Terry Connelly remembers clipping out a 2002 newspaper headline declaring an end to the long-running saga of the McKin toxic waste site in Gray.

It was a satisfying, mission-accomplished moment for Connelly, who lives in Eliot and oversaw the site for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The sad stories of all the people affected by poisoned groundwater around the former dump are still with him.

But toxic waste sites have a way of hanging around and causing headaches, or worse, long after the cleanup crews pull out. “They don’t seem to go away,” Connelly said.

Connelly is part of an EPA team revisiting the McKin neighborhood this summer as part of a five-year review. He hopes to find that nature’s self-cleaning cycle is making progress. But it’s a forgone conclusion that the plume of toxic chemicals is still lingering deep in the sand, gravel and bedrock, moving very slowly into the Royal River.

And there is an emerging concern that the chemicals left behind could still pose a health threat in the form of vapors seeping up through the ground.

The McKin Co. began dumping oil sludge and industrial solvents into a former gravel pit off Mayall Road in the 1960s. The waste came from more than 400 businesses, school districts, municipalities and churches.

In 1975, two friends living near the site noticed stinky drinking water. After one had a miscarriage, they began hearing about a range of health problems in the neighborhood, including skin rashes.

Tests finally identified industrial contaminants in the water two years later, and the town shut down McKin and began extending public water to the owners of 50 contaminated wells.

McKin became the catalyst for a whole set of state laws regulating the hazardous waste sites that would follow. It emerged around the same time as other toxic sites around the country, including one in a New York neighborhood called Love Canal, and eventually became one of the first in Maine to be named a federal Superfund cleanup site.

The parties that sent waste to McKin spent more than $21 million on the cleanup, which included pumping and treating groundwater for several years. The active cleanup was declared over in the late 1990s after experts decided the site would clean itself naturally within about 50 years, just as fast as the pump-and-treat effort.

The groups that had been financing the cleanup paid a $4.5 million settlement to landowners and other parties. And in 2002 the story was declared over.

Groundwater and the Royal River continued to be monitored, however, and will for decades more. The Royal River has been meeting water quality standards, even at the point where the groundwater plume discharges into it, Connelly said.

But the old dump site may still be capable of harming its neighbors.

When the cleanup was declared over, no one thought of toxic vapors seeping up through the soil into homes and buildings.

“It wasn’t on anyone’s radar screen,” Connelly said. “And then a couple years later, we start hearing these stories about other sites … We’re seeing it throughout the country.”

EPA officials plan to test air quality in some Gray homes this summer, he said. If there is any evidence of “vapor intrusion,” the contaminants would be vented away much like radon gas that seeps into basements.

It’s another reminder, Connelly said, that avoiding a mess is a whole lot cheaper and faster than cleaning one up.

Commute Another Way Week starts Monday.

People who give their cars a rest and bike, walk or ride the bus to work will once again be rewarded with free T-shirts and prizes.

But Matt Sargent and his friends couldn’t wait for the prizes. Not with gas prices shooting up 71 cents per gallon in the past year – 37 cents in the past month alone.

“I was spending $120 a week” just driving to and from work, Sargent said.

So Sargent and two buddies did what a lot of Mainers may finally be ready to do, now that a gallon of gas costs $3.70. They changed their driving habits.

When Gov. John Baldacci made a stop in South Portland last week to honor military veterans, he said only something that important would get him to leave the Legislature alone for a few hours at a time like this.

Maine’s lawmakers have indeed been churning out legislation in recent days as the session draws to a close. And Maine environmentalists sound pretty pleased with the results, so far.

The Maine Environmental Priorities Coalition, a gaggle of conservation groups, plans to hold a news conference at noon Wednesday in the State House to highlight achievements during the session. The coalition’s news releases says: “In a year marked by a dire budget shortfall and significant fiscal challenges, environmental protection emerged as a bright area with progress on climate change, renewable energy, clean drinking water protections, energy efficiency, reducing exposure to lead and combating sprawl.”

Here’s a quick roundup of some high-profile bills:

A proposal to overhaul and streamline regulation of wind power projects was passed unanimously by the House and Senate last week. Baldacci is expected to have a big signing ceremony Friday afternoon.

On Monday, the Legislature narrowly approved energy efficiency building standards for new homes. That one is expected to get Baldacci’s signature, too.

Baldacci ceremonially signed a law today that places a moratorium on coal gasification plants (like one that had been proposed in Wiscasset) until new greenhouse gas emissions standards are developed.

Conservationists are still holding their breath over one more bill on their priority list. It would create a system for the state to track, and potentially ban, toxic chemicals from household products. This one is facing an uncertain fate in the Senate, with intense lobbying on both sides.

The uncertainty isn’t keeping conservation groups from claiming victory, but it could definitely affect the mood in the Hall of Flags Wednesday.