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.
Vernal Pools Fuel Maine Woods
by Travis Barrett, Outdoors Writer Kennebec Journal news story WAYNE — In an instant we are all five years old again, tromping our way through ankle-deep muck and sloshing along in the water in rubber boots. Mosquitos are relentless in their pursuit of our flesh, so the only sound to interrupt that of the splashing Read More
Partners in Penobscot River Restoration Project Receive National Cooperative Conservation Award
Penobscot River Restoration Trust Old Town, ME – Partners in the Penobscot River Restoration Project have been awarded a 2008 Cooperative Conservation Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior. The award recognizes the unprecedented collaboration to restore 11 species of sea-run fish while rebalancing hydropower generated on the river. Representatives from the Penobscot River Read More
Allagash River among America’s Most Endangered Rivers
Wild and Scenic Protections Threatened The people of Maine realized they needed a State policy to save their own wilderness areas. They petitioned their elected representatives to protect the last great wild river in the eastern United States, and the Maine legislature responded by creating the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, so that the people could own Read More
New Plan Could Improve Health of Androscoggin
Paper mills and a power company could appeal the cleanup proposal for part of the river near Lewiston. by John Richardson, staff writer Portland Press Herald news story A state environmental panel is expected to rule next month that the Androscoggin River, Maine’s dirtiest major waterway and an inspiration for the U.S. Clean Water Act, Read More
Revitalized River Flows to Healthy Future
by Larry Grard, staff writer Kennebec Journal news story There was a time within many people’s lifetimes when almost no one would have fished the confluence of the Kennebec and Sebasticook rivers in Winslow. Tanneries, factories and mills dumped municipal sewage into the Kennebec and its tributaries, fouling the waters as they flowed through Augusta Read More
Summary of NRCM’s Androscoggin River Discharge Permit Appeal
On Wednesday, May 2, 2007, the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) began 6 days of hearings to consider an appeal by NRCM and others of the Department of Environmental Protection’s proposed wastewater discharge license for the Verso papermill in Jay, Maine, formerly owned by IP. More than three decades after former Maine Senator Edmund Muskie Read More
Battle of Fort Halifax Drawing to a Close?
Kennebec Journal editorial The end may finally be in sight for the long-running conflicts over the Fort Halifax Dam on the Sebasticook in Winslow. The dam is an integral part of the state and federal government’s plan to restore native, migratory fish such as alewives, shad, sturgeon and atlantic salmon to the upper reaches of Read More
Company Seeks Approval to Buy Fort Halifax Dam
Deal Would Keep Dam, Build Fish Passage By Craig Crosby, Staff Writer Kennebec Journal news story WINSLOW — A Boston company is primed to purchase Fort Halifax Dam with the intention of saving it from destruction. Essex Hydro Associates has reached a deal in principle to purchase the dam from FPL Energy, said Barry Flynn, vice Read More
White House Requests $10 Million from Congress to Restore the Penobscot River
Press Release from the Penobscot River Restoration Trust The Bush Administration today announced that it is requesting $10 million from Congress to restore the once-abundant sea-run fisheries of the Penobscot River in Maine, the second largest river in the Northeast. The announcement includes details of the FY2008 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) budget providing Read More
Banner photo: Allagash Wilderness Waterway by Sam Horine
