Maine
It’s Time to Celebrate (and Protect) Maine’s Most Precious Resource: Clean Water
We’re fortunate to stay in a state so fantastically crisscrossed by pristine, contemporary waterways. From the Allagash up north, to the Penobscot within the center, to the Saco within the south—contemporary, clear water is a luxurious to which we Mainers have change into accustomed. I’m personally grateful for the federal and state legal guidelines, together with organizations just like the Pure Assets Council of Maine, that defend our rivers, streams, lakes, and waterways and perceive the significance of guaranteeing these legal guidelines are regularly strengthened. Fortunately, defending clear water is a subject that seems to transcend celebration affiliation within the Maine Legislature.
A fantastic instance of this was the latest bipartisan help for a invoice within the Legislature, LD 1964, to improve the water high quality of greater than 800 miles of rivers, streams, and tributaries throughout the state. Each homes of the Maine Legislature strongly endorsed the invoice. One part of the invoice will improve the water high quality customary from class C to B for a greater than 14-mile stretch of the Androscoggin River from Lisbon Falls to Merrymeeting Bay.
After I assume again to my childhood, I’m overwhelmed by reminiscences of spending time on the Androscoggin and Swift Rivers in Rumford and Mexico. Leaping off the glistening rocks that stood tall above Coos Canyon, and swimming out and in of the underwater caves that lined swimming holes like Three Swimming pools. My buddies and I have been oblivious to the numerous hours, days, months, and years lawmakers, organizations, and on a regular basis Mainers devoted to making sure these very swimming holes have been saved clear. What a legacy they’ve left, and it’s on each Mainer, me included, to make sure that legacy lives on in perpetuity.
Individuals might imagine that the water high quality in a city like Rumford is the same as the odor stemming from the paper mill. Within the many years previous to 1972, they’d have been fallacious–it was a lot worse. Nevertheless, that odor was one among many motivating components that inspired Maine U.S. Senator Edmund Muskie, who grew up in Rumford, to take motion and writer one of many nation’s most essential environmental legal guidelines–the Clear Water Act–which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this yr. It’s onerous to seek out one other piece of environmental regulation that has achieved extra to guard Maine’s, and the nation’s, water than the Clear Water Act. It’s a outstanding piece of laws that’s equally consequential to Maine’s financial system as it’s to the well being and wellbeing of all Mainers.
Fortunately, the part of the Androscoggin River across the Rumford paper mill has rebounded dramatically within the 50 years for the reason that Clear Water Act was handed. I can solely hope that our lawmakers proceed to bolster their help for clear water sooner or later.
—by Byron Glaus, NRCM Rising Management Staff
Maine
Maine Water, Coastal Mountains Land Trust protect more watershed land
Maine Water and the Coastal Mountains Land Trust celebrated a decade of working together Sept. 18 by announcing an agreement to add another 29 acres on Spruce Mountain to the more than 1,500 acres of open space on Maine’s Midcoast that the two organizations have already protected.
Maine Water also presented the land trust with a $10,000 donation to fund the group’s continued conservation work.
“One of our top priorities, by necessity, is the high quality of the drinking water that we deliver to Maine families,” said Mark Vannoy, President of Maine Water, in a Sept. 25 news release. “Through our partnership with the CMLT we secured this water supply in perpetuity, for those who follow us. We’ve found the land trust to be an ideal partner, not only for the purpose of protecting the area’s drinking water, but also for making the land available for light recreation so that families can get out and enjoy our incredible natural resources.”
At a ceremony held Sept. 18 at the Ragged Mountain Thorndike Brook Trailhead, Coastal Mountains Land Trust Executive Director Ian Stewart noted Maine Water’s decision about a decade ago to partner on conservation initiatives, rather than sell land the company had been acquiring since the late 1800s.
“There was an ethic on both sides of the conversation to say this is an opportunity to do something different than just sell this land off,” Steward said. “We live in an extraordinarily beautiful place, and there’s an opportunity still here to see that some of the most special places in our community are set aside.”
During the ceremony, Vannoy reminisced about how he reluctantly entertained his son’s suggestion a couple of years ago that the two of them take a January hike to the top of Ragged Mountain to watch the sunrise. Temperatures were in the single digits.
“It was well worth the effort,” Vannoy said. “It is just great to see the beauty of this place, and we’ve preserved that for generations to come.”
The partnership between Maine Water and the Coastal Mountains Land Trust permanently protected Mirror Lake and Grassy Pond, important sources of drinking water for six coastal communities. Maine Water employees also regularly donate time and effort to maintain trails on the properties. On Friday, more than 20 volunteers associated with the company spent the morning working with land trust staff maintaining trails around Ragged Mountain.
Maine
Central Maine Power sends 20 crews from Maine to aid in Hurricane Helene recovery
PORTLAND (WGME) – Central Maine Power is one of many power companies sending assistance south for Hurricane Helene recovery efforts.
20 crews, a total of 50 people, gathered at the Kennebunk Service Plaza this morning before heading south to Virginia.
CMP spokesman Jon Breed says the request for help came in Friday night.
“Last night, we went to bed thinking they were going to Kentucky and West Virginia, and this morning it was Virginia, it just kind of shows the dynamic situation that is unfolding down there as millions are without power, but they are kind of feeding into a large resource group that is working to get the lights back on,” said Breed.
CMP’s parent company, Avangrid, sent 53 other crews from New York and Connecticut, as well.
Maine
Maine murder suspect led officers on high-speed chase in Mass., DA says
A Bangor man was held without bail Friday after the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office said he was involved in a high-speed chase following the murder of a 39-year-old woman in Maine.
The Bangor Maine Police Department found Virginia Cookson, 39, of Bangor, dead in her residence on Sept. 25, according to a statement from the district attorney.
Two days later, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta, Maine ruled the death to be a homicide, which led to a warrant issued for Richard Keith Thorpe, 42 of Bangor.
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