By Rebekah Metzler, Staff Writer Sun Journal news story AUGUSTA – Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection voted unanimously Thursday to approve new permit standards for two mills and a hydroelectric dam on the Androscoggin River. The citizen board approved a more restrictive wastewater discharge level for the Verso mill in Jay and increased the amount Read More
Cleaning Up the Androscoggin River
Much of NRCM’s work to clean up the Androscoggin focused on the former paper mill in Jay because it was a bigger polluter than the mill in Rumford. We worked for many years to get this mill to adopt modern pulping and bleaching technologies that reduce pollution, save energy, and lower operating costs. In 2005, NRCM sued International Paper (the owner of the mill at that time). That same year, we appealed a waste discharge license for the Jay mill to the Board of Environmental Protection.
The Androscoggin runs through the heart of Maine. Its waters in Gilead support a world-class trout fishery that attracts tourists to Bethel and nearby towns. Here, the river is a source of recreation-based jobs, activities, and pride for the people who live in the region.
Further downstream, the river is much cleaner than it used to be, and people can now use it for recreation. But the Androscoggin River is still the dirtiest of Maine’s major rivers.
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
BEP Issues Draft Order for Androscoggin
By Scott Thistle, Regional Editor Sun Journal news story LEWISTON – Advocates for improving water quality on the Androscoggin River said Friday they both win and lose in a recently issued draft order for changes to pollution permits for two mills and a dam operator on the river. Among other things the order, which won’t 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
Environmentalists, Verso to Square Off on Discharge Limits
By Bonnie Washuk, Staff Writer Lewiston Sun Journal news story AUBURN – As public hearings begin today about how much pollution should be allowed in the Androscoggin, environmentalists say that new and proposed limits wouldn’t improve the river because they’re not much different than what the mills are already discharging. At the opposite side is Read More
Supreme Court Ruling Impacts Androscoggin
By David Farmer, Staff Writer Sun Journal news story LEWISTON – A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court is rippling along the Androscoggin River and into efforts to improve the quality of its water. The court ruled Monday that hydroelectric dams are subject to the federal Clean Water Act and must meet water quality standards Read More
NRCM Responds to Decision on Lawsuit
Effort to Clean Up the Androscoggin River Will Continue NRCM News Release The Natural Resources Council of Maine today expressed disappointment in yesterday’s court decision to dismiss, on administrative technicalities, NRCM’s lawsuit against International Paper. NRCM said that it would not give up on its efforts to compel International Paper to reduce its pollution of Read More
Clean-water Activists Take Aim at Androscoggin
Some blame state for mills’ pollution By Beth Daley, Globe Staff Boston Globe news story The Androscoggin River that served as the putrid inspiration for the federal Clean Water Act three decades ago has long been cursed with a bitter irony: It has never met the minimum standards of that law. Now, government officials in Read More
On the Androscoggin, DEP Should Start Over
Editorial Portland Press Herald When a state agency admits it got something as important as a pollution discharge permit wrong, it should go back and make it right. So it is with the Department of Environmental Protection, which no longer supports a permit it issued for an International Paper mill on the Androscoggin River. The Read More
