Clean Water

Clean water is central to Maine’s identity and vital for the future of our economy and way of life. We love our rivers, lakes, streams, and coastal waters.  

The Kennebec, the Penobscot, the Androscoggin, and other Maine rivers are cleaner today than they were 40 years ago, thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972, which forced polluting industries and towns to treat waste and sewage before discharging it. 

The primary author of this law, Maine’s U.S. Senator Edmund Muskie, acted in response to the extreme pollution he saw growing up along the Androscoggin River in Rumford, Maine.

NRCM is committed to advancing Senator Muskie’s vision for clean water in Maine.

Upgrading Water Quality Classifications

Over the years, NRCM has helped increase protection for hundreds of miles of Maine rivers and streams by lobbying the Legislature to upgrade their water quality classifications. These upgrades help limit the amount of pollution allowed in these rivers, a major victory for water quality, fish, and wildlife.

The Triennial Review is a mandatory review of Water Quality Standards (WQS) and Water Quality Classifications (WQC) that Maine Department of Environmental Protection is required to undertake every three years. The Triennial Review is a key component of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), providing states with the opportunity to regularly revisit water quality laws with the intention of ratcheting up protections as pollution gets addressed and waterbodies become cleaner. 

In 2019, the Maine Legislature passed two important water quality bills: one to increase protections of more than 400 miles of rivers and streams and one that protected sustenance fishing rights for the Wabanaki Nations in Maine. The sustenance fishing criteria is the most protective in the nation.

In 2022, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act (CWA), and the Maine Legislature passed a bill to upgrade more than 800 miles of Maine’s waterways, including sections of the Androscoggin, to improve water quality.

Since the CWA became law in 1972, we’ve experienced a dramatic improvement in water quality. Millions of sea-run fish now migrate annually into the very rivers that once were written off as near dead.  

But our work is not finished.

Recommitting Ourselves to Clean Water

Maine’s lakes face the challenge of invasive species. Municipal wastewater treatment plants still release nearly half a billion gallons of wastewater into rivers and the ocean when overloaded during extreme rain events. Stormwater runoff is causing algal blooms and nutrient overloading in many waters. Numerous dams across the state pose unacceptable, ongoing obstacles to the further restoration of our rivers. And some proposed industrial activities, such as mining operations or massive offshore aquafarms, pose major pollution risks to Maine’s water resources and the life within them. 

With more than 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, and more than 6,000 lakes and ponds across the state, we are all connected to water. As Mainers did in 1972, we must continue to stand up and speak out for clean water.