Environment: Hard Test for Maine

As supertankers get bigger and bigger, they can put into fewer and fewer ports. The U.S.'s entire Eastern seaboard contains only a few harbors deep enough to accommodate the great ships, and all are in MaineĀ—on a coast famous for its beauty, sailing and fishing. To protect this unspoiled area from the danger of laden tankers foundering in treacherous, often fogbound waters, the state last year enacted strong environmental laws with stiff penalties on oil spills (TIME, Feb. 16, 1970). Last week, at hearings before Maine's Environmental Improvement Commission, those laws met their...

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