Paui R. L.ePage 

STATE OF MAINE 

OFFiCE OF THE GOVERNOR 

1 STATE HOUSE STATION 

AUGUSTA, MAlNE 

0433 J-0001 

February 11, 2015 

Mr. H. Curtis Spalding, Administrator 

USEPA REGION 1 - New England 

5 Post Office Square 

Mail Code: ORA 

Boston, MA 02109-3912 

Dear Administrator Spalding: 

Commissioner Aho has apprised me of U.S. EPA's recent decision regarding Maine's 

water quality standards, which comes after your longstanding refusal to recognize that 

Maine has the authority to regulate all waters in our state, as the First Circuit Court of 

Appeals emphatically ruled in the Maine v. Johnson decision. Your refusal to recognize 

Maine's jurisdiction for well over a decade forced the State to initiate litigation against 

EPA again last summer requesting the court ordered EPA to perform its statutory duty 

and act on our outstanding water quality standard submissions. During your recent 

discussion with Commissioner Aho, you stated that this decision was discussed within 

EPA, including with Administrator McCarthy. While we are pleased you finally reached 

the same conclusion that the First Circuit did many years ago, it is clear from the 

substance of the decision that it is nothing more than retribution against Maine DEP for 

being willing to take a stand against U.S. EPA and demand that your agency perform 

the basic functions that the law requires. Your decision to disapprove major categories 

of Maine's standards, and to call into question certain other standards that were not 

even before your agency for decision, reads more like an elaborate and results-oriented 

rationalization than it does an objective assessment of the merits. 

We will of course continue to pursue all legal options available to the State, but in the 

meantime, it is important for me to be abundantly clear: Maine has the authority to 

regulate the water in our state and we will continue to do so according to sound science, 

our laws and our regulations. Your reprisal undermines decades of good, quality 

technical work undertaken by our scientists, seems to renege on earlier approvals which 

you now deem "disapproved" by administrative fiat, creates extraordinary uncertainty in 

the regulatory process, and raises significant questions regarding which human health 

and environmental criteria apply to which water bodies. The conclusion you are 

reaching yet again is clearly contrary to Maine's Implementing Act, the Indian Land 

Claims Settlement Act and to the Maine v. Johnson decision as well. 

Your decision states that Maine DEP is to revise years of scientific work, but yet you do 

not and presumably cannot explain how the revisions are to be undertaken, or what 

standards are to apply in the meantime. Nor do you explain how Maine DEP is to 

complete all of this work within 90 days, which is plainly not possible. Again, let me be 

very clear: Maine DEP will not be revising its work in an attempt to meet some unknown 

standard to meet your deadline of 90 days after your agency defied federal law for more ~~~ 

(~ v l'l!l~ i HJ 0." 1\fCY(_ LCll i' APLI< 

PHONE: (20?) 287-1'331 (Voice) 888-577-6690 (TTY) FAX: (207) :ZR?-1034 

www.maine.gov 
than 12 years before acting on our water quality standard submissions. Your demand 

that we do so, against the backdrop of U.S. EPA's recalcitrance, is outrageous. I intend 

to make sure the record of your agency's handling of this matter gets the public airing 

that it so justly deserves. 

Further, in your discussion with Commissioner Aho, your staff noted they had been 

engaged in scientific and technical analysis related to the implications of the decisions 

in your letter, but when the Commissioner asked if you would share this work with 

Maine DEP, the story changed, and no such analysis or supporting scientific data 

appeared to be available. This raises troubling questions about the transparency of 

your process- questions that have surrounded your agency since it was revealed that 

you entered into a written confidentiality agreement with a Maine Tribe governing sorne 

of the same issues addressed in your recent decision. 

You have placed Maine's regulated community and all Maine's stakeholders in water 

quality issues in great uncertainty. You have also undermined decades of sound work 

undertaken by the Maine DEP's scientists. This now makes us all seriously question the 

value of the delegated water program and whether the costs to Maine's dischargers, the 

State and to our citizens outweigh the value we are receiving from this delegation. I 

question whether we can even consider this a delegation in light of your sweeping 

repeal of dozens of carefully considered standards that your agency had for years fully 

embraced and itself applied in hundreds of licensing proceedings before this week's 

abrupt reversal. All of this calls into question how you are exercising the circumscribed 

authority that Congress created for the U.S. EPA under the Clean Water Act. 

While I am sure that these issues will continue to be discussed between you and 

Commissioner Aho and her staff, Maine remains committed to protecting our waters 

based on sound science, our laws and our regulations. That remains our focus, with or 

without your agency's cooperation. 

Sincerely, 

~-~ Paul R. LePage 

Governor 

cc: Commissioner Patricia Aho, Maine DEP 

Susan M. Collins, US Senate 

Angus S. King, US Senate 

Bruce L .Poliquin, House of Representatives 

Chellie M. Pingree, House of Representatives