By Scott Thistle, Regional Editor Sun Journal news story LEWISTON – Advocates for improving water quality on the Androscoggin River said Friday they both win and lose in a recently issued draft order for changes to pollution permits for two mills and a dam operator on the river. Among other things the order, which won’t Read More
water pollution
Summary of NRCM’s Androscoggin River Discharge Permit Appeal
On Wednesday, May 2, 2007, the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) began 6 days of hearings to consider an appeal by NRCM and others of the Department of Environmental Protection’s proposed wastewater discharge license for the Verso papermill in Jay, Maine, formerly owned by IP. More than three decades after former Maine Senator Edmund Muskie Read More
Environmentalists, Verso to Square Off on Discharge Limits
By Bonnie Washuk, Staff Writer Lewiston Sun Journal news story AUBURN – As public hearings begin today about how much pollution should be allowed in the Androscoggin, environmentalists say that new and proposed limits wouldn’t improve the river because they’re not much different than what the mills are already discharging. At the opposite side is 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
Clean-water Activists Take Aim at Androscoggin
Some blame state for mills’ pollution By Beth Daley, Globe Staff Boston Globe news story The Androscoggin River that served as the putrid inspiration for the federal Clean Water Act three decades ago has long been cursed with a bitter irony: It has never met the minimum standards of that law. Now, government officials in Read More
On the Androscoggin, DEP Should Start Over
Editorial Portland Press Herald When a state agency admits it got something as important as a pollution discharge permit wrong, it should go back and make it right. So it is with the Department of Environmental Protection, which no longer supports a permit it issued for an International Paper mill on the Androscoggin River. The Read More
Ex-DEP Chief, Legislator Discussed “Trade”
By John Richardson, Portland Press Herald Writer Portland Press Herald news story Maine’s former environmental commissioner put a hold on a violation notice against a Jay paper mill to try to win support from a legislator who also works as the mill’s environmental manager, according to internal state records. Documents released this week, including memos Read More
NRCM, NRDC Sue International Paper for Polluting Androscoggin River
AUGUSTA Maine – This morning, the Natural Resources Council of Maine and the Natural Resources Defense Council filed suit against International Paper (IP) in US District Court in Bangor. “We are suing International Paper because the Androscoggin River below their papermill in Jay is so polluted that it has never met the bare minimum standards Read More