PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 15, 2022
For years, the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point has struggled to get drinkable water, particularly in the spring and fall. The tribe would like to drill new wells, but officials say they’ve been held back by laws requiring them to first get permission from the state and the water district. A bill would transfer land in Perry to the reservation, and allow the tribe to work with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop new wells there. It would exempt the water district’s land from property taxes, something no other district in the state has to pay. The Mills administration, which supports making the district exempt from property taxes but opposes giving the tribe more control over the district, points out that the district’s filtration system will get a more than $1 million upgrade this summer. But the questions being raised by this legislation are as much about the tribe’s right to self-determination as the water quality itself.