Laura Snow '04

Maine DEP
Augusta, ME

With the aid of the Mellon grant and Linda K. Cotter fund, I work with the Department of Environmental Protection, under the supervision of Jim Dusch, the Director of Enforcement in the office of the Commissioner. The goal of the internship, which we have named the Penalty Calculations Project, is to examine the policies that determine base penalty amounts for violations of environmental laws. The working hypothesis is that there exist inequalities across the different divisions' penalty policies. My biggest task thus far is my current one, which is to catalog all the violated laws from the DEP's files into a spreadsheet so we can sort, compare, contrast, and generally examine base penalty amounts for similar violations. This will enable a better vantage point from which to determine the state of policy-making of this kind and propose a preferred assessment model. In the process, I am becoming increasingly familiar with Maine State regulations and how various parties interact within the Department. My other tasks include, reading through enforcement policies, interviewing staff involved with the creation of these policies, and constantly evaluating my progress.