MAINE PUBLIC • February 3, 2022
The state Board of Environmental Protection took testimony Thursday on the implementation of a new law that aims to better regulate emissions from big petroleum storage tanks, like the dozens located in South Portland. The law requires actions, such as placing floating roofs on new tanks to reduce evaporation and emissions, monthly visual inspections, and continuous, third-party monitoring for potentially-harmful emissions at a facility's fence-line. Activists who pushed for the requirements called on the board to expand the list of substances that should be monitored, to require collection of wind data at the sites, and to shorten the amount of time companies will be allowed to set up fence-line monitoring programs.