By Liz Chapman,Staff Writer

The state has vacated agreements reached secretly with the region’s two paper mills regarding a cleanup plan for the Androscoggin River and decided Tuesday, under mounting public pressure, to take up the controversial river plan again with full public notice and input.

“We could have had a better public process,” Dawn Gallagher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, said Tuesday. “Even though we are not required to do so, the (cleanup plan) really calls for public participation and we need to do that, and we will do that.”

The DEP recently reached “side agreements” with officials from International Paper in Jay and NewPage Corp. in Rumford that are authorized under a new state law, Gallagher said.

The law does not require public hearings or comment periods for the side agreements, she said, because the agreements require the mills to meet higher standards than those imposed under their new discharge licenses.

Although the licenses are for only five years, they establish a 10-year schedule for the mills to comply with the Clean Water Act. The side agreements are meant to hasten the mills’ compliance by requiring the mills to meet the standards faster, Gallagher said.

The side agreements, she said, were concessions to legislators who wanted a more demanding schedule for the river’s cleanup during the sometimes-bitter debate over the mills’ new discharge licenses last winter.

Gallagher said she changed her mind about holding hearings on the side agreements after getting multiple Freedom of Access requests from environmental groups two weeks ago.

In preparing for the license appeals, attorneys for environmental groups were frustrated and angry to learn the information about the side agreements could not be provided by the DEP because the talks were held at the Rumford mill and supporting notes and other records belong to the mill.

“Clearly it was not our intent to do this in a way that would be offensive,” Gallagher said.

But even the Attorney General’s Office was surprised to hear about the side agreements, according to Assistant Attorney General Jeff Pidot. He said the state lawyers typically review any DEP agreements that involve legal issues, especially on controversial cases.

“The issues dealt with in those side agreements will be subject to a public process,” Pidot said.

Pidot said he could not say whether the agreements would survive the public process, but Gallagher said she stands by her decision to approve them and will make that case during the new public proceedings.

Fourteen parties have appealed the DEP discharge licenses. Gallagher said public hearings and comment on the side agreements would have to wait until after the state Board of Environmental Protection takes up the pending appeals of the licenses themselves.

Steve Hinchman, an attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation, said Tuesday that the “shadow permits” would not force the mills to comply with the Clean Water Act any sooner. He said the agreements should have been part of the discharge licenses and received full public scrutiny.

“The Clean Water Act does not allow for public permits and secret side agreements,” Hinchman said. “It’s an indication of how poorly DEP has handled these (licenses) from the start that they would make this mistake in the first place.”

Despite the 10-year cleanup schedule outlined in the new licenses, the side agreements would require the mills to meet federal river standards for salmon habitat in about seven years, according to IP spokesman Bill Cohen.

Cohen said IP wants to meet the standards in less than 10 years, but fought for the extra time beyond the five-year license period to ensure the mill’s investments would correct the problem without causing another one.

For example, IP must meet standards for protecting insects along the river, in addition to many other Clean Water Act requirements, and the company wants to be sure that it doesn’t violate one standard in trying to comply with another, Cohen said.

“There has to be a balance of the science and a balance of the timetable,” Cohen said.

Specifically, the side agreements would require the mills to reduce phosphorus and increase oxygen in the Androscoggin to eliminate algae blooms and increase the temperature of the water to 24 degrees to enhance salmon habitat, Gallagher said.

The standards would be in force for the section of the river from the IP mill in Jay to Gulf Island Pond north of Lewiston-Auburn. All other parts of the Androscoggin already meet the algae and temperature standards, according to Gallagher.

Gallagher said mill officials agreed last week to “set aside” the agreements until after the BEP takes up the numerous appeals of the new mill licenses.

Cohen said IP did not participate in any of the meetings at the Rumford mill. A spokesman for NewPage could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but Gallagher confirmed meetings were held at the Rumford mill and public information was lacking.

“I’m glad the state is finally coming to its senses and conducting public business in the public realm,” Neil Ward of Leeds, a member of the Androscoggin River Alliance, said Tuesday.

The alliance is among the groups appealing the new mill licenses.

“We have been unable to use that river for a long time,” Ward said. “It’s time we took it back for the public.”

Copy the Story Link