Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Pesticides and the Legislative Process


Governor Baldacci signing my bill LD 1547: An Act To Revise Notification Requirements for Pesticides Applications Using Aircraft or Air-carrier Equipment on June 8, 2010.

This bill truly represents a great part of my education up in Augusta so far. The committee I serve on, Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry, has historically gotten along very well. For the most part, this still rings true as we only had two divided reports during this past session. However, there are a handful of issues that continue to raise the hackles of several concerned parties. Pesticide use is one of them.

Having worked in the annual blueberry harvest since I was nine years old, I am very familiar with the industry and I understand why blueberry farmers here in the midcoast need these tools to control pests and present a marketable product. However, since I began serving in the Maine Legislature, I have also become acquainted with many local residents who have concerns about the potential harmful effects of pesticides and cite scientific evidence to back up their arguments. They also feel that residing near treated areas has exposed them to these chemicals. On the other hand, the conventional blueberry farmers strongly believe that these chemicals do not present a danger, have their own scientific evidence and they feel like they're being needlessly targeted. One thing I've learned about serving as a public official, no matter what stand you take, you're going to catch flack and if you try to take the middle ground, you're going to get beat up by both sides! Nevertheless, this is what I signed up for and ever since this issue was first brought to my attention, I have made it my goal to bring both sides in this debate together.

Here in Maine lawmakers have been around the bend debating this problem. They've discussed setting up buffer zones for pesticide spraying, but that never went anywhere. There has been a petition to ban aerial spraying, but that was thrown out. However there was promise with a notification registry. Up until last year, farmers were required to notify people who asked to be notified if they resided within 500 feet. However, this was based on whether the resident was aware of pesticide use and if they had a relationship with the land manager. Under my bill, anyone spraying pesticides with aerial and air blast methods must notify all residents on a newly created notification registry who reside with 1320 feet, or 500 feet if near an orchard or Christmas tree farm.

I won't go into the whole process I've been through during the past year - the stakeholder groups, the heated debates, the yelling and the hair pulling - but I will say that this is an ongoing process. My bill specifically directs the Board of Pesticides Control to begin working on a unified single pesticide notification registry that includes all sectors of the regulated community, from forestry to suburban use, as well as all methods of application. It's very important that all concerned parties stay engaged.

Furthermore, if you would like to know if someone is using aerial or air carrier pesticide applications near your home, you can sign up for the new registry at Thinkfirstspraylast.com

Monday, June 14, 2010

The original Maine flag!

One of the best parts of being a Maine State Legislator is that I have the opportunity to get to know so many interesting people in our community doing fascinating things. My friend Jason Luce of Hope enjoys researching local Maine history and he was inspired by a local Washington, Maine historian to design a replica of the original Maine State flag.


The two Maine flags currently fly in front of Luce's home

The following quote is from the vexillologist (one who studies flags) Dave Martucci, who wrote on his website:

Few people know that Maine's first official flag was quite different than the one we see in use today (which is not legally correct according to the act of the Legislature that adopted it). Adopted in 1901 and legal until it was replaced in 1909, the first flag is distinctive (no other flag like it in the world - compare a set of State Flags with the present flag and a set with the first flag); simple (a child can draw it); inexpensive to make (manufacturing costs of approximately 33% of the current flag); and, in my opinion, more expressive of the State of Maine than the present flag (which, by law, is a military color).

Incidentally, Martucci initiated legislation to replace the current flag in 1991 and 1997, but both bills "died a quick death," in his words.


Editorial cartoon from Kennebec Journal at the time when the first bill was introduced.

Perhaps this same argument could be made nineteen years later. I wonder if anyone has calculated how much a savings of 33% on the manufacturing of Maine flags would save the state?

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Down East article

This article about me appeared on the Down East magazine website. I figured my handlers would have done a better job of concealing "Diaper Gate" from the news media, but apparently not!

Hometown Boys and Girls Make Maine's Laws
Submitted by Richard Grant



If I'd lived in this town ten years longer, I could say I've known Andy O'Brien, our delegate to the Maine House of Representatives, since he was in diapers. But I can say truthfully that I've known him since my son Tristan, who's about to graduate from high school, was in diapers, because we hired Andy one night to babysit. Andy was about thirteen; we were friends with his family. We came home around midnight to discover Tristan sleeping face-down on the floor of the sleeping loft, and his diaper ... well, "It was too stinky," Andy said.

Now that the babysitter has risen to high public office, this incident is known around our house as Diapergate. I have vowed never to reveal it publicly, so please, let's keep this among ourselves.

I bring this up for a couple of reasons. One is the strange mood of public anger at government, bordering sometimes on hysteria, that has come over many of our citizens. To listen to Tea Party types, you'd think all public servants were corrupt and lazy fat cats indifferent to the common weal. Another is the vexing phenomenon of bright and talented young Mainers moving out-of-state in search of brighter horizons elsewhere. Andy fits neither of these categories. He's a hard-working and good-hearted young man who, after living abroad for a few years, teaching English in Taiwan, came back to his Maine home town and put his shoulder to the wheel of civic life.

"People are so used to thinking of politicians as these faraway people," he says, "but here in Maine, if you call up your representative, you're probably talking to some guy who lives up the road."

It could hardly be otherwise. We pay these folks $10,000 a year. The legislative session lasts six months. Passing laws in Maine is — like snowplowing and waitressing and lawn maintenance — a form of seasonal employment.

"It fits perfectly with the Maine economy," says Andy. "So you get a mixed bag — there are 151 folks up there — but they're all real people. You should go to Augusta and look at some of the cars parked out front. It is a citizen legislature. That's what's so great about it."

Andy is serving in his first term, having been elected on a tide of hope and change in 2008. Is he at all disillusioned? Doesn't sound like it. "Sometimes," he says judiciously, "you feel like you're making a difference. You learn what issues are important to the people in your area. You learn to listen a lot. It's important to value what people have to say. And you learn that there's a difference between governing and grumbling.

"What people usually don't realize," he goes in, "is that 90 percent of what we do in Augusta is bipartisan — and then there are these few contentious issues. People say, 'All you guys ever do is spend money.' But I say, 'What money?' We've been cutting steadily for eight years. We've laid off a thousand state workers. We've made the best of a horrible situation. I wish people would get this message."

I like Andy a lot. He has that Maine quality of plain-spokenness and an appealing, unabashed air of sincerity. I asked him to tell me straight how he feels things in Maine are going.

"I honestly think," he says, "the state is as good as the people who are in it. And there are a lot of exciting things happening right now. You see all these grass-roots groups popping up — just ordinary people who have gotten concerned about the quality of life in their communities and have gotten together to try to do something, to make a difference. You see all these young people getting involved, putting on little community fairs, putting out newsletters — there's a lot of energy in people these days. I didn't always see that before. It's exciting."

All in all, I felt pretty good after this conversation — the first real talk I've had with Andy for almost a year, since I sat in his tiny front yard in Lincolnville Center with a group of family and friends, watching last year's Memorial Day parade pass by. I'll have to stay in closer touch, I guess. It's comforting to feel you know somebody in Augusta, even if he does live just up the road.