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tale of two rivers…

A tale of two rivers A cleaner Kennebec makes the Androscoggin look that much worse by comparison

AUGUSTA – There was a time when the Kennebec River was so polluted its fish would turn belly up by the thousands.

During the heat of July and August, State House workers would close the capital’s windows, sacrificing a cool breeze in order to keep the river’s foul odor out.

In many ways, it was mirror image of the Androscoggin River at the time, a river then considered to be among the 10 worst polluted waterways in the nation.

The Kennebec, like the Androscoggin, suffered from industrial pollution as paper and pulp mills sent effluents filled with poisons into the water. Add to that raw sewage pumped by dozens of towns into the river and its tributaries. The final ingredient in the foul recipe was a century or more of decaying wood waste and debris left over from logging drives

“All kinds of nasty stuff” contributed to the Kennebec’s less than stellar reputation then, said Dave Courtemanche, director of environmental assessment for Maine’s Deparment of Environmental Protection.

Then, the river wouldn’t have come close to meeting the federal government’s Class C minimum clean water standards.

Today, though, Courtemanche says that with one exception – a Class C stretch of water just below a Sappi mill operation between Skowhegan and Fairfield – the Kennebec River meets Class A to Class B standards.

“It’s a success story by any standards,” he says.

Why the Kennebec, though, and not the Androscoggin?

“They’re two different rivers,” answers Courtemanche, with different industrial experiences as well.

The foremost factor, he says, is that the smaller pulp and paper mills that once lined the Kennebec’s banks are largely gone. Those that remain have major distinctions from the huge International Paper mill in Jay, the nearly as large MeadWestvaco plant in Rumford, and somewhat smaller Fraser Paper mill in Berlin, N.H., Courtemanche said.

The Sappi mill on the Kennebec, built by S.D. Warren in the early 1970s, is Maine’s newest paper mill and has the most advanced pulp process wastewater treatment in the state.

The Madison Paper mill in Madison uses a ground wood process rather than chemical pulping for its base material. The ground wood process produces far fewer toxic byproducts, Courtemanche said.

And being smaller, neither comes close to producing the waste load generated by the Androscoggin mills, he said.

The Kennebec also is a larger river than the Androscoggin, Courtemanche added. That means it’s able to provide a greater dilution for the pollution coming from the mills.

A final factor in favor of the Kennebec’s cleanliness is that it has fewer dams blocking its flow than the Androscoggin. Removal a few years ago of the Edwards Dam resulted in improved river flow and an upgrading of the river above Augusta.

Courtemanche said both the Kennebec and the Androscoggin have benefited from the major strides made by cities and towns in their municipal wastewater treatment programs. Still, Lewiston and Auburn, like Augusta, need to do more.

He said some storm drain systems in the three cities need to be separated from sanitary sewer lines to prevent untreated sewage from being flushed into the rivers during heavy rains.

The Androscoggin suffers mostly from pollution in the waters backed up behind the Gulf Island dam, pollution that comes primarily from the three pulp mills along the river. The wastewater load the river carries begins in New Hampshire and can be found “clearly as it passes through Berlin,” he said.

Problems with suspended solids can be found in the river below the I.P. mill in the Livermore impoundment, he added. The problems grow worse as the water backs up in Gulf Island Pond.

All the same, it’s a far cleaner river that it was 30 years ago, he says. But “I don’t know if I’d call it a success story,” Courtemanche added. “The final chapter is not yet written.”