MAINE PUBLIC • June 21, 2022
Nearly 50 years ago, the water of the Androscoggin River in Lewiston was yellow and brown, laden with toxic chemicals from paper mills, sewage treatment plants and farms and so devoid of oxygen that fish and other organisms couldn't survive. The stench of rotten eggs was overwhelming. This year marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most important environmental laws ever passed. The Clean Water Act, which sets water quality standards and requires permits for discharges, was championed by Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie. And one of the big motivators for Muskie? The Androscoggin River, one of the ten most polluted rivers in the country in the 1960s and 1970s that ran through his hometown of Rumford. The river has come a long way in five decades.