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Air Home > Programs > Air Toxics > Maine Air Toxics Initiative > Maine Air Toxics Strategy
Air toxics come from many sources, including stationary and mobile sources.

Maine Air Toxics Strategy

The Air Toxics Advisory Committee (ATAC) issued its consensus recommendations for Maine’s Air Toxics Strategy to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection in September 2007. The ATAC recommended that the Maine DEP pursue no cost or low-cost approaches to reducing emissions of air toxics, focusing primarily on energy efficiency, residential wood combustion, mobile sources, and continuing scientific investigation.

The Maine Air Toxics Strategy identifies the projects, with associated tasks and goal dates, that the Maine DEP will undertake to implement the ATAC’s recommendations. The Strategy is the product of a lengthy and in-depth collaborative process. If you have any questions regarding the process that led up to development of the Strategy, please refer to the documents posted on the MATI home page and Background Documents.

A draft of the Strategy was circulated to ATAC members in March 2008, but finalization was put on hold until the Bureau filled the position of David Wright, DEP staff coordinator for MATI. Although the Strategy document remained in draft form, Maine DEP continued efforts to reduce emissions of air toxics, including:

  • Implementation of an air quality surcharge for hazardous air pollutant emissions
  • Outdoor wood boiler outreach
  • Proposed adoption of regulations for outdoor wood boilers burning wood pellets
  • Adoption of a nuisance outdoor wood boiler buy-back program
  • Co-sponsoring legislation to require statewide inspections of on-board diagnostics systems
  • Energy efficiency outreach
  • Implementation of federal hazardous air pollutants regulations, including outreach
  • Implementation of the Toxics Use Reduction Act
  • Collaboration with regional organizations on development of improved emission estimation methodologies
  • No-idling outreach
  • Development of portable acrolein monitoring capability

Melanie Loyzim has now filled the position as supervisor of the Air Toxics and Emissions Inventory unit and will oversee implementation of the Strategy. Melanie has a background in emissions inventory, air toxics regulation and rule development from Colorado’s Air Pollution Control Division.

In March 2009, the Maine DEP updated and finalized the Strategy to reflect ongoing efforts, to establish revised goal dates for projects and/or tasks, and to incorporate comments received. As the Maine DEP undertakes the remaining projects and tasks in the Strategy, it may become necessary or appropriate to make adjustments to the Strategy. The Maine DEP will distribute a Communications Plan in April 2009 which will describe when and how the Maine DEP will track the progress of the projects in the Strategy, communicate with stakeholders, undertake review of the Air Toxics Priority List, and evaluate the impact of Maine Air Toxics Initiative.

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