The Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee is scheduled to hold a work session today on a bill that would require the Androscoggin and St. Croix rivers to meet the same pollution standards as other Class C rivers in the state.

We have little hope that the committee will support Rep. Elaine Makas’ L.D. 99. The interests that are lined up against the tougher standards are strong and carry great influence with the committee. Similar efforts failed last year, and we’re afraid the Androscoggin will keep its second-class status.

Regardless of the outcome, the debate about the river will continue. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has proposed a middle-ground timeline for improving the water quality along the Androscoggin. The DEP proposal would require the paper mills on the river to meet high standards within 10 years. Environmentalists, who say the river violates the Clean Water Act, say that’s too long. Five years is a more appropriate timeline. Representatives of the mill have called the 10-year grace period a deal-buster, insisting instead on 15 years.

The Androscoggin doesn’t meet state and federal clean water standards. Many factors contribute to the river’s problems, not the least of which is the dam at Gulf Island Pond. As DEP scientist Andrew Fisk said last week, the river is smaller than others in Maine but is used by mills and several towns and cities for wastewater. According to Fisk, for every 8.6 gallons of water in the river, one has been treated and re-released. “That means there’s a small amount of river doing a heck of a lot of work,” Fisk said.

Recognizing the difficulties of attaining environmental standards, however, should not exempt the river from the law. All parties involved in negotiations agree that the river should meet Class C standards. It is the potential economic impact on the river’s mills that has convinced many to put things off. They talk of lost jobs and companies forced to leave the state, and that gets the attention of Gov. Baldacci who has already fought several tough fights to keep paper mills in the state open. But the evidence is mixed on what the economic impact on the mills would be. A DEP report found that higher environmental standards are affordable and would make the Androscoggin’s mills more efficient and competitive.

The river has come a long way since it prompted Sen. Edmund Muskie to pass the federal Clean Water Act in 1972, but the job’s not done yet. The question the Legislature and DEP must grapple with is whether to postpone the river’s progress further.

There’s more riding on the decision than just the mills. There are communities all along the river that depend upon the Androscoggin for their economic health. In Lewiston and Auburn, it is the river and the investments that have been made along its banks that are driving new development.

We shouldn’t have to wait more than a decade for change.