AUBURN - Inside the Hilton Garden Inn on Friday, the Board of Environmental Protection was hearing technical testimony about pollution and water quality of the Androscoggin River.

Outside, Keith Poulin, 33, who works for Earthworks Landscaping in Greene, was creating a brick walkway.

Poulin lives in Turner and fishes the river. "I don't feel it's clean enough," he said, taking break from his work. Though water quality has improved in the past 20 years, " they still limit the amount of fish you can eat and recommend it's not wise for a pregnant woman to eat," he said.

As Poulin spoke the falls tumbled, streaked with brownish-yellowish water.

Some of the brown is spring runoff, Poulin said, but some is pollution. "It's like that year-round. You go further up by New Hampshire, and the water's crystal clear. The further to the coast you get, the browner it gets."

The Board of Environmental Protection will continue next week to hear testimony on what kind of pollution controls should be given to paper mills along the river. At issue are 2005 pollution permits issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection, 2006 DEP recommendations that less mill wastewater be discharged and objections and appeals to both.

Years after the federal Clean Water Act was passed, a small part of the river still does not meet standards for fishing and swimming.

On Thursday paper workers testified that the mills have spent enough to clean up the river, and the problem is nonpoint pollution, the Gulf Island Pond dam and wastewater from municipalities. Environmentalists say the mills are the problem.

In a random survey in Lewiston-Auburn on Friday, people cited improvements and the need to balance economy and environment, but most said they believe the river should be cleaner.

"I can see the water is yellow right now, so I've got to say we need to do more," said Yusaf Ali, 31, of Lewiston, as he came out of a bank.

Sam Timberlake, 53, of Turner, echoed a common theme. "The river is a lot better than it used to be. Compared to what it was 20 years ago, the river's clean."

But more should be done, Timberlake said. "It could be cleaner. They can do a better job."

Janice Tripp, 71, of Lewiston, said environmentalists "push it a little bit sometimes. They go to extremes." The river is a big improvement over what it was, but she'd like to see it cleaned up a bit more.

Dale Talbot, 61, said the river is clean enough. He lives along a Turner tributary of the Androscoggin. "It's pretty much about right from the point of view of ecology vs. industry," Talbot said. "It's a fairly decent balance right now."

Dean Berry, 41, of Turner, agreed with Talbot that industry is doing a good job of controlling pollution getting into the water."

Across the street the lunch crowd filled Gritty McDuff's. Manager Amy Bliss wasn't sure whether tougher standards are needed.

"The blue-collar industry really needs the river to thrive. However, it's also important to the environment that the river stays clean," Bliss said.

The restaurant has an outside deck overlooking the Androscoggin, where Robyn Holman, 53, of Auburn, was finishing her lunch.

"I'll be happy when the river is clean enough so that we can eat the fish and we can drink out of it," Holman said. "We all own the river, not just a few people who dump stuff into it."

When people who live in cities without a river visit Lewiston-Auburn, "they say how lucky we are to have the falls and to have this river," Holman said. But many of the houses near the river face away from it, she said. "It should be our focal point."

The Board of Environmental Protection is expected to reach a decision on pollution limits this fall.