Defending Water in Maine takes on the proposed East-West Corridor

The Defending Water in Maine campaign will be holding several East-West Corridor informational events across the state during July and August. The latest list is here on the campaign website, along with the first of a two-part video report on the planned super-corridor.

In May, a full house packed the Foxcroft Academy auditorium in Dover-Foxcroft to hear Peter Vigue, CEO of Cianbro, a construction company that stands to make millions off the supercorridor, which would consist of a private toll road for tractor-trailer trucks, as well as pipelines and power lines. Many of the 1000 people at the hearing wore hunter orange hats or shirts to protest the project.

Opposition to the project has come from farmers, hunters, environmentalists, and local landowners. Chris Buchanan, of Defending Water in Maine who also coordinates the state wide coalition, points out that constructing the highway opens the door to more extractive industry: “If it was built, it would open up areas of Maine that are currently very difficult to get to for companies like Nestlé to mine for water and sell it on the global market.”