There has been a great deal in the newspaper dealing with how badly polluted the Androscoggin River is today.

After graduating from Bates College in 1962, I worked with Dr Walter Lawrance in testing the pollution level of the Androscoggin River from North Turner to Lewiston.

Dr. Lawrance, a Bates College professor, had been appointed as “river master” of the Androscoggin in the early 1940s to help combat the pollution of the river. I worked with him from 1962 until 1977, when he retired. Dr. Lawrance was an expert in the field of water pollution, and did much to clean up the Androscoggin.

When I first worked on the river, it smelled badly, had bubbling methane gas coming up from the bottom, had little fish life and large floating mud patches called benthol. It was also devoid of dissolved oxygen for much of the hot summer months in the areas we tested.

The river is never going to be pristine, as it carries a great deal of silt and also gets significant runoff from farms, etc., located on its banks. The condition of the river is vastly improved today, thanks to the efforts of the paper mills and the leadership of Dr. Lawrance.

It seems that with the cheap foreign imports threatening so many American industries – including the paper mills – there could be a compromise between people protesting the small amount of remaining pollution, and the economic values of the paper mills to Maine.

Dennis Sweetser, Auburn