell, and the price break is not big. But it’s a great program anyway.

As I mentioned, we’re already recycling our food waste in a composter in our vegetable garden—a good way to cut down on garbage volume.  The Maine Resource Recovery Association is offering low-cost composters to communities that sign up. You have to contact your town to see if it is taking part.   The city of Gardiner is:  http://www.kjonline.com/news/gardinercity-offering_green_-products_2010-05-06.html

And of course, the Natural Resources Council of Maine has been working for years, with great results, to keep toxic items out of the waste stream:  mercury-containing products and electronics, most notably. Governor Baldacci signed a landmark bill in March that makes “extended producer responsibility” part of Maine law: http://www.nrcm.org/news_detail.asp?news=3546

How is your city dealing with your garbage? Send us your trash tales!

-Mathew Scease

Another first-in-the-nation law for Maine! CFL recycling bill passed

NRCM just achieved a big legislative victory with passage of a sweeping, first-in-the-nation bill to collect and recycle light bulbs that contain mercury (compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs).  Building off the success of Maine’s landmark electronic waste law, the new CFL bill directs light bulb manufacturers to share the costs and responsibility of recycling mercury-containing light bulbs.  The bill’s passage will set a national precedent for other states to follow. 

At one point during the legislative process, the bill appeared to be headed for a bitter partisan fight – with Democrats at the Natural Resources Committee supporting and Republicans opposed.  That was not the outcome we were looking for, so we redoubled our efforts to talk with every Republican with the goal of building bi-partisan support.

That is when lobbyists representing the manufacturers expanded their ranks and pushed hard for a weakening amendment that would have completely gutted the bill and absolved manufacturers of all responsibility to collect the mercury.  We worked with our friends in the retail community to get letters of opposition to the amendment.  The manufacturers backed down off their amendment strategy, and focused instead on spreading false information about the bill – with the hope of delaying action until next year, so that “more studies” could be done.  In other words:  study the issue to death. 

As the bill was about to head for a final vote, we knew it was make or break time, so we called in reinforcements: Sierra Fletcher from the Product Stewardship Institute, who co-chaired the national stakeholder group on mercury lamps recycling, and Michael Bender, from the Mercury Policy Project and chair of the Multi-state Mercury Campaign.  Michael and Sierra drove up the morning before the committee vote, and we talked with swing committee members right up to the vote.  We prepared documents the night before showing that the manufacturers have been pushing for delay and studies, studies and delay, around the country.  “Anything but action,” has been their refrain.

The vote was taken, and we won with 12-1 vote out of committee, leading to a 130-13 victory in the house, and a near unanimous vote in the Senate.   

We’re very excited about this victory.  The Governor will hold a bill signing of the legislation next week – sending a clear message nationally - and globally - that a new day is dawning for total life cycle management and shared responsibility - from ‘the cradle to the grave’ for products containing mercury and other hazardous substances.  This new law also sends a message to manufacturers that they need to assume their share of responsibility to reduce and wherever possible eliminate the toxicity of their products, and also to alleviate the increasing waste management cost burden on local governments.  

We need to keep mercury and other hazardous materials in products out of the environment.  This bill contributes to that goal.

NRCM appreciates the work of all the legislators who contributed to this victory, especially the bill’s sponsor, Representative Seth Berry from Bowdoinham, the lead co-sponsor, Senator Kevin Raye from Perry, and the two committee chairs, Representative Bob Duchesne and Senator Seth Goodall.  They helped craft the final language that won overwhelming support in both Houses. 

-Matt Prindiville, Toxics Project Director