Clean, healthy waterways are vital to our day-to-day lives. They help ensure safe drinking water, suitable habitat for fish and other wildlife, and recreational opportunities that make Maine a special place to live, work, and visit. NRCM is working hard to protect and restore Maine’s lakes, rivers, and streams, now and for generations to come.
But Maine's waterways face huge challenges. For decades, paper companies and other mills along Maine's rivers have treated these great waterways as their own private dumping grounds. The pollution they discharge prevents our native fish from thriving and impairs the quality of life for the people who live in those communities.
Pollution is one issue, dams are another. Dams continue to choke waterways across the state. While some dams are strategically located to minimize damage to fisheries and generate significant amounts of renewable electricity, other dams are obsolete or destroy fisheries resources that are worth far more than the small amount of power they generate.
One such dam was the Edwards Dam. NRCM’s work with coalition partners to remove the Edwards Dam from the Kennebec has become a national model for success. Now, NRCM and our partners in the Penobscot River Restoration Trust are working to restore this vital watershed for the wildlife and people of Maine.
NRCM has served as the voice of Maine people by advocating for clean and healthy waterways. Find out more about the issues we work on and how you can get involved to ensure clean and healthy waters for Maine.
Surry Celebration: Alewife Restoration Project Nears Completion
By John Holyoke, BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story SURRY, Maine — About six years ago, a group of concerned town residents started paying attention to a problem that had been years in the making. Patten Stream, which runs through the center of Surry and empties into Patten Bay, was full of fish. And Read More
State Shouldn’t Relinquish Water Quality Permitting Authority
by the BDN editorial board Bangor Daily News editorial Unfortunately, a water quality dispute involving state and federal regulators and the state’s Indian tribes is moving further away from resolution. The uncertainty over water quality standards has gotten so bad that Gov. Paul LePage is threatening to quit a system that allows the state to Read More
Judge Orders Mallinckrodt Manufacturing to Fund Mercury Cleanup Plan for Penobscot River
The ruling is a step toward requiring the company to pay to clean up pollution from the former HoltraChem site – a cost estimated at $130 million. By Kevin Miller, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story A federal judge ordered Mallinckrodt Manufacturing Co. on Wednesday to pay to develop a detailed plan to clean Read More
LePage Asks Maine Delegation to Intervene in Tribal Waters Dispute with Feds
By A.J. Higgins MPBN news story AUGUSTA, Maine – As the impasse between Maine and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over water quality standards deepens, the LePage administration is threatening to relinquish some or all of the state’s delegated authority to ensure compliance with the Clean Water Act. Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Patty Aho Read More
Colorado Mining Disaster Shows Maine was Right to Reject Mining Rules — Again
By Nick Bennett, Special to the BDN Bangor Daily News op-ed 2015 has been a year of seconds with respect to mining. For the second time, the Department of Environmental Protection submitted the same weak mining rules it submitted to the Legislature in 2014. For the second time, the Legislature wisely rejected them. Also for Read More
Report: Clean Power Plan Key to Protecting Drinking Water, Wildlife Habitat
News release of the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Council of Maine MAINE (August 18, 2015) – Maine’s and America’s waterways are already being stressed by climate change and President Obama’s Clean Power Plan is urgently needed to protect them. This is the conclusion of a new report by the National Wildlife Federation, Read More
In Impaired Central Maine Lakes, Alewives Have Outsized Impact
After decades of poor water quality, central Maine lakes such as Vassalboro’s Webber Pond improve after alewives are reintroduced. By Peter McGuire, Staff Writer Kennebec Journal news story VASSALBORO — Frank Richards can remember when regular algae blooms on Webber Pond made having a lakefront home almost unappealing. From July until September, for decades, the Read More
Why There’s Cause for Concern with Maine’s Water Supply
By Mario Tesil and Kate Warner Bangor Daily News oped As other regions of the country struggle to find adequate supplies of clean water, Maine has abundant, and comparatively clean, water resources. Maine’s water is approximately 20 percent to 60 percent cleaner than lakes and streams in the rest of the United States, according to Read More
Don’t Reverse Three Decades of Work that Helped Our Rivers
By Clinton B. Townsend and Landis Hudson, Special to the BDN Bangor Daily News op-ed Maine’s rivers belong to all of us. They flow through our cities and towns and through our history. For the last half-century, the state of Maine has been a leader in protecting our rivers against damage by the hydroelectric power Read More
Banner photo: Allagash Wilderness Waterway by Sam Horine
