Maine
Burning tires for fuel behind Maine's increase in toxic chemicals
A few weeks ago, a series of press releases from the Environmental Protection Agency hit my email inbox in quick succession. The subject headlines were near-identical, trumpeting a decrease in toxic chemical releases to air, land and water in states across New England.
That was until an email with Maine’s results popped up. From 2021 to 2022, Maine was the only state in the region to see a net increase of 10 percent in toxic chemical releases.
The reasoning was vague, stating an increase in toxic waste sent to landfills, where solid waste went up 47 percent between 2018 and 2022.
Chris Rascher, the compliance and program coordinator for EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory program in New England, provided context on zinc, one of the chemicals behind the 10 percent increase.
Between 2021 and 2022, the amount of zinc released in Maine increased significantly, resulting in a net increase of the state’s overall release of TRI-listed chemicals. The source? Maine’s two largest paper and pulp mills: ND Paper in Rumford and Sappi North America’s Somerset Mill in Skowhegan.
Rascher learned that the mills increased their use of shredded tires as a fuel source to power operations. Burning tires and filtering the emissions produces a zinc-heavy ash.
Because of its high zinc levels, which are especially harmful to aquatic life, the ash has to be disposed with special precautions to avoid it leaching into nearby water and soil or blowing away in the wind.
Rascher said disposing of tires through combustion helps solve the thornier problem of managing them in landfills, where they can catch fire, burning uncontrollably and giving off pollutants.
“Every state generates an awful lot of used tires that then have to go somewhere,” Rascher said. “And what people discovered is that there are problems with saving a lot of tires and landfills.”
As opposed to burning in a landfill, the emissions of ‘tire-derived fuel’ in facilities can be filtered by special equipment. Burning tires for energy can also supplement the use of coal or heavy fuel oil, reducing overall reliance on the two.
Eric Kennedy, director of licensing and compliance for the Air Bureau at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, said the department worked with paper mills in the early 1990s to help develop tire fuel.
At the time, tires were menacing Maine’s landfills, Kennedy said, leading to a large fire in the Bowdoinham town landfill in the 1980s with smoke visible for several miles.
Tire-derived fuel seemed like a way out.
“People started figuring out, ‘What can we do with tires instead of putting them in piles and waiting for them to burn?’ ” Kennedy said.
Although burning tires emits more zinc than coal, it emits less sulfur dioxides — potent pollutants that can cause acid rain and respiratory problems in humans.
Still, burning tires as fuel does not eliminate all emissions. Kennedy said Maine mills use specialized equipment to scrub particulates from emissions.
Back to solid waste and Maine’s landfills, both ND Paper and Sappi North America said they send their tire fuel ash to their own landfills, which are lined and have leachate control systems.
DEP spokesman David Madore said that the department would prefer to reduce the amount of tires in Maine landfills. But the paper mills’ use of tires as fuel would only lead to reductions of tires in Maine’s landfills if they sourced them from in-state.
ND Paper said the Rumford mill brings shredded tires from across New England and added that the company’s use of tires reduces its reliance on coal.
Sappi, meanwhile, said it sources its shredded tires in-state. Sappi spokesman Peter Steele said the increased use of tire-derived fuel stems from market shifts that made the company’s preferred use of natural gas more costly.
While Maine had its trouble with toxic releases to landfills, EPA’s Rascher was quick to note there were wins elsewhere.
“Maine did achieve successes with air emissions,” Rascher said. “So there was a small decrease in air emissions from last year” and “more than a 50 percent decrease in air emissions over the last 10 years.
“A 50 percent decrease … is a significant thing. And I think that’s a little bit of a good news story.”
