January 2, 2021 GMT
LEWISTON, Maine (AP) A state senator wants to upgrade the Androscoggin River’s water quality rating to acknowledge the turnaround of a river that was once heavily polluted by paper mills and other industries.
State Sen. Ned Claxton, D-Auburn, said he hopes a bill raising the quality rating from Class C to Class B can be signed into law by September.
For river advocates, a reclassification of the river from just above the Great Falls to Merrymeeting Bay would cap years of efforts to upgrade the river’s classification, the Sun Journal reported.
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Data over the last 20 years indicate the river meets the Class B standards 99% of the time, Peter Rubins, chairman of Grow L+A’s river working group, wrote in a letter to the governor.
Proposed bill would upgrade Androscoggin River’s water classification
River advocate Peter Rubins said if approved, the reclassification would become law in time for the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, which marked the beginning of the river restoration effort.
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Anna Stavrou, left, and her daughter, Nadia, from New Hampshire, take a selfie Saturday in front of Great Falls in Lewiston while standing in Veterans Memorial Park. Stravou, who lives in New Hampshire, but whose work often brings her to Lewiston, took the trip with her daughter to see the falls after the heavy Christmas Day rainfall. “It’s better than Niagara (Falls) because it’s so close,” Nadia said.