Proposed Blue Hill ordinances to require petitions, votes

Healthy Ecosystem Ordinance, Unencapsulated Polystyrene Ordinance

- ANNE BERLEANT

BLUE HILL—Two proposed ordinances, banning toxic pesticides and unencapsulated polystyrene, as used in buoys and floats, were presented to selectmen for review November 20. Both may be on the 2020 ballot for a town referendum vote in April, after selectmen asked the petition process be used to place them there.

Under the citizen petition process, the number of signatures collected must be at least 10 percent of the local votes cast in the last gubernatorial election. For 2019, that number is 168, which won’t be a problem, said Rick Traub, who drafted the pesticide ban ordinance after reviewing similar ordinances from 30 towns in Maine.

“We think, without hyperbole, it’s a life and death issue [that] most people are not aware of,” Traub said of the chemical glyphosate used in Roundup and other herbicides. Over 13,000 lawsuits are pending against Bayer, the parent company of Monsanto that markets Roundup, with four plaintiffs already winning trials, with jury awards in excess of $2 billion. Glyphosate is approved as a pesticide by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and, in April, the Environmental Protection Agency reaffirmed that it does not cause cancer when used properly, according to its review process.