2009.04.24. EPA honors Midcoast environmental groups Press

EPA honors Midcoast environmental groups with merit awards

By Staff

CAMDEN (April 24): Two Midcoast groups were honored on Earth Day, April 22 in Boston’s Faneuil Hall when the Environmental Protection Agency presented its annual Environmental Merit Awards for 2009.
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Recognizing significant contributions to environmental awareness and problem solving, the Maine awardees included one lifetime achievement award winner, three organization award winners and three state government award winners. Given out by EPA since 1970, the merit awards honor individuals and groups who have shown particular ingenuity and commitment in their efforts to preserve the region's environment.

The Lifetime Achievement Environmental Merit Award went to Owen Grumbling, who has served as chairman of the Wells Conservation Commission since 1982. He has inspired and educated countless students and community members so that they appreciate and work to protect their surroundings.
Environmental Merit Awards for environmental, community, academia and nonprofit organizations were given to Citizens for a Green Camden, Environment Northeast and the Long Creek Restoration Project Team.

Citizens for a Green Camden was given an Environmental Merit Award. Citizens for a Green Camden is a small group of citizens working specifically on the elimination of poisons being used on lawns in their community. Their first milestone victory was successfully passing a pesticide policy to eliminate the use of pesticides on the town’s parks and playing fields, which has since been adopted by the neighboring town Rockport. They also compare notes with a citizens group in Castine. The organization continues to work to educate homeowners about the dangers of using poisons on their lawns, running programs and providing written educational materials for residents at the town office. They were able to convince the town bed and breakfasts to join their efforts by not using pesticides on their properties, advertising those partners at the Chamber of Commerce for visitors to see. The organization continues its education outreach through other community-based methods to eventually eliminate poisons being used on lawns in the entire Camden community.

ENE, Environment Northeast, also earned an Environmental Merit Award. ENE researches and advocates innovative policies that tackle environmental challenges while promoting sustainable economies. ENE is a leader of efforts at the state and regional levels combating global warming with solutions that promote clean energy, clean air and healthy forests.

Long Creek is a small urban stream in Maine that does not meet state water quality standards due to high density urbanized development over the past several decades, converting the landscape from forests and farm fields into commercial, light industrial, retail and transportation uses. The health of Long Creek is also important to the health of downstream water bodies, that ultimately lead to the Casco Bay estuary. Representatives from the four municipalities located within the Long Creek watershed — South Portland, Westbrook, Scarborough and Portland — the industrial, commercial and non-profit landowners, nonprofit organizations in the watershed and several state entities came together to form the steering committee that led the Long Creek Restoration Project.

Environmental Merit Awards for local, state or federal governmental organizations were presented to Maine Department of Environmental Protection, State Electronic Challenge Partners and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Team.

Maine DEP's Stacy Ladner, Deb Stahler, Heather Jackson are national leaders in creating safer ways to address mercury releases from broken compact fluorescent light bulbs. The work of these employees in the Maine DEP has changed the advice EPA and states give to people trying to contain mercury from CFLs. The three state workers discovered that existing protocols for addressing a release were not adequate after an emergency responder from Maine measured mercury air concentrations in a home where a light had broken. Research these scientists conducted with environmental and health agencies found the release from a single CFL was not insignificant, as experts had thought. They found small amounts of mercury on carpeted surfaces could cause emissions for a long time.

The state government of Maine, the Department of Environmental Protection in Connecticut, the city of Keene in New Hampshire, and the school department in the city of Providence, R.I., are being recognized for their involvement in a voluntary program that promotes greener use and disposal of government technology equipment. The challenge is administered by the Northeast Recycling Council. In its first year, the State Electronics Challenge signed on 29 partners, including entire state governments as well as small municipal departments. The four organizations chosen for awards have shown exceptional leadership in the field. The achievements of this group include purchasing greener or “environmentally preferable” computers, reducing energy use by computers through software and employee education, and managing old electronics through reuse, recycling and other methods that reduce their impact. Altogether, the partners in this program reduced energy by the amount used by 1,662 households a year, avoided greenhouse gases equivalent to taking 1,370 cars off the road for a year, and eliminated 152 metric tons of trash, the amount of waste generated by 76 households a year.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Team has set up innovative measures to control greenhouse gases, including the first-in-the-nation auction of carbon dioxide emissions allowances. The six New England states are among 10 states pioneering this first mandatory cap and trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and states have committed to cap and then reduce the amount of CO2 emitted by power plants in their region, limiting the total regional contribution to greenhouse gases. A September auction brought in $28 million for Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont and Maryland, and two more auctions have been held since. New England states have made more than $80 million in revenues from the auctions, which can be used for future energy cutting and efficiency programs.
 

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