Maine
1,600 gallons of forever chemicals released in Maine
![1,600 gallons of forever chemicals released in Maine 1,600 gallons of forever chemicals released in Maine](https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/2454112/brunswick-executive-airport.jpg)
Following a malfunctioning fire suppression system at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station in Maine on Monday, approximately 1,600 gallons of “forever chemicals” were released.
According to officials from the Maine Regional Redevelopment Authority (MRRA) and the Brunswick Executive Airport, the incident occurred in Hangar 4, where the automated system unexpectedly activated and set off a series of wall-mounted cannons of foam to be released. About 1,600 gallons of the firefighting foam, laced with hazardous per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), was released along with 60,000 gallons of water, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
PFAS are a class of chemicals that can be found in a range of everyday products, from toilet paper to food packaging, cosmetics and dental floss. Nicknamed “forever chemicals,” these compounds break down very slowly over time and stick around in the surrounding environment.
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The widespread nature of forever chemicals have been concerning as numerous studies have found associations between PFAS exposure and increased blood cholesterol and blood pressure, reduced immunity, reproductive issues and an increased risk of certain cancers, the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry reports.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
The Brunswick Naval Air Station, which officially closed in 2011, had mandated automated fire suppression systems in its large hangars.
According to WMTW, an ABC-affiliated station in Maine, the former Naval Air Station Brunswick is now called Brunswick Landing and is the site of the Brunswick Executive Airport.
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Brunswick Landing also :includes four flight schools, four educational institutions, more than 750 housing units, a technology business incubator and nearly 160 businesses that employ more than 2,500 people,” WMTW reported.
While the cause of the system’s failure is still under investigation, cleanup efforts are already underway as the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is overseeing the effort with Clean Harbors of South Portland deploying vacuum trucks, containment booms and tanks to mitigate the spill, the AP reported.
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“We take this situation very seriously and are committed to addressing the cleanup with the utmost urgency and transparency,” Kristine Logan, MRRA’s executive director told the AP.
Newsweek reached out to the Maine Regional Redevelopment Authority via email on Tuesday for comment.
The incident comes amid a broader concern regarding forever chemicals and possible groundwater contamination leading to health risks.
Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed new limits on these chemicals in drinking water. In addition, some fire departments began a shift away from PFAS-containing firefighting foams. This includes several fire departments in New Hampshire, where the state last week initiated a program to collect and safely dispose of such foams.
Meanwhile, a 2023 study by the U.S. Geological Survey found that about half of all U.S. tap water was found to contain some PFAS chemicals with New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania having the highest level of contamination.
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Maine
Maine commission set to release final report on Lewiston shootings – The Boston Globe
Robert R. Card II, 40, of Bowdoin, who spent about two decades in the Army Reserve, went on a rampage the night of Oct. 25, killing 18 people and wounding 13 others at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, and Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant in Lewiston.
For nearly two days, thousands stayed in their homes as law enforcement searched for Card; his body was found at a recycling center in Lisbon. Authorities later determined he died of a self-inflicted gunshot.
Card experienced a rapid decline in his mental health that began about a year before the shooting. His family, friends, and colleagues grew worried about his increasingly erratic behavior, anger, and paranoia.
In May 2023, Card’s teenage son and ex-wife alerted local police about Card, his anger about being called a pedophile, and that he had just picked up as many as 15 guns from his brother’s house. The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office passed along the warnings to Card’s Reserve unit, based in Saco, but did not make contact with him.
The following July, Card traveled to New York to join his unit to help train West Point cadets. Shortly after he arrived, he complained people were talking about him, and he tried to fight an Army colleague. Card’s commander, Captain Jeremy Reamer, ordered him to undergo an evaluation by a specialist at the Keller Army Community Hospital at West Point; an Army psychiatric nurse determined that Card showed signs of psychosis and paranoia and was unfit for duty.
The Army nurse recommended Card go to a civilian facility for a “higher level of care,” and Card went to the Four Winds psychiatric hospital in Katonah. While at Four Winds, Card showed symptoms of psychosis and “homicidal ideations” and told staff he had a “hit list,” according to an Army Reserve report on the shooting released last month.
Staff tried to have him involuntarily committed by a state court, but instead, Card’s Aug. 2, 2023, court date was canceled and he walked out of the facility the following day, according to the Reserve.
Staff at both the Army and civilian hospitals recommended that Card’s personal weapons be secured. Card wasn’t allowed access to military weapons while on duty, but Reamer has said he didn’t have the authority to seize Card’s personal weapons.
According to the Reserve’s report, administrative action has been taken against three officers in Card’s unit, though the report did not name them. The Reserve said Card’s chain of command failed to follow procedures, including related to his care after leaving Four Winds.
Despite warnings to police in Maine and New York and the Army Reserve, Card’s weapons were never secured by authorities, according to investigative reports released by the US Army Reserve last month and an interim report in March from the state commission.
Card was a grenade instructor in the Reserve. Researchers at Boston University who examined his brain tissue following the shooting found evidence of traumatic injury that could have been caused by blast injury. That brain damage could have also contributed to Card’s symptoms, according to the researchers.
The seven-member state commission was assembled by Governor Janet Mills just days after the shooting. Some of those affected directly by the massacre have told the Globe they want a full accounting of what went wrong, who bore responsibility for those failures, and a plan to prevent a future mass shooting.
“Too many people [were] passing the buck, and you got 18 people dead,” said Bobbi Nichols, who survived the gunfire at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, where her sister was killed. “I want to see transparency, I want to see accountability, I want to see something done so this doesn’t happen again.”
As the first anniversary of the shooting approaches, memorials to the victims still dot the landscape in Lewiston, including outside the bowling alley, which has reopened, and the restaurant, which remains closed.
