The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Joel Clement is a 10th generation Mainer and an award-winning former federal whistleblower with a background in climate change, science, and the environment.
As reported last week by the Bangor Daily News, Maine’s ongoing struggles with toxic chemicals in the ground continue to grow worse. For a state that takes pride in — and reaps substantial economic benefit from — the natural environment here, these revelations are significant blows to our reputation and, more importantly, to the health and wellbeing of the folks who live here and come to stay.
At a time when America’s public health care is poorly funded and the for-profit health care system is difficult to access, it is essential that we know what we are up against so we can keep our loved ones and neighbors safe. More information, while upsetting, is essential to acting in the public interest. Ignorance is not bliss in this case, it’s dangerous for families and bad for our environment.
The question we face is: Now that we know, what next?
This was the question that Americans faced in 1970 when Maine’s eminent senator, Edmund Muskie, looked out over a filthy, stinking Androscoggin River as it ran through his hometown of Rumford. His tireless efforts to clean up the Androscoggin, then one of America’s most polluted rivers, led to 1972’s Clean Water Act, signed into law by President Richard Nixon.
The Clean Water Act led to a dramatic turnaround in water quality and ecosystem health in the coming decades, with a direct impact on the health of Americans. The Clean Air Act of 1970, also championed by Muskie, had the same impact on breathability and public health, particularly in urban areas but also rural Maine, downwind of the industrial centers of the Ohio River Valley.
The willingness of politicians to reach bipartisan compromise to study the problem and regulate the offending industries was driven by a sense of fairness and accountability — that no person or corporation, regardless of how wealthy and powerful, could cause harm with impunity.
So now that we face widespread toxic contamination yet again we should look to these successes and remember how science and regulation led to a more livable Maine, and do what we can to support scientists and regulators searching for a fair way to keep people safe. Sometimes the science tells us what we don’t want to hear, and sometimes regulators can seem clueless about reality on the ground, but to undercut efforts to keep us healthy and protect Maine’s natural resources is to shoot ourselves in the foot.
What we should not do is shoot the messenger. I worked for the first Trump Administration so I know what an assault on science and regulation looks like. If watchdog institutions such as the Environmental Protection Agency are kneecapped, as the corporate and tech billionaires leading the new Trump Administration seemingly would like, it will have direct implications for the health and wellbeing of Mainers.
It’s not jobs versus the environment anymore; we know we can have both in Maine. It’s largely wealthy corporations and billionaires seeking profit and cutting jobs versus everyday Americans who just want to do well. Recent reports show that the ultra-wealthy, the top 0.1 percent, control a vastly inordinate share of wealth in the U.S., and that wealth disparity is quickly growing. If folks aren’t doing well, it would be wise to point the finger at the billionaires, not the environment, immigrants, or federal workers.
As an independent in Maine, I’ve always taken pride in how we take a clear-eyed look at problems and work together to find solutions, much the way Edmund Muskie did back in the ’70s. When I worked as a framing carpenter years ago, I quickly learned that it’s a lot easier to demolish a house than to build one. As the Trump Administration launches its billionaire-driven assault on government, we should remind Washington that there is more to leadership than demolition. We should demand good faith efforts to improve what Muskie called the “total human environment” — society, the economy, and the ecosystems we depend upon.
That means helping Mainers cope with toxic pollution and rapid climate change, it means supporting the science we need to stay healthy, and it means balancing jobs and the environment to get to win-win solutions rather than just bowing to corporations and billionaires who think they can automate jobs and don’t have to clean up the toxic mess they leave behind.
I’ve always felt that Mainers are more impressed by service to one another and by integrity than we are cowed by wealth or power. How we manage to uphold these values despite the best efforts of billionaires and mega-corporations will define Maine’s environmental and public health future.
