Bangor Daily News news story FORT KENT – Local residents widely praised the work of an Allagash Wilderness Waterway task force Monday and proposed several options for improving management of the public resource. Several dozen people attended the second of two public hearings held in Aroostook County in recent days by the Allagash Wilderness Waterway 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.
Fort Halifax Dam: SOS Can’t Stop the Unstoppable
Kennebec Journal editorial Things changed after the 1970s, when passage of the Clean Water Act resulted in the cleanup of pollution that flowed into the rivers. And over the last 20 years, a series of legally-binding agreements were entered into by state and federal regulators, citizens and owners of several dams along the Kennebec and Read More
Removal of Dam Ready to Begin
By Larry Grard, Staff Writer Kennebec Journal news story NORRIDGEWOCK — Breaching of the Sandy River Dam, a project designed to restore salmon and other sea-run fish from the Kennebec, is scheduled to begin this morning. Contractors will begin the removal of the dam located between Norridgewock and Starks on the Sandy River. The dam Read More
HoltraChem Cleanup Proceeds
Tons of mercury-contaminated soil remain at Orrington site Bangor Daily News news story BANGOR – Hazardous materials crews recently removed more than 1,400 pounds of mercury from the former HoltraChem site in Orrington and soon will dismantle more than a dozen buildings and storage tanks during the next phase of the cleanup, Maine officials said Read More
Three Dams to Get Power Upgrades Along Penobscot
Bangor Daily News news story A Pennsylvania power company plans to increase generation soon at three dams on the Penobscot River as part of a two-year-old deal to help restore historic runs of Atlantic salmon and other fish in the famed waterway, officials said Tuesday. In June 2004, PPL Corp. signed an unprecedented agreement with 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
Vernal Pool Rules Nothing New for Maine
Rep. Ted Koffman and Sen. Scott Cowger Portland Press Herald op-ed The Legislature’s Committee on Natural Resources has worked over the years to build on our predecessors’ work to advance a reasoned and commonsense approach to environmental conservation and public health protection. The Natural Resources Protection Act, enacted in 1987, has provided protections for special Read More
Peter Brann and Ben Lund Receive 2004 Environmental Award
The Natural Resources Council of Maine recognizes with deep appreciation their efforts to defend Maine’s environment in the courts. Peter Brann and Ben Lund, partners in the Lewiston-based law firm of Brann & Isaacson, have brought their considerable professional skills, tenacity, and love of Maine to a necessary part of the advocacy process—using the courts Read More
A River Reborn
Agreement could lead to dam removals and restoration of fish runs by Misty Edgecomb Bangor Daily News news story OLD TOWN – In what conservationists are calling the biggest restoration project north of the Everglades, two dams will be removed from the lower Penobscot River. Representatives of a broad coalition including the Penobscot Nation, environmental Read More
