Maine to sue EPA over tribal pollution and tribal rights

In a move that surprised nobody, Maine Attorney General Janet Mills has informed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that she will be suing to overturn the agency's recent order to tighten water quality standards in Maine's Indian territories.

The dispute is ultimately about tribal rights in Maine, not the environment.

As previously reported, the EPA is acting to enforce Maine tribe's alleged right to sustenance fish on their territory, an action the agency says would endanger human health under Maine's proposed water quality standards. Gov. Paul LePage, an ally of the paper industry, called the decision "outrageous" and claimed it was made to retaliate against Maine for bucking federal edicts. Mills, in her letter to the EPA, says the tribe has no such right and that federal law clearly gives Maine authority over all environmental regulation on Indian reservations here.

The tribes are already at odds with the state over saltwater fishing, the applicaibility of the federal Violence Against Women Act to their territories, and other issues, and have called on Congress to intervene.

For additional background on the history of Maine's tribal-state relations, consider "Unsettled", the 31-part Press Herald series on the Passamaquoddy, which appeared in the paper last summer. (It's also available as an e-book here.)

Reviewing Barney Frank's memoir in the Washington Post

In today's Washington Post, I review former congressman Barney Frank's newly released memoir, Frank: A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same Sex Marriage.

The book "relates his rise from pumping gas for his father’s northern New Jersey truck stop to Boston City Hall, the Massachusetts legislature and, ultimately, the upper echelons of congressional power. The central, ironic theme: As Frank’s influence grew — and anti-gay bigotry withered — the New Deal order to which he was devoted cracked, crumbled and was scattered before a libertarian wind"

Most political memoirs are safe, predictable and dull. This one isn't, which won't surprise anyone familiar with Frank (who now lives in southern Maine and even writes a column for the Maine Sunday Telegram.)

I've been busy writing my own book, so haven't reviewed one for the Post in a year. The last one was of Amy Chua's monstrosity, The Triple Package.

Passamaquoddy tribe to take hit from Gov. LePage poor relief reform

State House-watchers in Maine have been discussing Gov. Paul LePage's plan to reform the way the state compensates towns who provide emergency poor relief, "General Assistance" in local parlance. The governor's plan: that frugal municipalities should be rewarded and "free-spending" cities like Portland should be punished with cuts.

As I report in today's Portland Press Herald, the hardest hit communities under the proposed reform are two remote, rural, and extremely poor Indian reservations in eastern Washington County. On a per capita basis, they'll see far and away the most extreme cuts if the plan goes through.

But, as the story asks, why are those reservations spending such staggering sums on General Assistance: over a quarter million dollars a year in the case of Indian Township, population 718, or more than forty times that of the similarly-sized Penobscot reservation at Indian Island and about thirty times that of Indian Township's immediate neighbor, Princeton, population 832.

Tribal officials refuse to say, but a former chief has an unpleasant answer.

For more on the Passamaquoddy, consider "Unsettled", the 32-part serial that ran in the Press Herald this past summer, also available as an ebook.

Weston Andersen, 1922-2015

My grandfather, Weston Neil Andersen, died Sunday at 93. Born in rural northwestern Iowa and raised during the Great Depression, he was a disciple of the father of industrial design, Donald Dohner, and friend to the Budapest-born ceramicist Eva Ziesel. He moved to Maine in 1952 and built the stoneware line that bears his name with his London-born wife, Brenda, whom he met while serving in the 8th Army Air Force, in a Kensington ballroom, during an air raid.

His obituary is in today's Portland Press Herald.

For those who knew him, there's visitation tomorrow, March 6, at Hall's in Boothbay, Maine. Further information at the end of the obituary.

Gov. LePage calls EPA decision on Maine tribal waters "outrageous"

In today's Portland Press Herald, I wrote about the latest flashpoint between Maine's Indian tribes and the state's government who are at odds on many fronts over sovereignty issues.

The latest news is that Governor Paul LePage has sent a fiery and defiant letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, calling a recent order to improve water quality in tribal waters "outrageous" and charging it with vindictive behavior toward the state. It's also revealed that the tribes -- already at odds with the state over saltwater fishing, the applicaibility of the federal Violence Against Women Act to their territories, and other issues -- have called on Congress to intervene.

Here's a taste:

“Ultimately this is not about the water quality; this is just a platform to try to undermine the settlement acts,” said Manahan, a partner at Pierce Atwood who has been tangling with the Penobscots for 25 years on behalf of paper companies, dam owners and others. “I don’t think the tribes frankly care if there are job losses to municipalities and industries in Maine, and I don’t think EPA does either.”

Manahan described potentially dire economic consequences in the Penobscot River valley if more stringent standards are adopted to meet the EPA’s order: municipalities shelling out millions to improve wastewater treatment and having to raise property taxes to pay for it, and industrial users having to scale back production or buy new equipment. “For companies, this could result in job layoffs or cost increases that might cause them to make decisions to move elsewhere,” he said.

But the EPA says that’s not true, and that municipalities and most industrial dischargers on the river will almost certainly be unaffected by the tighter standards. “Based on the discharge information we’ve seen for these facilities, the vast majority won’t have to be concerned about most of these standards,” said Ken Moraff, director of ecosystem protection at EPA’s New England office in Boston. “We are not aware of any dischargers that are fundamentally in conflict with the sustenance fishing use.”

For additional background on the history of Maine's tribal-state relations, consider "Unsettled", the 31-part Press Herald series on the Passamaquoddy, which appeared in the paper last summer. (It's also available as an e-book here.)

[Update, 3/22/15: Maine will sue EPA over the issue.]