Our congressional delegation needs to back the EPA’s Clean Water Rule as tourists will stay away if waterways are polluted. By Bill Richards, Special to the Telegram Maine Sunday Telegram op-ed ABOUT THE AUTHOR Bill Richards of Sandy River Plantation is president of the Maine Wilderness Guides Organization. SANDY RIVER PLANTATION — Maine’s economy has Read More
Clean & Free-flowing Waters
Thanks largely to the Clean Water Act, Maine’s great rivers are much cleaner than they were 40 years ago, but we still have a long way to go to restore many of them. NRCM continues to make clean water a high priority. NRCM was founded by a group of Mainers working to protect the Allagash River, which was designated as the nation's first Wild & Scenic River. Today, it is known as the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. In partnership with others, we also opened up part of the Kennebec River with the removal of the Edwards Dam, and we reopened 2,000 miles of habitat in the Penobscot River Watershed for Atlantic salmon and other sea-run fish.
Historic $24 Million Penobscot River Project Nearly Finished
By Nick Sambides Jr., BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story HOWLAND, Maine — Atlantic Ocean-based salmon, sturgeon, American shad and alewives will be able to find spawning grounds in northern Maine for the first time in more than a century with the culmination of a 16-year project next spring, officials said this week. Engineers Read More
Conservation Projects, Big and Small, Would Benefit from Predictable Funding
By The BDN Editorial Board Bangor Daily News editorial The Land for Maine’s Future program has been in the spotlight in Maine because Gov. Paul LePage refuses to let the popular land conservation program work. In Washington, another important land preservation tool, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, is in jeopardy. Authorization for the program Read More
Two Years After Dams’ Removal, Penobscot River Flourishes
Alewives, shad and even whitewater paddlers have returned as the largest river restoration endeavor in U.S. history starts to yield results. By Kevin Miller, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story VEAZIE — For nearly four decades, Barbara Wilson could watch from her deck as the waters of the Penobscot River cascaded over the 30-foot Read More
Alternate Funding Allows Blueberry Hill, Knights Pond Conservation Purchase
The towns of Cumberland and North Yarmouth, along with three conservation groups, buy a 215-acre tract that had been endangered by a political fight over Lands for Maine’s Future bond money. By Matt Byrne, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story A coalition of private conservation groups and two towns have pooled resources to buy Read More
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
Judge Seeks Plan for Cleanup of Penobscot River at HoltraChem Site
By Dawn Gagnon, BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story BANGOR, Maine — A federal court judge issued a ruling Wednesday ordering that an engineering firm be hired to develop a plan to clean up mercury deposited in the Penobscot River by a defunct Orrington chemical plant. HoltraChem, which operated from 1967 to 1982, produced Read More
