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HERE IS MORE TO PROVE WE HAVE THE FOX GUARDING THE CHICKEN COOP! Since the goal of the Clean Water Act is to improve water quality, Friedman asks why not set the classification at Class B and then work to make sure that even under that worst-case scenario the water quality doesn’t degrade to the lesser Class C level?
The DEP, perhaps reflecting the “business-friendly” mandate of the LePage administration, wouldn’t budge.
The impasse set the stage for a compromise, of sorts: Why not give the lower Androscoggin an intermediate grade? “C-plus” or “B-minus” ... take your pick.
In an April 3 e-mail sent to the DEP’s Susan Davies, Goodall, and the Republican co-chairmen of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, Sen. Tom Saviello of Wilton and Rep. Jim Hamper of Oxford, Friedman laid out his concerns:
“By creating a special class, we will be bidding adieu to the practical application of a goal-based standard as intended by the Clean Water Act, Maine statute and DEP submission guidelines,” Friedman wrote. “It is truly sad that when maybe less than 1 percent of field measurements are less than Class B, there is not more support on the committee for an upgrade. It begs the question: If 99 percent compliance doesn’t justify application of a goal-based standard, what would?”
Absolutely, it’s the right question to raise.
But politically the likely answer is that the DEP’s model-based finding only supports a Class C designation at this time, end of discussion — unless there’s a compromise.
Friedman knows that — which is why his e-mail expresses a willingness to support “locking in existing field-data-based results as an incremental upgrade.” Doing so, he says, would provide some impetus to efforts along the lower Androscoggin to continue improving its water quality.
OF COURSE THOSE OF US THAT REMEMBER THE STENCH OF THE RIVER IN THE 50'S AND THE INFAMOUS LEGACY WE STUDIED IN GRADE SCHOOL " PICKEREL OR JOBS" WE WANT OUR LEGACY TO BE CLEAN UP THE RIVERS,LOWER THE CANCER RATE AND HEALTH PROBLEMS THIS STATE HAS! BUSINESS CLEAN UP YOUR ACT! AND THAT DOESN'T MEAN MOVE IT OVERSEAS TO INFECT THAT POPULATION!
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