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House of Representatives 2 State House Station HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 2 STATE HOUSE STATION AUGUSTA, MAINE 04333-0002 (207) 287-1315 Rena D. Newell Tribal Representative P.O. Box 343 Perry, ME 04667 (207) 853-5122 [email protected] Testimony LD 489 RESOLUTION, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of Maine To Establish a Right to a Healthy Environment Presented by Representative Rena Newell, Passamaquoddy Tribe to the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, Tuesday, March 8, 2021. Good morning Senator Brenner, Representative Tucker, and other distinguished members of the Joint Standing Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Committee. I am Tribal Representative Rena Newell from the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik. Thank you for the opportunity to present for this committee’s consideration of LD 489 RESOLUTION, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of Maine To Establish a Right to a Healthy Environment. I also extend thankful greetings to Senator Maxmin and all others that have brought us here today. Although, the Passamaquoddy Tribal Citizens are guaranteed to exercise their protected rights to enjoy life, liberty, and happiness, as other Maine citizens under the state constitution. For the past 18 months, I have been working with others to remediate the unsafe drinking water conditions of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik. I have included in my testimony, written articles of reference that can expand upon what I have just mentioned. “Tribal leaders seek to end decades-long ordeal, bring clean water to Pleasant Point” “‘Dirty water causes our communities to lose sight that they are worthy of clean water’” Passamaquoddy Tribe In addition, as a result of the limitations set upon the tribes under the Maine Implementing Act to exercise our sovereign rights to access and provide clean water to the Passamaquoddy Tribal Citizens of Sipayik from the lands we own has threatened our right to living healthy within our environment. It is from the above-mentioned experience, that I ask for you to accept this testimony in full support of this resolution that proposes to amend the Constitution of Maine. Thus, to grant all humans, regardless of race, ethnicity or income to have the same rights to clean water, air and healthy environments. At this time, I’ll be happy to answer any questions that members of the committee may have. Woliwon. Passamaquoddy Tribe Tribal leaders seek to end decades-long ordeal, bring clean water to Pleasant Point mainebeacon.com/tribal-leaders-seek-to-end-decades-long-ordeal-bring-clean-water-to-pleasant-point Robby Lewis-Nash September 24, 2020 On windy days, the water that comes out of the taps on the Passamaquoddy reservation at Pleasant Point runs greenish brown. On a particularly bad day, it can be nearly black. “It’s been a long time that we haven’t been able to drink our water here on the reservation,” said Denise Altvater, a Passamaquoddy tribal council member. Over the past 40 years, there have been many attempts to address the water quality issues and find a new source to supply Pleasant Point and neighboring communities, but little has changed. One major stumbling block is the unique legal arrangement between the State of Maine and the tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy. For generations, tribal governments in Maine have been prevented from controlling natural resources on tribal land. Now, a group of Passamaquoddy leaders have renewed efforts to work with local, state and federal officials to resolve some of the problems that have denied them clean water: from the rural district’s lack of funds to jurisdictional restrictions tied to limitations on tribal sovereignty. More than 40 years of problematic water The public water supplied to Pleasant Point—or Sipayek in Malecite-Passamaquoddy—and Eastport is provided by the Passamaquoddy Water District (PWD), a quasi-municipal water utility formed by an emergency act of the Maine Legislature in 1983 to take over operations of the failing Eastport Water Company. 1/12 “[T]he present water system is inadequate and in need of immediate improvement and repair to protect the quality of the water service…an adequate supply of pure water is essential to the health and well-being of the customers of the Eastport Water Company,” the 1983 act reads. Long before the emergency action, Pleasant Point residents were skeptical of the water then provided by the Easport Water Company, but contamination was officially recognized after the passage of the 1974 federal Safe Drinking Water Act, which required water utilities nationwide to dramatically increase testing and monitoring. “I remember the notices started coming around, that tests were coming back with high rates of— I don’t know what you would call that— and we were scared. But we were already not drinking the water, it was already in the community that you didn’t drink the water,” Altvater said, reflecting on her childhood, now more than 50 years