Governor signs Rep. Fay’s bill to protect water quality

Paul Hunt, Environmental Manager of the 

Portland Water District,Rep. Jessica Fay, D-Raymond,

 Gov. Janet Mills, Colin Holme, Executive Director of the 

Lakes Environmental Association, Susan Gallo, 

Executive Director of the 

Maine Lakes Society

AUGUSTA – Rep. Jessica Fay’s bill to protect water quality by requiring septic inspections in shoreland zones at the time property is transferred was signed into law by Gov. Janet Mills Monday.

In the coastal shoreland zone it is already required in Maine law that subsurface wastewater (septic) systems be inspected when there is a property transfer. The new law extends that requirement to cover all shoreland zones throughout the state.

“I’d like to thank Governor Mills for signing this bill,” said Fay, D-Raymond. “Given the increased pressure added nutrients are having on the water quality of our lakes and ponds, it makes sense to have the same requirement in the freshwater shoreland zone.”

The bill, LD 216, An Act To Protect Water Quality by Standardizing the Law Concerning Septic Inspection in the Shoreland Zone, was unanimously enacted in the Senate and passed in the House by a vote of 97-45.  It will go into effect on January 1, 2020.

“Protecting the health of our lakes and ponds isn’t just a public health and recreational issue, it is an economic one,” Fay said. “Property values and the taxes derived from them are important to the communities I represent and to the entire state.”

Fay is serving her second term in the Maine Legislature and represents parts of Casco, Poland and Raymond. She serves on the Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee and the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee.