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Thanks largely to the Clean Water Act, Maine's great rivers are much cleaner than they were 30 years ago. But we still have a long way to go to restore many of Maine's great rivers. NRCM continues to make river restoration and protection a high priorities. In-Depth Description

In-Depth Description

The Kennebec, the Penobscot, and other Maine rivers are cleaner today than they were 30 years ago, thanks to the Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1972. The CWA forced polluting industries and towns to treat waste and sewage before discharging it into Maine’s rivers. The primary author of this law, Senator Edmund Muskie, was inspired by the pollution in the Androscoggin River he saw growing up in Rumford, Maine.

NRCM is committed to advancing Senator Muskie's vision for clean waters in Maine. In 2005, we supported a bill to protect small steams from stormwater runoff pollution that harm fish and other aquatic life. In 2004, we worked with Maine lobstermen to stop municipal sewage treatment plants from rolling back standards that protect clean water in Maine's estuaries—the highly productive waters where rivers meet the ocean.  Because lobsters thrive only in very clean water, Maine's lobster industry was very worried about this threat, and together we defeated the efforts to weaken clean water standards for estuaries.

In 2003, we helped increase protection for more than 400 miles of Maine rivers and streams, including the Kennebec from Augusta to Merrymeeting Bay—the largest tidal freshwater area north of the Hudson. It hosts the state’s premier striped bass fishery, and is also home to the endangered short nosed sturgeon, wild Atlantic salmon, and other spectacular wildlife species. Our efforts greatly reduced the amount of pollution that could legally be dumped into the river—a major environmental victory. 

Despite our successes, toxic contamination continues to threaten the people and wildlife in Maine. Since 1995, the Maine Bureau of Health has warned against eating fish from all of Maine’s inland waters due to mercury contamination. The Bureau of Health advises Mainers to limit their consumption of fish from nearly 250 miles of Maine’s rivers and to eat no tomalley from lobsters harvested along the entire coast. Maine’s Bald Eagles and Common Loons have some of the nation’s highest levels of toxic contaminants in their blood and feathers.

To combat this challenge, NRCM’s staff scientist, Nick Bennett, is a member of the Surface Water Ambient Toxics Technical Advisory Group (SWAT). This group advises state government on where and how to sample for toxic chemicals in Maine waters in order to understand more about the threats these chemicals may present. 

We will continue our work for clean waterways, on behalf of the people and wildlife of Maine. We encourage you to join our efforts!