By TINA IYER
Features Editor

Robbins, a biology major who spends his free time playing guitar in a punk-ska band and spinning discs at WRBC clarified that "the title [of the lecture] is not exactly representative of what I'm going to talk about." Rather, Robbins said he will discuss what he did during the summer of 1997, when he had a Ladd internship (through the Office of Career Services) with the Environmental Protection Agency. Robbins will also explain the problems that he encountered along the Penobscot.

Last summer Robbins was located at the EPA's Region 1 (New England) office. "I was involved in several aspects of environmental management," he said, explaining that he undertook such tasks as performing toxicology tests on waste treatment plants and making trips to Connecticut to "locate discharge sites into the Connecticut River."

Robbins said his duties also included "travelling to the Penobscot region to investigate the health of the river and the public policy issues that affect Native Americans, in particular the Penobscot Indians, and Maine in general."

The issues that Robbins will speak on cover both environmental and public policy concerns. For example, there is the problem of dioxin which is discharged by industries, which in turn affects the Penobscot Indian nation. The Indians' ancestral rights to fish have been disturbed since it is no longer safe to eat the fish.

Robbins, who grew up on the ocean in New Castle, N.H., has been interested in environmental issues for a few years. He has a Career Discovery Internship Program internship in Seattle lined up for this February break; he will work with a Bates alumna who is a water quality specialist and who works for a private environmental organization. Robbins said he wants "to compare the differences between the private environmental organizations and the federal agency."

"Fresh water is an issue that is important to all of us," he said. "The beauty of Maine is something that we should all be concerned with because if we take it for granted, it can be a limited resource."