Emmett Gartner covers accountability and Maine’s rural communities as a Roy W. Howard Fellow through the Scripps Howard Fund. Emmett earned his master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism and a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from the University of Vermont. While working as a reporter at the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, he helped produce two award-winning investigations: “Printing Hate,” which documented the historic role of newspapers inciting racial lynchings, and “Mega Billions,” which investigated state lottery operations. Most recently, Emmett reported on health and environment for The Frederick News-Post in Maryland. He previously worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Oregon and interned for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
LEWISTON (WGME) Nearly three years after the Lewiston mass shooting, the Maine Resiliency Center is asking the public to share how the tragedy has affected them and the community.
The nonprofit has launched a survey to better understand the impacts of the mass shooting in October 2023 and to help guide future support efforts.
The director of the Maine Resiliency Center said the ripple effects have spread widely and the organization wants to hear from anyone who has been affected.
“You could have been a service provider who is providing therapy or counseling for people; you could have been a funeral home director or city employee; you could be someone who lives in this community and knows somebody who is directly impacted or you could be directly impacted yourself. All of those opinions and information are really valuable to us as we look to support the broader community moving forward,” the director said.
To take part in the survey, go to maineresiliencycenter.org.
Politics
Our political journalists are based in the Maine State House and have deep source networks across the partisan spectrum in communities all over the state. Their coverage aims to cut through major debates and probe how officials make decisions. Read more Politics coverage here.
AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Friday upheld Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ decision to keep a referendum banning transgender girls from female school sports off the November ballot.
The high court ruled Bellows was “not only authorized but was constitutionally bound” when she moved in May to throw out more than 1,500 signatures gathered by out-of-state circulators who never agreed to submit to Maine’s jurisdiction.
The unanimous ruling from the six-justice panel closes out a monthslong legal fight that began when Bellows’ office invalidated more than 12,000 signatures submitted by Protect Girls’ Sports in Maine, leaving the petition 532 signatures short of the 67,682 needed to qualify.
The group, backed heavily by Republican megadonor Richard Uihlein, had argued Bellows overstepped her authority by enforcing a settlement that ended a 2023 First Amendment lawsuit over Maine’s ban on out-of-state circulators, rather than letting Maine voters decide whether to loosen the state’s residency rules for petition circulators.
The court rejected that argument, finding Bellows was bound by the Maine Constitution’s residency requirement for circulators except where a federal injunction narrowly excused her from enforcing it, and that four nonresident circulators who never checked a box consenting to Maine jurisdiction fell outside that carveout.
Justices also rejected the campaign’s fallback argument that one circulator’s belated affidavit, filed months after the Feb. 2 filing deadline, should have salvaged her roughly 61 signatures, citing a state law requiring circulator affidavits to be filed when the petition is.
The decision effectively ends the campaign’s bid for the 2026 ballot, though the court noted proponents could still gather the roughly 500 additional signatures needed to try again for the 2027 ballot.
A handful of mostly unknown Democrats, including a retired art teacher, a candidate’s husband and a finance executive, will soon have unprecedented influence over the U.S. Senate race.
Maine Democrats are slated to host a 600-member convention this month, with roughly 500 of those members selected by the party’s 16 county apparatuses. Being a county chair is usually a low-key position. After Graham Platner’s Wednesday announcement that he will leave the race following sexual assault allegations, they are suddenly in a position of power.
Here are the 16 people tasked with creating a delegation to pick who will face off against Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Joseph Zamboni: Cumberland County
As Maine’s most populous county, Cumberland will have the largest delegation at the coming convention. Its party chair is health policy and law professor and pro-vaccine advocate. He currently serves as the chair of Portland’s zoning board and previously worked for the state and the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
Kathie Purdy: York County
York, the southernmost county, is the state’s second most populous. Its delegation will be led by Kathie Purdy, a former candidate for the state Legislature. She is a business owner in Saco and a bar manager in Ogunquit, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Harry Sanborn: Penobscot County
Alton resident Harry Sanborn is involved in local government, serving as a member of both the planning board and budget panel. He also serves as the town’s sexton. His wife, Laura, a former lawmaker and county commissioner, is a school board member for Regional School Unit 34.
