AUGUSTA – The state Attorney General’s Office is investigating the Department of Environmental Protection for possible violations of Maine’s Freedom of Access Act, spokesman Chuck Dow said Monday.
The investigation is looking at how DEP negotiated water-pollution agreements with paper mills, Dow said. DEP has come under fire for secret meetings it held at the Rumford paper mill about cleaning up the Androscoggin River.
On Monday, environmentalists welcomed news of the AG investigation. The Rumford mill did not.
“The job of government is to do the public business in the light of day,” said Naomi Schalit of Maine Rivers.
“It’s incredible,” said NewPage mill spokesman Tony Lyons. Environmentalists are not seeing the big picture, complaining about the process rather than applauding work done to improve the river, Lyons said.
One week ago, DEP dropped the so-called “side” environmental agreements with NewPage in Rumford and International Paper in Jay. That came after mounting pressure from environmentalists, who filed Freedom of Access Act requests seeking documentation.
On Nov. 8, DEP Commissioner Dawn Gallagher acknowledged that private meetings were held at the Rumford mill. The process could have been better, she said, announcing that new agreements would be reached with full public notice and input.
Environmentalists said Monday they have no public-access concern with the IP agreement. They do have a concern with the NewPage agreement because it was reached in private meetings at the Rumford mill, using the mill’s computers.
That agreement amounts to an environmental permit, which under the Clean Water Act must be reached allowing public participation, said Steve Hinchman, a lawyer with the Conservation Law Foundation.
“The problem is not only a public hearing violation, but also a documents violation and a process violation,” Hinchman said. Dropping the agreements and starting the process over “doesn’t get to the heart of the problem. Government is supposed to operate in an open, transparent fashion. In this case, they did not. They held clandestine meetings on private property to conceal and prevent access to the documents, and discussion.”
Lyons disagreed. Environmentalists have lost sight of what’s important, the mill spokesman said.
“They say no good deed goes unpunished,” which is what’s happening, Lyons said. The AG’s probe is “incredible,” because NewPage was going beyond what was required, entering a voluntary agreement to improve the river.
The agreement was proposed at the mill because NewPage was proposing how to go “beyond compliance.” He said secret meetings were not held. “To my knowledge, we never convened any direct meetings to finalize” the agreement. “There was nothing clandestine about this.”
‘Side agreements’
Last week, Gallagher said her department participated in private meetings at NewPage because it was trying to reach “side agreements” in addition to five-year permits recently approved.
A new state law authorized five-year pollution permits for the Androscoggin mills. Lewiston legislators were disappointed because the law did not reduce pollution so the river would be clean enough to comply with the Clean Water Act in five years. Instead, it would take 10 years.
Gallagher explained her department was trying to deliver to legislators who wanted the river cleaner, faster. Because the side agreements were in addition to the five-year law, DEP did not legally have to hold public hearings or comments, Gallagher said.
She changed her mind after receiving multiple Freedom of Access Act requests from environmentalists who became frustrated when they were unable to get documentation on the NewPage agreement.
The meetings and side agreement with NewPage were discovered when Florida Power and Light, which owns the dam on the river’s Gulf Island Pond, found out about those through its Freedom of Access Act requests, Hinchman said.
“Florida Power and Light asked to see the documents” with NewPage, and was told they were not available, Hinchman said. “FPL asked, ‘Why not?'” and was told there were no documents because the meetings were at the mill, he said.
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