Associated Press
FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2014 file photo, a couple canoes in a section of the Androscoggin River in the White Mountains in Dummer, N.H.
Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, the principal federal law governing water quality and pollution in the nation s lakes, rivers and streams.
Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie championed its passage in 1972, motivated in part by the degraded condition of the Androscoggin River. The river s health has improved since then, but not without repeated legal battles. And a new effort to reclassify its southernmost section is also meeting strong resistance.