By David Farmer

and Bonnie Washuk,Staff Writers

LEWISTON – Struggling to regain her footing after a damaging investigation by an environmental organization, the head of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection adamantly denied that she had offered a state lawmaker a deal for his help on Androscoggin River legislation.

State Rep. Tom Saviello, I-Wilton, says she did, and a DEP staffer backs him up.

In 2003, state investigators visited the International Paper mill in Jay, where Saviello works as the environmental manager. Saviello initially questioned the propriety of the unannounced inspection but allowed it to proceed.

Several violations were discovered and a notice of violation was prepared, according to documents uncovered by the Natural Resources Council of Maine and two of the participants in the site inspection. The notice was later downgraded to a letter of warning, a lesser citation. It was never sent.

In an interviewl, DEP Commissioner Dawn Gallagher said it was a mistake not to follow through on the letter of warning.

Saviello tells a different story. In January 2004, Gallagher offered to drop a hazardous waste violation at International Paper if Saviello agreed to pending legislation about the Androscoggin River, Saviello said.

There were witnesses in the room, Saviello said, adding that he declined the deal.

“I told her, ‘These are not connected. If you need to send the notice of violation, send it.'”

Gallagher said Saviello’s account isn’t true.

“There was no deal,” she said. “We certainly met on a couple of occasions to talk about various things going on in the companies. But to infer that there was somehow an agreement that we would not send a violation or notice of warning in return for doing something else is not true. If it were true and he said no, then why wouldn’t we send the notice of warning out?”

Richard Currie, one of the inspectors who visited IP in 2003, backs up Saviello.

“I can’t tell you why the original notice of violation was downgraded,” Currie said. “But I know why the letter of warning was totally disregarded.”

Currie said Scott Whittier, the director of the Oil and Hazardous Waste Facilities Division of DEP, gave him direct instructions from the commissioner. Currie said his two immediate supervisors were left out of the process, and his instructions to make the letter go away came from Whittier.

“He said the commissioner needed Saviello’s backing on the Androscoggin River and that issue was more important to the environment,” Currie said.

After he was told to disregard the letter, Currie said he approached Whittier again about the issue and was told again the commissioner was trying to make a deal to get Saviello’s assistance.

Currie, who’s been at DEP for five years, said he hasn’t seen anything like this before.

“Notices of violation and letters of warning usually don’t go beyond Scott Whittier,” Currie said. It was unusual for the commissioner to be involved, he said.

A telephone message left for Whittier on Tuesday was not returned by Wednesday evening.

An early evening message left on Gallagher’s cell phone was not immediately returned.

The dispute surfaced during a Natural Resources Council of Maine investigation into a proposed merger of two agencies within the DEP. A Freedom of Access request uncovered scores of documents that suggest Saviello, a member of the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee, pressured the department to weaken regulations and also uncovered the undelivered letter of warning.

On a draft of the letter is a handwritten note that says it was never sent on the instructions of Steve Davis and that Currie had been advised to forgo enforcement action. Davis, who is leaving DEP, worked for the Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management.

Gallagher said no action was taken because Davis said to forget about it. That, Gallagher said, was a mistake. “The notice should have been sent.”

On Wednesday, International Paper spokesman Bill Cohen said his company is using the Freedom of Access Act to get the same documents the Natural Resources Council examined in its report.

“We’re looking for the information because if you read (the Natural Resources Council’s) statement, it’s full of ‘may have’ or ‘might have,'” Cohen said. “The accusations are carefully worded not to be fact, but to be suppositions. We’re trying to figure out whether they have data or are winging this out there.”

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