Rep. Dan Ankeles, D-Brunswick, is seeking a third term in the Maine House. He serves on both the Environment and Natural Resources Committee and the Transportation Committee. 

It’s an honor to represent my beloved community of Brunswick in the Maine House of Representatives. I do it with the zeal of a public policy nerd. When I catch hold of a problem, I pursue potential solutions to the far ends of the Earth, playing both the long game and the short (and sometimes aggressively whiney) game until we finally leave things better than we found them. 

And that’s the mindset with which I’m approaching my endorsement for governor in the Maine Democratic primary this June. I’m skeptical that endorsements from minor elected officials like me move the needle, so instead maybe there’s a way to get our candidates to prove their commitment to something that matters to every single Mainer: universal access to clean drinking water. 

For those who might not remember, in August of 2024, we experienced a toxic firefighting foam spill that taught us a very painful lesson about toxic “forever” chemicals and what they can do to our water, especially from private wells. The lesson is especially important here in Maine, because more people depend on well water here than in any other state in the nation — roughly half or 750,000 people. 

I had a bill this year, LD 2115, that would have created a fund to pay for well testing, abatement, remediation, installation and maintenance of filtration systems, the provision of bottled water, and even facilitating connections to local water districts when possible. It would have filled a vital gap so that anyone in the state in proximity to an environmental incident could protect or restore their water supply and have peace of mind and confidence about what they are putting into their bodies when they turn on the tap. 

Unfortunately, despite bipartisan support in both legislative chambers, the bill died for lack of funding. Despite clean water being at the top of the human hierarchy of needs alongside breathable air, it did not even rate in the hierarchy of legislative or gubernatorial priorities. It caused me genuine public policy anguish to know that we’re now skipping an entire year of making gains on clean water for our constituents. 

And it’s not just wells. The Portland Press Herald recently covered how much water districts are struggling to keep up with aging pipes, and earlier there has been coverage about how difficult it is when forever chemicals gets into actual district water supplies, even in relatively small amounts. 

I’ve been in or around Augusta in some capacity for nearly 16 years, so I know that it often takes multiple tries to get something over the finish line. But I also know that when you try again, you can’t just quietly wait and hope your idea will be so good that one day it just passes itself and signs itself into law. 

And so here I am brazenly taking advantage of this primary to make sure that 2027 is the year of clean drinking water. 

I challenge my fellow Democrats running for governor and also the independents and Republicans: Commit (in writing!) that people on wells in both rural Maine and unconnected parts of populated areas will be able to look at your next biennial or supplemental budget this January and see actual initiatives and language that show you’re going to take even a modest bite out of this $1.3 billion problem. A small amount of consistent, sustainable funding will go an incredibly long way.

Conveniently, this challenge solves in a morally acceptable way my problem of having to decide how to rank Nirav Shah, Hannah Pingree and Shenna Bellows, the three Democratic candidates I would be willing to trust with the responsibility of running our state for the next four years. I’ve had such positive experiences with each of them, and so I doubt any of them will let me down once they read this. They are all steady, calm, capable and kind, and I can personally attest that they are in this for good policy outcomes that help their fellow Mainers, not titles. 

Public health and a clean environment are some of the most cost-effective investment priorities a government can make. A healthy population achieves more for themselves and for the entire state, and with fewer costly visits to hospitals and long-term illnesses. We also have a tourism brand to protect, as well as heritage industries and traditions like fishing and hunting. 

To my fellow voters of all stripes who care about clean water: Watch all the candidates closely to see if and how they respond. Challenge them, nudge them and educate them with your own experiences. We will all be better off if together we succeed.