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com. Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter.
Maine
Auburn’s new recycling plan calls for weekly pickup
![Auburn’s new recycling plan calls for weekly pickup Auburn’s new recycling plan calls for weekly pickup](https://www.sunjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2023/09/37317265_SJ.CITaubcouncil.09192301-1695161834.jpg?w=1024)
AUBURN — A new solid waste and recycling plan presented to the City Council on Monday calls for several robust changes to the city’s curbside programs, including weekly recycling pickup and providing wheeled, lidded containers.
Prior to a unanimous vote to accept the plan Monday, Mayor Jeff Harmon said the list of recommendations from the Sustainability and Natural Resources board will be reviewed during an upcoming workshop, giving councilors time to read the report and consult with constituents.
The committee process to look at Auburn’s solid waste plan, approved by the council in January, came after the previous City Council ended Auburn’s curbside recycling program last year. The decision resulted in months of debate over recycling, a beleaguered drop-off-only system and a new-look curbside program implemented late last year.
The city’s current recycling program accepts certain plastics, cardboard and mixed paper, but does not accept glass and metals. The committee’s report said the city should again accept all recyclable materials, including glass and metals, to ready Auburn for the state’s rollout of the Extended Producer Responsibility Program.
Maine’s Extended Producer Responsibility program for packaging, approved in 2021, will require most producers of packaging to pay into a fund based on the amount and the recyclability of packaging associated with their products. According to the law, the funds will then be used to “reimburse municipalities for eligible recycling and waste management costs, make investments in recycling infrastructure, and help Maine citizens understand how to recycle.”
The committee’s report said that by recycling all items on Maine’s Extended Producer Responsibility list, Auburn can access new funding to offset collection and processing costs for household solid waste.
Ralph Harder, a member of the committee that issued the report, said the committee looked at Auburn’s current system of handling household trash, recycling and food scraps. The recommendations center on ways Auburn can reduce its waste stream and its costs through better recycling participation rates and additional ways to divert solid waste — like a more robust composting program.
Harder said the amount of trash generated per capita in Maine is rising while the level of diversion has remained flat. He said food waste represents roughly 35% of the weight in Auburn’s solid waste, meaning if that can be diverted through composting, the city’s tipping fees can be reduced dramatically.
The report said Auburn should expand its food waste drop-off sites while also partnering with the school department.
Other recommendations include adding a city staffer to oversee the solid waste programs, and public engagement to better educate residents and track results. The report also says the city should use the Extended Producer Responsibility process to investigate other possibilities, such as incentives to limit household trash. Incentives used in other communities include limiting the size of trash containers.
Councilor Adam Platz said waste reduction methods must be considered, to avoid “doing this every five years for the rest of our lives.”
“We can’t just subsidize throwing away all this waste,” he said.
Councilor Ben Weisner said he’s “very interested in the composting component.”
Before he was elected, Mayor Jeff Harmon campaigned on bringing back a more robust recycling program. When the Sustainability and Natural Resources board was tasked with conducting a comprehensive review of the city’s programs, he said it was “unfortunate and a mistake” for the prior council to stop curbside pickup, and that that new curbside program should only be a “stopgap measure.”
When the changes to the recycling program were made during the previous council’s term, officials said negotiations with contractor Casella centered on what materials are being recycled and used in secondary markets.
When briefly ending the recycling program in May of 2023, Auburn officials argued that it is cheaper to send material to Maine Waste to Energy in Auburn for incineration than to pay for a curbside program, where some materials end up incinerated anyway. Auburn has also historically experienced very low recycling rates.
However, Harder said Monday that the committee believes the rate is higher than the 7% that has been cited in the past.
Maine
Federal government grants first floating offshore wind power research lease to Maine
PORTLAND, Maine — The federal government issued on Monday the nation’s first floating offshore wind research lease to the state of Maine, comprising about 23 square miles (60 square kilometers) in federal waters.
The state requested the lease from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for a floating offshore wind research array with up to a dozen turbines capable of generating up to 144 megawatts of renewable energy in waters nearly 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Portland, Maine.
The research array will use floating offshore wind platforms designed by the University of Maine and deployed by partner Diamond Offshore Wind. But construction is not likely for several years.
The research is key to growing the ocean wind energy industry in Maine.
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill last year that aims to see Maine procure enough energy from offshore wind turbines to power about half its electric load by 2040, and the state has selected a site to build, stage and deploy the turbine equipment. In the next decade, University of Maine researchers envision turbine platforms floating in the ocean beyond the horizon, stretching more than 700 feet (210 meters) skyward and anchored with mooring lines.
“Clean energy from offshore wind offers an historic opportunity for Maine to create good-paying jobs, reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and fight climate change by cutting greenhouse gas emissions,” Mills said.
The state requested the lease in 2021. The roughly 23 square miles (60 square kilometers) in the federal lease is larger than the state’s request of about 15 square miles (39 square kilometers). It will allow the state, the fishing community, oceanography experts and the offshore wind industry to thoroughly evaluate the compatibility of floating offshore wind.
Floating turbines are the only way some states can capture offshore wind energy on a large scale. In the U.S. alone, 2.8 terawatts of wind energy potential blows over ocean waters too deep for traditional turbines that affix to the ocean floor, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. That’s enough to power 350 million homes — more than double the number of existing homes in the U.S.
President Joe Biden has made offshore wind a key part of his plans for fighting climate change.
Since the start of his administration, the Department of the Interior has approved the nation’s first nine commercial scale offshore wind projects with a combined capacity of more than 13 gigawatts of clean energy — enough to power nearly 5 million homes.
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