By Steve Sutter
Beginning July 21, 1945, the Maine Sanitary Water Board was authorized to license the discharge of wastewater into Maine’s rivers, streams and lakes. All existing polluters were “grandfathered” into the program, so enjoyed automatic dumping licenses. As “new” dischargers, Clarke Distilleries, Ltd., and Birds Eye-Snider Division of General Foods — both in Caribou — promised that their wastes would not lower the river’s water quality below the Board’s tentative (relatively-high) “Class B.” The New England Conference of Sanitary Engineers had in 1945 adopted water quality classifications of A, B, C or D according to the receiving water’s “present” use.
In 1947, the Legislature considered L.D. 241 which would allow the Board to “adopt and enforce standards of water quality” and provided for “the submission and approval of municipal sewage disposal plans and waste treatment units before construction.” The bill failed.
In 1948, sewer and water districts were chartered for Ashland and Fort Fairfield. And Clarke Distilleries — despite plant officials’ promises before and after licensing — was found dumping wastes “in the amount of about 10 times the pollution load for which the license was granted.” The Board still didn’t have any real authority to “cause corrective actions,” so this condition continued unchecked.
The Board hailed the signing of the Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 (P.L. 845) as “a milestone along the road to the recovery of our great natural resource — water.” The law was intended to promote research and provide technical guidance and financial aid in planning and constructing wastewater treatment facilities.
In 1950, Fishery Biologists Lyndon H. Bond and Stuart E. DeRoche of Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Game published a preliminary survey of man-made obstructions in northern Maine, and observed the effects of logging practices on salmon and trout habitat. Among their recommendations, the authors suggested that “bulldozing of the stream bed be confined to the dam site and that indiscriminate bulldozing of the stream bed and banks be controlled” and that “adequate fishways be installed in existing permanent dams” meeting the agency’s specifications.
In 1951, following a comprehensive survey of water pollution, the Legislature replaced the Sanitary Water Board with the Water Improvement Commission (WIC). The Health and Welfare Commissioner was the sole holdover from the old Board, and was joined by two representatives each from the manufacturing interests, municipalities, and the State’s public at large.
The new Commission inherited most of its predecessor’s weaknesses. River classifications, to be completed over a generous timespan, required legislative approval and underwent tremendous scrutiny from industrial lobbyists en route through the Legislature. The Commission still had to prove that a source of pollution was “inconsistent with the public interest;” wording so vague that no action against a polluter was ever initiated from 1941-53.
On Aug. 26, 1952, the WIC voted to adopt as the physical standards of classification the New England Inter-Agency Standards, “as modified” by the Department of Health and Welfare. The lowest classification (Class D) “shall be considered as primarily devoted to the transportation of sewage and industrial wastes without the creation of a nuisance condition and such waters shall [generally] contain dissolved oxygen at all times.”
In 1953, a license to discharge waste into the Aroostook River without treatment was renewed for Colby Cooperative Starch Company in Caribou. The commissioners (appointed by the Governor) had started receiving $10 per meeting (plus travel), and administered a budget of $14,409 of which $9,387 funded salaries of the technical support staff. The first token classifications, all Class A for mostly “wilderness streams,” cleared the Legislature, but a bill intended to end the licensing “grandfather clause” was killed.
In the early years, eastern Aroostook County was represented on the Water Improvement Commission. Fred Beck of Presque Isle served in 1952-53, John Reed of Fort Fairfield followed in 1954. In 1955, Walter F. Tweedie of Mars Hill replaced Reed, who had won election to the Maine House of Representatives.
The WIC annual report for fiscal 1954-55 noted licensing of the Birds Eye plant in Caribou was renewed to discharge 2.5 million gallons per day of “screened” food processing waste to the Aroostook. There’s no mention of Clarke Distilleries.
Early in 1955, newly-elected Governor Edmund S. Muskie proposed the completion of stream classification work within two years and appropriation of the necessary funds for undertaking this water quality improvement measure. This statewide goal was achieved. By June 30, 1957, water quality assessments in the Aroostook River Basin had been completed.
Steve Sutter is a retired agricultural and resource economist living on a Presque Isle riverfront property that has been in his family since April 12, 1854. This is the fifth installment of his series on the history of the Aroostook River.