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December 2, 2022

Little Harbor Brook gushes at the Land and Garden Preserve in Seal Harbor. Photo by Kate Cough

Water commission recommends another commission

By Kate Cough

First, to those I haven't yet (virtually) met, hello from the haze of (yay) new parenthood and (ugh) COVID, and thank you to the fantastic Annie Ropeik, who has been keeping you all informed while I've been on maternity leave. Don't worry, you'll be hearing from her again soon, as we'll be trading off writing the Climate Monitor for awhile while I get back into the swing of things.

As someone who now does approximately 273 loads of laundry and dishes each week, I'm more aware than ever of my water use - as I write, I can hear the long whoosh of the washing machine as it scrubs the spit up out of my daughter's onesies. Water was also on my mind yesterday, as I tuned in to the final meeting of the Commission To Study the Role of Water As a Resource in the State of Maine.

The 16-member Commission, which arose out of a bill to tax bottled water exports, met five times before issuing its draft report yesterday. It had an expansive mandate, including studying the extent of the state's resources as well as the legal principles regarding ownership, the state's future water needs, exportation of water and sustainability of aquifers, among other issues.

That's a lot to accomplish over the course of five meetings, so perhaps it'll come as no surprise that the commission's topline recommendation was to establish a new, "more focused" commission to address the old commission's "unresolved work."

"We have a lot of work to do," said Nickie Sekera, a Fryeburg resident and commission member representing the public, who said she felt five meetings simply was not enough time to accomplish the group's mandate. "It feels so rushed and so incomplete... but you have to start somewhere."

Members included activists such as Sekera as well as representatives of state agencies and the bottling giant Poland Spring, which has operated in Maine since 1845 and is now owned by a pair of private equity firms. Conflicts between bottlers and activists have bubbled for decades, particularly in the western area of the state, where Poland Spring is most active.

Not everyone was excited by the prospect of a new commission. "The current regime works extremely well, and has for decades," said Bruce Berger, executive director of Maine Water Utilities Association. "The issues here in this state aren’t the issues in other states... In the West you have 12 straws and one cup, here you have 12 cups that each have a straw. That’s the difference in the hydrology between New England and other places."

A slide from a presentation given to the commission by Ryan Gordon, a hydrogeologist with the Maine Geological Survey. Maine’s annual water use of 141 billion gallons is roughly 3.5% of the 4 trillion gallons that recharge the state’s groundwater resources each year. The state receives 26 trillions gallons of precipitation annually; recharge is the amount of precipitation that actually infiltrates to groundwater and doesn’t runoff or evaporate. While climate change is expected to bring more precipitation to the state, it's also expected to bring increased periods of drought, which could mean less water in certain areas of the state.

Others worried that a new commission would be duplicating the work of the Water Resources Planning Committee, which met most recently this past April.

Ryan Gordon, Hydrogeologist at the Maine Geological Survey, said that while he was "in general very supportive" of the recommendations, several colleagues who'd read the draft were "dubious" of the need for a new commission and worried that it would be "redundant to the work that's already being done" by the Water Resources Planning Committee and others.

A recommendation to further study the legal status of groundwater rights and ownership in Maine also met with some pushback from both Berger and Mark Dubois, Natural Resource Manager with Nestle Waters.

In Maine, groundwater is the property of the landowner, who is "not liable for damages if their use of that groundwater affects a neighbor’s or adjacent user’s ability to access the groundwater below their property," according to the draft report, what is known as "absolute dominion."

That worries some activists, including Sekera, who would like to see groundwater held in the public trust, which they say would protect Maine's resources from privatization and allow for better long-range planning. "It's important to disrupt Wall Street's grab on our water," she said in an interview before the meeting. "You kind of have to imagine the future, when water isn't running freely."

But Berger said that changing the law would impact public water suppliers, who "need to know that the supply is ours and it's available to use." He also noted that there are many exceptions to the absolute dominion rule, which has been modified over the years.

