Maine Resources

ME Brownfield Programs 

Maine DEP Brownfields Program 

State Funding Program: MEDEP provides funds to municipalities assist with site investigation and cleanup. For site investigation, MEDEP assigns a consultant under contract to conduct the investigation. Cleanup grants have a ceiling of $50,000. Forms to apply for each of the grants are available on the Brownfields Program website. 

Liability Relief Program: Liability relief at the state level is provided through the Voluntary Response Action Program Law.  

Brownfields Inventory 

Maine DEP maintains a list of Remediation Sites, which include brownfields. 

Planning Documents 

Maine’s Growth Management Act establishes a framework for the development of municipal Comprehensive Plans centrally available on the website. 

In addition, Maine has seven Regional Planning Organizations that assist municipalities with planning activities including brownfields. 

State and Town Data

The Maine Statistics portal includes links to a variety of online resources that provide information on economic data, health, crime and other indicators needed for EPA grant proposal preparation.

The Maine GIS platform also includes a variety of relevant layers, including transportation, zoning and environmental data.

Public Health Data

Public health data are available by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Maine Environmental Public Health Tracking Network

Specific categories of interest to brownfield grants:

Asthma

Asthma data are available through the Maine Tracking Network Asthma page. Town-specific data are available by accessing the Tables feature in the portal, and choosing the Towns in County or Towns in State customization feature. Data are downloadable in Excel and PDF.

Cancer

The CDC National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network includes a map in the Data Explorer Tool by census tract for two cancer indicators: crude prevalence of cancer among adults and number of breast cancer cases for a 10-year period. These are NOT actual cancer rates; they are modeled on the basis of survey responses and the PLACES project (Population Level Analysis and Community Estimates).

The United States Data Statistics website includes data visualizations with actual cancer rates, which are available at the county and congressional district level.

Birth Defects

The only dataset available nationally for birth defects is through the CDC National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network and it provides data at the county level for 12 different types of birth defects. The same dataset is available on the Main Tracking Netowrk Birth Defects page as well.

Lead Poisoning

Asthma data are available through the Main Tracking Network Lead Poisoning page. Town-specific data are available by accessing the Tables feature in the portal, and choosing the Towns in County or Towns in State customization feature. Data are downloadable in Excel and PDF.