Maine DEP Names Acting Director of Bureau of Air Quality

May 13, 2011

Contact: Samantha DePoy-Warren, Maine DEP Spokesperson/Director of Education and Outreach samantha.depoy-warren@maine.gov / 287-5842 (office) or 592-0427 (cell)

-Melanie Loyzim will fill in for longtime bureau director, Jim Brooks, who was tapped last month to serve as Maine DEP?s acting commissioner-

AUGUSTA ? The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has named an acting director of its Bureau of Air Quality.

Melanie Loyzim will lead the bureau, one of three within the agency, following the appointment of its longtime director, Jim Brooks, as Maine DEP?s acting commissioner.

Loyzim, of Manchester, holds a B.S. in Environmental Management and Policy from the University of Maine and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Colorado.

She worked in the private sector as the Assistant Environmental Health and Safety Officer at a Colorado environmental services firm before joining that state?s Department of Public Health and Environment, first as a scientist studying air emissions and later in air quality policy and regulation development and delegation.

Loyzim returned to Maine to join the Maine DEP in 2006 and has served as the manager of the Air Toxics and Emissions Inventory Program since 2008, leading a team focused on measuring emissions across the state and coordinating outreach and compliance assistance for thousands of Maine sources that emit air toxics and other pollutants.

The Bureau of Air Quality is charged with leading Maine?s efforts to control current and future sources of air contaminants to assure the continued health, safety and general welfare of the people of Maine and works concurrently to improve air quality and prevent further deterioration of it.

For more information about the Bureau of Air Quality, visit http://www.maine.gov/dep/air or call 287-2437. For more information about the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, visit http://www.maine.gov/dep.

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