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.
Many Maine municipalities will open cooling centers this week with the National Weather Service issuing a variety of heat advisories covering the next few days.
The Maine DEP also issued an air quality alert for Wednesday with ground-level ozone expected to reach levels that are unhealthy for sensitive groups.
All of York County, interior Cumberland and Androscoggin counties, and the southern half of Oxford County will fall under an extreme heat warning from 11 a.m. Wednesday to 8 p.m. Friday.
The warning calls for “dangerously hot conditions” that could feature heat index values of up to 110 degrees, with overnight lows only expected to fall into the 70s, according to the weather service’s office in Gray.
The rest of the state — save northern Aroostook, Piscataquis and Somerset counties — falls under a heat advisory from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday. However, the weather service has also placed much of the state under an extreme heat watch for Thursday.
Heat index values, which measure how hot it feels to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature, are expected to reach up to 104 degrees during the heat advisory period, the weather service warns. They could reach 110 degrees Thursday, when the extreme heat watch is in effect.
Northern Oxford and Franklin counties, and central Somerset County, can expect a heat index value of up to 99 degrees Wednesday, according to the weather service.
The weather service advises people to drink plenty of fluids, stay in air-conditioned rooms when possible, avoid extended periods in the sun and check up on relatives and neighbors. It also warns not to leave young children and pets in unattended vehicles, as “car interiors will reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes.”
Cooling Centers
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has also issued an air quality alert from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Wednesday along the coast from Kittery to Acadia National Park. The agency warns that ground-level ozone concentrations are expected to reach levels that are unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Ozone levels may reach “moderate levels” further inland, according to the Maine DEP, including in all of Androscoggin and Kennebec counties, as well as parts of Cumberland, Knox, Lincoln, Penobscot, Sagadahoc, Waldo, Washington and York counties.
Elevated ozone levels can pose a risk to children, older adults and people suffering from respiratory or heart diseases, according to the Maine DEP. Anyone exerting themselves outdoors may also experience health effects, which could include coughing, shortness of breath, throat irritation and mild chest pain.
Ozone levels were already climbing in southern New England on Tuesday, according to the Maine DEP, and winds are expected to bring those conditions to Maine on Wednesday.
The Maine DEP recommends that vulnerable populations avoid strenuous outdoor activities, keep windows closed, and circulate indoor air with fans or air conditioners. Those with asthma are also advised to keep quick-relief medication handy.
Particle pollution levels are also expected to be moderate across the state on Wednesday due to wildfire smoke, the Maine DEP said in its announcement Tuesday. Wildfires in Colorado, which have claimed the lives of three firefighters, had burned nearly 90,000 acres as of Tuesday, according to the Denver Post.
Maine could face up to $50 million in penalties next year due to errors in its payments for federal food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Newly released data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture find that Maine’s error rate last year was nearly 11%, the bulk of which were overpayments. That’s in line with the U.S. average. But starting in October of next year, states with error rates above 6% must cover a portion of the SNAP benefits.
Anna Korsen, executive director of Full Plates, Full Potential, said the overpayments aren’t fraud — they’re human error. She said this new cost-shifting policy enacted last year under the Trump administration further complicates the SNAP application process.
“Instead, we could make this program more accessible and more efficient,” Korsen said. “And that would reduce the number of errors and also ensure that Mainers who are eligible for SNAP have access to it.”
She’s urging Congress to delay or reverse the policy under the farm bill that’s currently under consideration.
Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services said it’s taking steps to reduce the error rate, including modernizing its systems and hiring an additional 40 eligibility specialists.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
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