Greener Side

$11,000 in prize money is available for the best vision of the new development zone.

Pharmaceutical drugs that are thrown in the trash end up contaminating the water that leaches from landfills, according to the results of a study by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

The three test sites were in Augusta, Brunswick and Bath. According to the study, water that leaked from each of the landfills including antidepressants, antibiotics, steroids and heart, asthma and pain medications.

“These test results back up what we believed to be true and that is that left over prescription drugs that people throw away really don’t ever go away,” Mark Hyland, Director of the Bureau of Remediation and Waste Man....

When Marc and Cheryl Batchelder decided to build a home that was as energy-efficient as possible, they didn’t just go for the gold – they went for the platinum.

In late July the Batchelder home, located on Lawrence Street in Portsmouth, was awarded Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’s (LEED) Platinum certification, the organization’s highest mark. The home, which was visited by Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter in June, will be one of a number of Seacoast properties on display for the upcoming New Hampshire Sustainable Energy Resources (NHSE) Green Homes Open House on Saturday, October 3rd.

While the home was the 218t....

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar on Monday launched the Department of the Interior’s first-ever coordinated strategy to address current and future impacts of climate change on America’s land, water, ocean, fish, wildlife, and cultural resources.

“Across the country, Americans are experiencing first-hand the impacts of climate change, from growing pressure on water supplies to more intense droughts and fires to rampant bark beetle infestations,” said Salazar. “Because Interior manages one-fifth of our nation’s landmass and 1.7 billion acres on the Outer Continental Shelf, it is imperative that we tackle these impacts of a....