WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives
Audio archives of spoken word broadcasts from Community Radio WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill (weru.org)
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by: Matt Murphy
Common Ground Fair Keynote Speaker Jay Feldman of “Beyond Pesticides”
*Feldman summarizes dangers of pesticides
*References to Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”
FMI: www.beyondpesticides.org and www.mofga.org
Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco
Today we discuss five pesticide bills before the Maine legislature’s Joint Standing Committee Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. Two bills being considered would essentially erase recently passed legislation. One would repeal the pesticide registry, which requires landowners to inform residents, within a certain distance, at the beginning of the season, that they can get on a list for aerial and air carrier pesticide spray notification. The second, would severely limit the distance within which landowners would be required to observe notification wishes, cutting it from a quarter mile to 100 feet.
Another bill before the committee seeks to restrict the use of herbicides and pesticides on the grounds of schools and childcare facilities.
This News Just In: The Maine Superior Court has just ruled to vacate the Land Use Regulatory Commission’s decision to grant Plum Creek’s development plan for the Moosehead Lake region. Attorney Phil Worden represented the Forest Ecology Network and RESTORE: The North Woods in this challenge to LURC’s decision. Chief Justice Humphrey called LURC’s action an “unauthorized, ad hoc procedure,” and concluded that the public was denied its legal rights to speak out on the final version of Plum Creek’s plan.
Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco
Topics: EPA formulates Clean Water Act Permits required for pesticide applications; Calais LNG is granted postponement of BEP permitting hearings
What are some of the concerns of Canada concerning LNG tankers in Passamaquoddy Bay? What is Calais LNG’s connection to Goldman Sachs? What are some of the areas EPA is still solidifying in it’s NPDES permitting requirements for pesticide applicators?
Guests: Sylvia Broude, Toxics Action Center; Elizabeth Martin-Craig, Pesticides Watch; Bob Godfrey, Save Passamaquoddy Bay 3-Nation Alliance
Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco
Topics: DEP names Bisphenol – A priority chemical; Rep. Andy O’Brian on pesticide spray legislation
The Department of Environmental Protection has named Bisphenol-A the first priority chemical to take on under the Kids Safe Products Act. Steve Taylor with the Environmental Health Strategy Center gives us the latest from a hearing today in Augusta. And we have an update from Rep. Andy O’Brian on the pesticide spray notification legislation signed into law June 8th and the upcoming Board of Pesticides hearings on pesticide spraying next week.
Producers/Hosts: Meredith DeFrancesco and Amy Browne
Today we look at a stand Maine health care providers are taking against climate change, we hear about shifting policy on the application of industrial pesticides in the state and we look at Congressman Michaud’s TRADE Act which would reorganize US trade priorities.
1.On Monday, Governor Baldacci signed a bill which will create a statewide registry for notification of agricultural pesticide application by aerial spray or air carrier application equipment.
Guest: executive director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) Russel Libby discusses what the legislation does and where it has fallen short on the protection of people and organic crops from pesticide drift. FMI www.mofga.org
2.On Tuesday, 100 healthcare professionals from across the state sent Maine’s Congressional delegation a letter urging them to take decisive action to address climate change specifically the United States production of green house gases. The focus of the letter was the public health implications of climate change. We speak with Dr Lani Grahm, the co-president of the Maine Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Her organization ,as well as the Maine Medical Association have stressed their deep concern on the issue. FMI www.psr.org/chapters/maine www.cleanandhealthyme.org
3. A bill which would establish stringent standards for future free trade agreements, and the review and potential renegotiation of current free trade agreements, was introduced yesterday in Congress.
HR 3012, the “Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment” or “TRADE” Act was introduced, with 106 co-sponsors, by Maine Congressman Mike Michaud, the Chairman of the House Trade Working Group.
The TRADE Act would require adherence by country signatories to labor, environmental and human rights standards, as well as addressing the privatization of public services, intellectual property rights and procurement policies.
Even more significantly, the Act would require a review, and potential renegotiation, of a number of current trade agreements, including NAFTA, CAFTA and the World Trade Organization’s Uruguay Round agreements, based on the Act’s new trade standards.
Guest: Sarah Bigney, Maine Fair Trade Campaign www.mainefairtrade.org
Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco
Topic: Today we consider the life and work of photojournalist Jim Harney, as he prepares for a walk in solidarity with the undocumented. Get updates from walk and see Jim’s work at www.posibilidad.org
And we get an update on aerial spraying from the Maine Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides before the August 1st meeting of the Board of Pesticides Control. FMI: www.maine.gov/agriculture/pesticides