Long before Gov. Angus King leaves office, his administration will face a powerful environmental challenge over the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. If they are smart, administration officials will start talking in depth now with adversaries and save the state lengthy fights later.

At issue is the character of the waterway – what was intended when it received official federal designation 30 years ago and what is has become. Fortunately, there are still leaders from the 1960s and ’70s who recall in detail what was intended. Unfortunately, they neither like what is going on now nor do they believe it meets either the letter or spirit of the commitments Maine made to the federal government. Of particular concern are dams, bridges and the approximately dozen access points along the course of the waterway.

Former Gov. Ken Curtis, who in 1970 applied for the waterway to be designated and protected as a wild river area under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, wrote last spring that “the intent for public access by vehicle to the waterway was to be limited to each end of the waterway. If allowed in the middle of the waterway from the Realty Road, access was to be strictly controlled. According to the criteria for wild rivers used by the Department of the Interior to evaluate my application, all other accesses would be restricted to non-motorized use of trails at least one-quarter mile in length from the water.”

His current comments echo the sense offered by then-Rep. John Martin of Eagle Lake back in 1966. Rep. Martin was a strong supporter of the Allagash as wilderness when he told lawmakers then, “We want to keep this a wilderness area and I hope that we do. … My people are in favor of it. I believe the people of Maine are in favor of it, and this includes my constituents.”

Stewart Udall, who was secretary of the Interior from 1961-69 and who in 1966 put up the needed $1.5 million in federal money to match an approved state bond that would create the waterway, is even more direct in his comments about the Allagash. Writing in an op-ed in the BDN last March, he said, “By law, wild rivers are ‘generally inaccessible except by trail’ and are considered ‘vestiges of primitive America.’ Fittingly, Secretary [Walter] Hickel authorized just two road accesses, not three as Maine proposed. News reports now indicate that the Maine Department of Conservation has allowed as many as 14. This goes against the law and breaks agreements Maine affirmed when the river was designated.”

This review of recent history came about because the Conservation Department approved plans to add an official access at John’s Bridge, where an unofficial one has existed for years, and because the department was found to have neglected to get the proper permits to rebuild Churchill dam and built the dam in a way that would not have been approved, according to the Park Service, which looked into the issue. The citizens who often remind the department of these failings and many others concerning the waterway come from a variety of groups and include people with intimate knowledge of both the waterway and the federal rules that help govern it. They have done a substantial amount of homework on the topic and have built a formidable case that points to, at best, state neglect or, at worst, knowing state violations of its agreements.

The state can put off these citizens for a while, but it shouldn’t because their next options are to demand far greater federal oversight, substantial fines and a by-the-book attitude that will make no one happy. Instead the department should work with this group, use its research, confer with Gov. Curtis and find ways to help Maine keep its word on protecting the maximum wilderness character of the Allagash.

The alternative is to get into a long expensive fight the state is unlikely to win, leaving the King administration with a conservation legacy that could hurt Maine for years to come.