Alliance forms to safeguard ‘shared’ Androscoggin River

LEWISTON – Organizers announced the creation of the Androscoggin River Alliance over the weekend, seeking to safeguard one of Maine’s most prominent rivers.

One bond for the organization’s founders is unhappiness over legislation that holds portions of the Androscoggin and St. Croix rivers to a lower water-quality standard than other Maine rivers.

“This river, our river, is a shared resource, not one to be depreciated or depleted for a single use,” said Rep. Elaine Makas, D-Lewiston, a member of the group’s founding committee who spoke at Saturday’s kickoff event at the Bates Mill. “It happened because we, the other owners, were unprepared to insist on our shared ownership.”

Makas said she would introduce new legislation to end provisions allowing higher water temperatures along portions of the two rivers near paper mills.

According to Nick Bennett, a staff scientist for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, these elevated temperatures are lethal to trout and other salmonid-type fish.

Makas said she was partly to blame for not stopping the legislation that created the separate water-quality standard but that the new alliance could help her wage a stronger fight.

“These are the people I wanted to come up there and march one after another in front of the committee,” she said.

The creation of the Androscoggin River Alliance was announced at the annual meeting of Maine Rivers, a statewide river protection group.

“A healthy river creates places where people want to be, and that is good for the local community and for the local economy,” said Curtis Bohlen, a restoration ecologist.

But persuading legislators to reverse their votes may be difficult, according to Ted Koffman, D-Bar Harbor, who has served as House chairman of the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee.

The provision passed by a 2-1 majority and it is “not particularly realistic” to expect legislators to impose major upgrades in pollution controls on paper companies, he said.

Koffman said a more likely scenario might involve the state offering public financing to help paper companies make improvements.