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)
Producers/Hosts: Cheryl Wixson, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association
Topic: Public Policy
How does the public (consumer) participate in the process? What can citizens do to protect themselves from toxics? What is the civics process of bills in the legislature?
Guests:
Andy O’Brien, State Representative, District 44; Jim Gerritson, Wood Prairie Farm, Bridgewater; Heather Spaulding, Associate Director, MOFGA
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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: 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.