|

Augusta, ME – A bipartisan group of Maine legislators sent a letter to Commissioner Mary Mayhew of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday morning, requesting that the Department announce a plan of action within 30 days to protect Maine children from exposure to arsenic and other toxic chemicals from drinking water wells.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 21st, 2015

Contact: Emma Halas-O’Connor, Environmental Health Strategy Center

ehalasoc@preventharm.org; (207) 699-5799

 Bipartisan Legislators: What’s the State’s Plan for Protecting Rural Maine Families from Arsenic Poisoning?

Six legislators criticize Administration’s decision to reject federal and state funding to improve testing of drinking water wells

Augusta, ME – A bipartisan group of Maine legislators sent a letter to Commissioner Mary Mayhew of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday morning, requesting that the Department announce a plan of action within 30 days to protect Maine children from exposure to arsenic and other toxic chemicals from drinking water wells.

In the letter, legislators said they were “discouraged and alarmed” by a Maine Sunday Telegram investigative report that the Department recently rejected a request by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention to reapply for a second federal CDC grant of $150,000 to improve testing and treatment of drinking water wells beyond August 31st when the program’s existing federal funds will expire.

The authors stated that a decision to cut off funding without an alternate plan could leave thousands of families exposed to a chemical that a recent study shows is contributing to lowered IQ scores in rural Maine school children. “Now is the time to double down on our efforts, not cut them short,” the legislators wrote.

 “Arsenic in drinking water is creating a brain drain on our state, robbing rural children of opportunities to succeed in school and in the workforce,” said Emma Halas-O’Connor of the Environmental Health Strategy Center, a statewide public health organization. “We find the Administration’s complacency very disturbing.”

The letter comes on the heels of Governor LePage’s veto of LD 1162, a bill that fell four votes short of a House override and would have added $75,000 to the state’s safe drinking water well efforts. The letter demands a plan of action to keep the state on track to meet an existing Maine CDC goal of getting 65% of residents with private wells to test their drinking water for arsenic by 2020.

The letter’s co-authors included lead sponsor of LD 1162 Representative Drew Gattine (D-Westbrook), co-sponsors Representative Gary Hilliard (R-Belgrade), Representative Karen Vachon (R-Scarborough), Senator Anne Haskell (D-Portland) and Senator Chris Johnson (D-Somerville), and Senator Amy Volk (R-Scarborough) who authored a Portland Press Herald opinion in June urging colleagues to overturn the Governor’s veto of LD 1162.

The Environmental Health Strategy Center praised the legislators for pressing the Administration to come up with resources to continue state efforts to raise awareness about arsenic and other toxic chemicals in drinking water wells.

“After saying no to state funding and no to federal funding, the LePage Administration is guiding our state’s safe well water programs down the drain,” said Halas-O’Connor. “These legislators are asking the right questions of a Department that is supposed to be protecting public health.”

The legislators also wrote critically of another finding in the Sunday Telegram’s investigative report. DHHS had prohibited the use of federal funds to pay for water test kits to distribute to rural well owners, even though that activity had been identified by the Maine CDC as one of the most effective tactics for revving up water testing in communities. “We want to make sure that the Maine CDC has the freedom and resources to continue exploring what works best to raise awareness,” the legislators wrote.

In the letter, legislators requested a response from Commissioner Mayhew within 30 days, and offered to meet with Department leaders to discuss proactive solutions for continue the Maine CDC’s awareness-raising activities, like distribution of information and use of local media.

###

The Environmental Health Strategy Center is a nonprofit public health organization working nationally and statewide to promote human health and safer chemicals in a safer economy, and is affiliated with Prevent Harm, the organization that spearheaded the safe well water campaign in the First Session of the 127th Legislature.