"Maine does not allow unfettered water extraction based solely on land ownership," said Berger. "It’s regulated by several different agencies. Even though the land is mine and I have rights to the groundwater, I have no rights to arbitrarily extract the amount of water under my property."

A recommendation that the Legislature consider requiring commercial bottlers to test for and report on PFAS levels was less controversial, with all commission members who were present voting in favor.

The commission also recommended taking steps to centralize data on water use within a single state agency, collect more data, require annual reporting to the Legislature on water use and asked that state agencies identify measures to enhance drought preparedness and drought resilience by agricultural producers. It also suggested making data on water use more available to the public.

The final report is due out Dec. 7th; it will be sent to the Legislature and will eventually be taken up by the Taxation Committee, which will determine whether they want to take any action on the report's recommendations. In the meantime, you can watch all of the commission's meetings and its materials here.

PFAS: they're everywhere

The latest installment in Marina Schauffler's series on the so-called "Forever Chemicals'' known as PFAS focused on the ubiquity of the potentially dangerous products.

Marina takes readers into the lives of families in Fairfield who live under what one resident calls the “cloud of an unknown future” because they fear how PFAS on their property and nearby fields may undermine their health. 

Another story offers readers some tips on steps they can take to minimize exposure to “forever chemicals" until policy measures, like Maine’s ban on PFAS in products, take effect.

You can read the full series, called "Invisible and Indestructible,'' right here.

In other Maine news:

Consumer-owned utility:

A proposal to dramatically change Maine's electric utility landscape has qualified for next November’s ballot.

Biomass bankruptcy:

Loggers say the unpaid debts from a biomass company that has filed for bankruptcy are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Royally environmental:

The Boston visit by the Prince and Princess of Wales was focused on Prince William’s initiative to find the environmental entrepreneurs of a new generation.

Bats:

The northern long-eared bat is found in 37 states, including Maine. Historically, counts have found 60-100 long-eared bats in three Maine caves, but none were found during the last count.

CMP Corridor: 

The outlook for the CMP corridor still remains hazy despite a victory for its supporters in Maine’s high court.

Sea level rise:

The Passamaquoddy Tribe is getting $5 million in federal funds for climate change planning.

And more sea level rise:

Gov. Janet Mills announced $5.4 million in state grants for climate change projects and green energy jobs in communities around Maine.

Electric Vehicles:

EV charging infrastructure will soon be required in some of South Portland's new parking areas.

Solar:

Maine considers changing solar farm rules to protect forests.

Leading the next hike:

The Appalachian Mountain Club has tapped Nicole Zussman, a longtime human resources executive, to lead the conservation and recreation organization.

EVs:

South Portland has passed a new rule requiring developers to consider electric vehicle charging infrastructure when building new parking areas. 

Mushrooms:

Buoys made of mushrooms are floating in Maine waters, a potential alternative to traditional plastic.

Salmon:

Penobscot River Atlantic salmon returns were the second highest in 11 years, with an estimated 1,325 Atlantic salmon making their way through the fish lift at Brookfield Renewable’s dam in Milford and the dam in Orono.

Menhaden:

Maine fishermen welcome higher quotas for menhaden, an affordable lobster bait.

Acadia National Park:

The National Park Service is proposing to increase the entrance fees at Acadia to support projects that benefit visitors and protect park resources.

Land:

A conservation group announced last week that it has purchased more than 6,000 acres in Aroostook County that will soon become a state wildlife management area.

Generators:

Federal regulators approved a Japanese company's plans to buy three gas-fired generators in Maine and Massachusetts, despite objections from consumer advocacy groups.

Home improvement:

Maine is set to introduce a financing program to make green energy improvements more affordable and accessible for commercial property owners through a tool that will offer loans with no down payment and the ability to repay the borrowed amount over time through property tax bills. 

Thanks for reading. See you next week.

Kate Cough covers energy and the environment for The Maine Monitor. She's a graduate of Columbia University and an 8th generation Mainer born in Portland who's now decamped Downeast. You can reach her at kate@themainemonitor.org or @kaitlincough.

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