ago. Today, water quality violation notices continue to arrive at households served by PWD as periodic contamination events occur. “LEVEL OF TOTAL TRIHALOMETHANES IN THE DRINKING WATER EXCEEDS FEDERAL DRINKING WATER STANDARD,” reads a notice sent to area residents in September 2019. “Some people who drink water containing trihalomethanes in excess of the MCL [Maximum Contaminant Level] over many years could experience liver, kidney, and central nervous system problems and an increased risk of cancer.” Corey Hinton, a lawyer and member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, said that many of the circumstances that prompted the legislature’s emergency action in 1983 “are pretty much applicable today.” He said, “The engineers that have looked at this, I think, generally agree that PWD is failing infrastructure.” 2/12 Watch Video At: https://youtu.be/lQXCDPYUke8 PWD sources its water from Boyden Reservoir, which is located in Perry and is fed by Boyden Lake (a source that PWD inherited from the Eastport Water Company). Unlike groundwater sources, lakes and reservoirs contain varying quantities of organic matter, such as leaves and other natural debris that can fall into the water throughout the year. When water containing organic matter is disinfected for public use, a group of chemicals called trihalomethanes (THM) can form. THM are toxic to humans in large doses and are widely considered to be carcinogenic, though the severity of their impact on human health is disputed and not fully understood. THM content is low in most municipal water supplies, but because both Boyden Reservoir and Boyden Lake are shallow bodies of water containing relatively large quantities of organic matter, THM concentrations in PWD water can fluctuate dramatically with weather events. In 2018 and 2019, PWD water had THM concentrations above the MCL for three quarters of each year, according to data from the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System. In addition to spikes in THM, PWD has also had problems with water clarity, also known as “high turbidity,” discoloration and odor. It’s not uncommon for water coming from the taps serviced by PWD to be brown or yellow, according to multiple Pleasant Point residents. A particularly severe example of this occurred on June 16 of this year, when a power outage suspended activity at the PWD treatment plant and multiple residents reported black and brown water pouring into their sinks. 3/12 “During windy and wet weather periods the shallow lake stirs up bottom sediments and the outlet stream is flushed causing Boyden Reservior’s water quality to be turbid and contain high levels of dissolved organics,” according to a statement from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which oversees the Maine Drinking Water Program (MDWP). These fluctuations tend to be the most dramatic in the summer when water levels are at their lowest and the reservoir and lake are more susceptible to disturbance by wind, rain, and other weather events. “The [PWD] water treatment plant is one of the hardest plants to run, not because of the plant but because of the source,” Mark McCluskey of A.E. Hodson Engineers of Waterville, which consults for the PWD, told the Quoddy Tides in January 2019. “Similarly designed plants elsewhere in the state do not have these problems.” “You add that to the fact that we live in the poorest county in the state, that on the reservation unemployment is even higher than in surrounding towns, and that we live in such a remote area. You add that all to the mix, and it just intensifies the unacceptableness of all of this,” said Altvater. Regulators say that in-between these contamination events the water provided by PWD is safe to drink and in compliance with federal drinking water standards, but years of notices of contamination and persistent problems with color and odor have led many people at Pleasant Point to avoid using the tap water completely. For some residents, this means purchasing bottled water at the store. For others who can’t afford store-bought water, a spring in nearby Robbinston has long provided an alternative source where containers can be filled and brought home. Because of the ongoing drought, however, that spring nearly dried up this summer, leaving many residents to rely on bottled water donations from Wabanaki Public Health or, when those aren’t available, to drink the water from the tap. “At this point in time, as we experience a global pandemic, what we know is that people need fresh clean water to bathe in, and to drink,” said Lisa Sockabasin, director of programs for Wabanaki Public Health. “And at this time, we can’t guarantee that the water that’s coming through the faucet is fit to do either one of those things.” 4/12 Denise Altvater at her home in Pleasant Point. | Andrew Clark, Beacon Financial strain; a rural utility and unique tax structure In addition to the specific difficulties associated with treating Boyden Lake water, operating rural utilities like PWD is generally challenging, in part due to a limited customer base.
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