Dep Drops Agreements On River Pollution ; the Department Had Been Criticized for Making the Agreements with Paper Companies in Private.

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Responding to growing criticism of private negotiations with two paper companies, the commissioner of Maine's Department of Environmental Protection said late Monday that the agency would drop key pollution agreements in its 10-year plan to clean up the Androscoggin River.

Commissioner Dawn Gallagher said agreements with International Paper in Jay and Rumford Paper Co. would be removed from the overall plan because of questions and criticism about the process. It's understandable, she said, "that some people think that it should have been more public than it was."

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Dep Drops Agreements On River Pollution ; the Department Had Been Criticized for Making the Agreements with Paper Companies in Private.

Along with environmentalists and other critics, the Attorney General's Office raised questions about the public oversight of the negotiations. The criticism began when DEP officials could not produce re...

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