AUGUSTA — Maine lawmakers will hold a public hearing this week on a bill that aims to protect the state’s lobster fishery by prohibiting the use of certain chemicals in bodies of water.

The bill introduced by Deer Isle Democrat Walter Kumiega would ban the use of methoprene and resmethrin, chemicals that are used to kill mosquitoes, in water that drains into the Gulf of Maine or on land where runoff can occur into those waterways.

The Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee will hold a public hearing on the bill on Thursday.

Kumiega says that many believe chemicals, which were used heavily in New York and Connecticut to prevent an outbreak of West Nile Virus in 1999, are partially to blame for a large die off in the lobster population there.


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