EPA Awards Three Environmental Merit Awards to Maine Recipients
Publilshed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
BOSTON (Oct. 12, 2022) – Today, the U.S. EPA recognized two individuals and one organization in Maine at the virtual 2022 Environmental Merit Awards ceremony. The awardees were among 20 recipients across New England honored for contributing to improving New England’s environment.
New England’s annual Environmental Merit Awards are given to community leaders, scientists, government officials, business leaders, schools, and students who represent different approaches, but a common commitment to environmental protection.
“EPA is proud to recognize and congratulate Maine awardees’, for their great accomplishments and their continued efforts towards combatting climate change, bringing cleaner air and water to neighborhoods, and ensuring our underserved communities’ voices are being heard,” said EPA New England Regional Administrator David W. Cash. “Their ingenuity and commitment truly make a difference in our New England communities.”
The Environmental Merit Awards, which are given to people who have already taken action, are awarded in the categories of individual; business (including professional organizations); local, state or federal government; and environmental, community, academia or nonprofit organization. Also, each year EPA presents lifetime achievement awards for individuals. The 2022 Environmental Merit Award Winners from Maine listed by category are:
Ira Leighton “In Service to States” Award
Every year, one individual in New England is selected to receive the Ira Leighton “In Service to States” Environmental Merit Award. It is a tribute to our long-time colleague and friend, Ira Leighton, who passed away in 2013, after serving 41 years at the U.S. EPA. Ira’s dedication and passion for protecting the environment was evident to all who knew him. He was a constant presence in New England, a force who took ideas and made them actionable tasks that resulted in measurable improvements. Today, the 2022 award was presented to Melanie Loyzim.
Melanie Loyzim
Maine Department of Environmental Protection
Melanie Loyzim, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, has been a leader over the past two decades in promoting environmental protection and maintaining a viable economy.
Melanie spent most of her career at state agencies, beginning in Colorado. In 2006, she started in the Oil Enforcement Unit of the Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management at Maine’s DEP. Since then, Melanie has risen from supervisor in the Air Bureau to director for the Bureau of Air Quality, then director for the Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management, and finally deputy commissioner, before becoming commissioner last year.
Melanie has supported staff efforts that contributed to a broader multi-state understanding of air pollution, with an emphasis on ground-level ozone and regional haze trends. These insights, for states from Virginia to Maine, provided a record of the success of regional air pollution control programs, and inform future efforts for clean air progress.
Melanie also participated in the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, working with air director colleagues to improve air quality regionally. This included efforts such as putting in place California low emissions vehicle standards in the states that adopted the program, including Maine. She continues to participate in regional air quality issues as an officer of the Ozone Transport Commission.
As director for the Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management, Melanie was a board director for the Northeast Waste Management Officials’ Association, where she worked with colleagues in other nearby states on issues relating to hazardous waste, petroleum and other cleanup sites, brownfields, materials management, product stewardship, pollution prevention, emerging contaminants, and toxics in products.
Under Melanie’s leadership, Maine is embarking on a PFAS soil and water investigation resulting from applying biosolids. This massive effort is leading the nation to better understand the links between PFAS, application of biosolids, and impacts to agriculture.
Melanie deserves this award thanks to her leadership in multiple program areas, and her thinking of practical solutions that help people, the economy, and the environment.
Lifetime Achievement
Ed Bassett
Passamaquoddy Tribe – Pleasant Point in Perry
Ed Bassett of the Passamaquoddy Tribe retired from his job as multimedia specialist for the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point in December, leaving behind a legacy of environmental protection, restoration and stewardship.
Over 40 years, Ed has served in leadership roles for his Tribe, including Tribal vice chief, Tribal Council member, Tribal game warden, Tribal cultural program director, and Tribal fish and game committee member.
He helped build the capacity of the Tribe’s Environmental Program through his management of its General Assistance program for 20 years. Ed advanced environmental protection on Passamaquoddy territory through restoration of tribal lands and waters, with a focus of improving water quality and removing barriers to restoring tribal cultural aquatic species.
Ed’s expertise in communications helped advance the Tribe’s restoration efforts. Through his expertise in digital media technology, he communicated critical environmental issues facing the tribe.
Ed has also devoted significant time to mentoring younger staff and youth. He was director of the Tribe’s Camp Waponahki Youth Program, helped with the Wabanaki Wilderness Program, and was assistant director of the Tribal Vocational Education Program. He is also a traditional Passamaquoddy birch back canoe builder, knowledge he passed on.
Perhaps Ed’s most lasting achievement was co-founding the Schoodic Riverkeepers, with its mission to improve public perceptions of the Indigenous perspective. With a focus on restoring the Schoodic River watershed, the Passamaquoddy name for the St. Croix River, Ed played a crucial role in educating the tribal community and public on the importance of alewife restoration. This led to the opening of the alewife passage at Grand Falls Dam during the spawning season.
Despite retirement, Ed continues to serve by developing a safe public watering point for the Tribal community, eliminating the need to travel for drinking water. Ed’s lifelong investment in environmental leadership and cultural preservation will have a lasting impact on Passamaquoddy tribal members.
Environmental, Community, Academia, Nonprofit
Mark King, Maine Department of Environmental Protection and
Mark Hutchinson, University of Maine Cooperation Extension
Maine Compost School, Augusta
The Maine Compost School, the longest continuously running compost program in the country, in 1997 began to tackle the need to divert food waste from landfills. Based at Highmoor Farm, a University of Maine Forest and Experimental Station in Monmouth, it hosts a commercial compost site where students get hands-on learning and field experiences along with traditional classroom activities. Students at the five-day school are from businesses as well as non-profits and government agencies, or are homeowners. More than 700 participants have come from the US, Canada and 42 other countries.
Generally, by diverting wasted food and other organic waste from landfill to composting, methane emissions are significantly reduced and carbon is sequestered. Many composting operations have been established thanks to the Maine Compost School. A few recent Maine small businesses that were formed by compost school graduates and continue to grow include Scrapdogs Compost and Chickadee Compost. In addition, graduates have gone on to manage municipal organics recycling operations such Lamoille Soil in Vermont. The Maine Compost School’s mission promotes innovation to make composting more efficient.
For more information on EPA’s Environmental Merit Awards, including a video of today’s award ceremony, visit: EPA New England Environmental Merit Awards
Read the full article at: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-awards-three-environmental-merit-awards-maine-recipients
