LEWISTON – Two Maine state biologists and a local historian will discuss the state of the Androscoggin River at 4 p.m. today at Bates College in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

The panelists are Barry Mower, a biologist with the state Department of Environmental Protection; Michael Lord, executive secretary of the Androscoggin Historical Society and co-editor of the society’s book “Androscoggin County, Maine: A Pictorial Sesquicentennial History, 1854-2004”; and Bobby Van Riper, fisheries biologist for the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Sponsored by the Bates Environmental Coalition, the program in environmental studies and the department of geology, the event is free and open to the public.

The discussion coincides with the state Legislature’s consideration of L.D. 99, a bill to improve the condition of the Androscoggin. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Elaine Makas, D-Lewiston, who says its passage would reduce pollution going into the river by 30 percent.