Senate backs bill to help ensure Passamaquoddy Tribe members have access to clean, safe drinking water

AUGUSTA — On Tuesday, the Maine Senate supported LD 906, “An Act To Provide Passamaquoddy Tribal Members Access to Clean Drinking Water,” sponsored by Rep. Rena Newell. The bill received a strong, bipartisan vote of 21-11. 

“It’s simple – this bill is about making sure that people living on the Passamaquoddy Reservation at Pleasant Point have access to clean drinking water. It is shameful that we have allowed this to continue for so long, and our Passamaquoddy neighbors deserve better,” said Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash. “Today, I’m proud to have voted to begin righting decades of wrongs and ensure that access to clean drinking water is not a privilege but a fundamental right.”

“This is urgent Legislation to address a problem that should not happen in Maine, or really anywhere in this day and age. Right now, members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe don’t have access to safe drinking water in their homes. The public water district serving the Passamaquoddy Reservation at Pleasant Point relies on a reservoir that is filling with debris, and a new, clean groundwater source is needed,” said Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, Senate Chair of the Judiciary Committee. “This bill creates a clear path forward. We all deserve clean, safe drinking water.”

LD 906 will improve access to safe drinking water for the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point and surrounding communities. The bill exempts the property of the Passamaquoddy Water District from municipal taxes; right now, it is the only water district in Maine that is not exempt from property taxes. It also authorizes two parcels of tribally owned fee land in close proximity to the existing Passamaquoddy territory to be added to the tribe’s territory through the federal trust acquisition process, without local approval, in order to provide access to alternate supplies of groundwater. Finally, it provides that the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and not the State, has the primary authority to regulate drinking water standards within Passamaquoddy territory. If the Passamaquoddy Tribe chooses to do so, it may seek authority from the U.S. EPA to regulate drinking water standards within Passamaquoddy territory to the extent permitted under federal law.

The bill faces further votes in the Legislature.