For too long, the Androscoggin River has been the “black eye” on the state’s compliance with the Clean Water Act. Though the river is cleaner now than in former days, it still can’t comply with the really modest requirements of a class C river.

We must do more to support Edmund Muskie’s vision of clean, freshwater rivers in Maine.

Our legislators and governor must recognize that it’s time to bring our state’s paper industry and all of our state’s rivers into the 21st century. The outdated technology of the 1950s just won’t allow our paper mills to compete effectively in the global market.

We deserve better.

I’d also like to point out that the Sun Journal’s article (Dec. 5) was reasonably faithful to the facts brought up during a press conference Dec. 4. Unfortunately, the article makes it sound as though placing the majority of the responsibility for the problem on the paper industry is simply our “opinion.”

The fact is, Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection has published data indicating that the Androscoggin’s pulp mills account for 83 percent of the oxygen-depleting pollution entering Gulf Island Pond. In comparison, municipalities on the river account for only 2 percent, while “non-point sources” account for only 15 percent.

The phosphorus pollution in Maine’s rivers will also be addressed by our Legislature this session. The mills account for 77 percent of that type of pollution in Gulf Island Pond.

That’s not just idle speculation. It’s the DEP’s own data.

Greg D’Augustine, Greene

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