WATERVILLE — The Sustain Mid Maine Coalition turned out in force Saturday with its Environmental Expo 2012 at the second annual Earth Day Move & Groove celebration of the arrival of spring.

It was art and a parade, smiles, music and local food; but Saturday also was a day of information on issues ranging from recycling and home-energy solutions and protecting underground water sources to a presentation on natural burials and home funerals by “green” coffin maker Chuck Lakin of Waterville.

Events were sponsored by Waterville Main Street.

“We have 14 exhibits teaching people to lead a ‘greener’ life,” retired Lawrence High School teacher and coalition coordinator Linda Woods said from her table in Castonguay Square. “Some examples of living a green life are getting an energy audit, and we have a program where you can get a rebate for an energy audit.”

Dave Couture of Home Energy Performance Plus said homeowners can save money and help the environment. An energy audit will assess what is needed to accomplish that, he said, such as weather stripping, air sealing and window repairs.

Chris Buchanan of Belgrade was on hand representing a group called Defending Water for Life, which opposes companies tapping into the state’s natural aquifer system for bottled commercial water.

“Mostly the issue is about rights — once a private company owns the rights to the water, they can control the access,” Buchanan said. “And because water is something we all need for life, we don’t feel that anybody should be profiting off of it that way.”

Waterville High School sophomore Anselm Scheck was at the event, running a booth for the Waterville & Winslow Recycling Center operated by the nonprofit Skills Inc.

“We have a 30-second seminar for what can be recycled at Skills. Barrels Community Market takes stuff, too,” Scheck said. “Recycling is important to save the Earth. If you don’t recycle, then things go to landfills, which has serious repercussions on groundwater and the soil. It was cuts down on costs and has an economic value.”

Woods said area children also constructed cardboard houses out of recycled materials and an art group constructed a replica osprey, made entirely out of recycled material.

On the Concourse, volunteers also removed a section of paving for an in-town garden and green space, Woods said.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

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