AUGUSTA – The members of Lewiston’s legislative delegation have been honored for their “undaunted courage, brains and heart in defense of clean water for the people of Lewiston,” said Eliza Townsend, leader of the Maine League of Conservation Voters.

At the league’s recent annual meeting, Townsend presented an award to Rep. Elaine Makas, Rep. Lillian LaFontaine O’Brien and Sen. Peggy Rotundo, all Democrats. Absent but also named in the award were Reps. Will Walcott, Richard Mailhot and Margaret Craven, also Democrats. Each one, except Mailhot, will be returning to the State House in January.

Townsend acknowledged that the Lewiston legislators achieved only limited success last year in amending L.D. 1899, a bill that set the standards for the amount of dissolved oxygen tolerated in Class C rivers. The bill allowed more discharges in the Androscoggin than in other Maine rivers. Makas tried but failed to reverse that.

However, Townsend noted that the delegation “made the point that the people of Lewiston-Auburn and the Androscoggin River were not to be treated as second-class,” she said.

Makas and Rotundo said Friday that they will try again, in the upcoming session, to improve the Androscoggin’s water quality. “We need to come up with a way for the Androscoggin to meet the same standards as other Class C rivers,” Makas said. She said she hopes to assure people it will be an economic advantage to have a cleaner river and that it would not jeopardize paper-mill jobs.

Last year, Rep. Thomas Saviello, D-Wilton, who works for International Paper in Jay, was among those who disagreed with Makas, insisting that her efforts would result in a loss of paper-mill jobs. That showdown will likely be repeated in the upcoming legislative session.

The League of Conservation Voters also placed Makas, Rotundo and Walcott on its honor roll. The league had examined what it considers pro-environmental votes cast by legislators. Rotundo and Makas scored a 100, and Walcott scored 93, Townsend said.

– By Bonnie Washuk, State House reporter