The enforcement of environmental regulations in our state is going on at a dispiriting – and unsustainable – pace. That needs to change, and fast.

A report last week by the Press Herald’s Penelope Overton did a wonderful job of exposing the shortcomings of the Department of Environmental Protection’s enforcement arm, the state Board of Environmental Protection (a citizen body appointed by the governor).

In case you missed it, or in case you’d benefit from an alarming refresher, here are some of the most dazzling violations up for “resolution” this year.

• A Windham car wash that knowingly – using a secret underground pipe – dumped “about 2 million gallons of wastewater containing hazardous chemicals such as lead, thallium and chromium” faces a fine of $239,000.
• A tanning salon chain that operates 11 salons in Maine faces more than $100,000 in cleanup costs and fines for illegally disposing of broken tanning lamps, which contain mercury, and were first reported in 2019.
• A South Portland auto shop could be fined $50,000 for its part in the spill of oil, detergent and debris that led to the closure of Willard Beach for four days in 2021.
• A hospital in Farmington will pay $20,000 in fines for the improper storage of waste and connected violations.

The violation that tops the list, in Windham, is by far the most eye-popping; it was carried out deliberately and with calculated attention to detail. It is also, sadly, being pursued years too late by the authorities. The dumping in question took place between 2017 and 2019, when evidence of it was first “spotted” by a DEP inspector. During the five years since, the car wash changed hands and the owner at the time of the violation died.

In practice, then, a fine initially assessed at $239,000 may today be slashed to $56,000, providing the current owner complies with a “corrective action plan” put in place by the state. Depending on the business, this could be a pretty OK, weatherable outcome. It is not a punishment that fits the crime. Not nearly.

What, then – particularly if fines, voluntarily agreed to in the first place, are eventually suspended by more than 75% and, even then, are coming too late to the offending enterprise – is to be done?

Change this very unpersuasive, uninspiring process; strengthen it; expedite its steps; and leave way, way less to chance – or, looking ahead, to political or administrative variables.

Here in Maine as nationally, we have watched the whole realm of environmental protection morph into a political football. For a state so proud of its woods and waters, for a population so besotted with and invested in its natural surroundings, this could not be a more unfortunate development. And that’s without getting into fundamental public health concerns.

If lenient, snail’s-pace enforcement is where we are, still, after four years of Democratic administration (state and federal) that professes to care deeply about the state of our environment, where are we under a government that cares less?

Any idea that prompt and meaningful enforcement of environmental protection regulations is a leftist or progressive priority needs to be abandoned now. Our unhelpful political reality leaves us in a very vulnerable position; when it’s fashionable to demonize the Environmental Protection Agency and thoughtlessly eliminate rules and policies crafted to support the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink and use and the land we live on and farm on, all bets are off. Everything is suddenly, dangerously up for grabs.

We cannot let environmental protection fall foul of the vagaries of weak rulemaking, underfunding or understaffing, particularly where those limited conditions are the product of deliberate rollback – the likes of which was favored by former Gov. Paul LePage and, at the federal level, implemented and now freshly touted by former President Trump.

So, sure, vote with the environment in mind this year. Better again, put the environment at the fore of your own mind and your daily conversations. Look around. Run the thought experiment that reveals environmental protection to be an inarguable priority for people of every political leaning and none. Think about the car wash manager surreptitiously pumping 2 million gallons of life-threatening contaminants into suburban drains. You should find it’s not very hard to get there.