Joanne Mason: Kennebec County
Kennebec’s Democratic Party chair is Joanne Mason, a nonprofit leader and the wife of Sheriff Ken Mason. According to her LinkedIn, she is president of the Family Violence Project, an Augusta-based nonprofit.
Carl Wilcox: Androscoggin County
From his social media history, Wilcox appears to be on the left of the party. In response to a white nationalist rally in DC last week, he posted that “billionaires control the media and the government sets the rules to funnel ever greater sums to the billionaire class,” echoing Platner’s anti-billionaire language. He hiked the entire Appalachian Trail in 2016.
Alison Willette: Aroostook County
Willette has relatively little online presence, but the Aroostook County Democrats downplayed the chair’s role in a Thursday Facebook post, writing, “the process is still being hashed out, but I assure you all counties have representation involved and it is NOT a ‘cherry picked by the chair’ process!”
Aroostook’s delegation, likely to be the seventh-largest, could be a source of support for former Senate President Troy Jackson, an Allagash native who is running to replace Platner in his populist mold.
Bruce Bryant: Oxford County
Oxford is one of the only counties with a chair that served in the state Legislature. Bruce Bryant was a Senator between 2002 and 2010. In 2024 he ran for state senate again, but lost to Republican Joseph Martin. On social media he voiced support for Troy Jackson when he was running for Governor.
Marcia Myers: Hancock County
Myers is a former news editor who now lives in Deer Isle. Her social media history shows posts invoking independent socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and attending “No Kings” protests. She told MS NOW in June that Democrats in Hancock were “laser-focused on issues like healthcare and cost of living.”
Lise Ragan: Somerset County
Ragan is an Anson resident and former teacher who describes herself on Facebook as a “patriotic, very concerned American.” She told the Bangor Daily News she is “confident” the party can move forward with a new candidate for U.S. Senate.
Greg Marley: Knox County
Rockland resident Greg Marley is married to the city’s former mayor and current state Rep. Valli Geiger, a Platner ally running to replace him. In response to a post by The Midcoast Villager about Valli’s interest, Marley posted that he “stand[s] beside this extraordinary woman every step of the way.” Geiger had been a close ally of Platner, who she says encouraged her to run.
Marley is a clinical director of suicide prevention at Maine’s chapter of the nonprofit National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Stanley Paige Zeigler: Waldo County
Zeigler is a former merchant mariner and state representative. He represented part of Waldo County between 2016 and 2024. He has been involved with environmental organizations like the Sierra Club and the Maine Bike Coalition.
Keith Mestrich: Lincoln County
Lincoln County’s chair is set for one of the smallest delegations, but he may have something that other party leaders lack and that many party voters have shunned over the course of Platner’s campaign — money and connections.
Keith Mestrich got his start in labor organizing and eventually became CEO of Amalgamated Bank, a union-owned financial institution. He is now a founding partner of Percapita, a financial tech firm providing an employee benefit platform for low-income workers. He also serves as the chair of the National Trust for Local News, whose Maine arm owns The Portland Press Herald and sister papers.
Lisa Marin: Washington County
Washington County Democrats are led by a retired art teacher who worked at the Moosabec Community School District in Jonesport. The Downeast resident’s Facebook history shows that she has attended “No Kings” protests. She recently wrote a Press Herald op-ed condemning Republican gubernatorial nominee Bobby Charles.
Wayne Kinney: Franklin County
Kinney represents Farmington on the RSU 9 school board. His online presence is limited.
Deb Dagnan: Piscataquis County
Dagnan will lead the smallest county delegation. She had expressed skepticism about Platner after The New York Times published a story in June detailing claims of abuse by his ex-girlfriends. She told PBS ahead of the primary election that people were “waiting for the other shoe to drop after he gets the nomination.”
“Then what do we do?” she asked.
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between The Maine Monitor and the Bangor Daily News, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.
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