DEP Air Bureau Staffer Honored With EPA Lifetime Achievement Award

April 25, 2012

Contact: Samantha DePoy-Warren, Maine DEP Director of Communications samantha.depoy-warren@maine.gov / 207-287-5842 (office) or 207-592-0427 (cell)

BOSTON? Longtime Maine Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Air Quality staff Jeff Emery was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the federal Environmental Protection Agency at a ceremony at Boston?s Faneuil Hall today.

Emery, a Dixmont resident who recently retired from the department after 38 years of state service, was the Monitoring Section Chief for the Field Services Division in the bureau.

In their nomination of Emery, DEP noted his leadership in developing and maintaining collaborative partnerships, including with EPA, the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, the National Park Service as well as other jurisdictions that include Canadian Provinces, Maine Indian Tribes and other states. Those positive relationships Emery fostered improved coordination and information exchange across monitoring networks, enabling the department to identify more accurately air quality issues and improve air quality for all Maine citizens.

DEP Air Bureau managers long expressed great appreciation for Emery?s initiative in the development and continuous modernization of the state?s air monitoring network and he was known in the air arena for his skill in initiating quick action and innovation to solve monitoring equipment problems with minimum monitor downtime and loss of data.

?It is a true pleasure to join with you in congratulating Jeff Emery and extending to him our unending appreciation and most heartfelt gratitude for his unwavering dedication and exemplary efforts in helping preserve Maine?s treasured quality of life by protecting our much-beloved environment,? said Senator Olympia Snowe in a commendation letter read at Wednesday?s ceremony.

Maine DEP Commissioner Patricia Aho honored Emery with a prestigious Commissioner's Award in November.

Casco Baykeeper and longtime DEP partner Joe Payne, was the only other Mainer recognized with a lifetime achievement award this year as part of EPA?s annual Environmental Merit Awards. Payne was cited for his stewardship of the bay, which he has creatively and collaboratively stewarded since he was hired as the first employee of the Friends of Casco Bay in 1991.

For more information on EPA?s Environmental Merit Awards, visit http://www.epa.gov/region1/ra/ema