Aroostook River pollution began a century ago
By Steve Sutter
In 1841, Maine’s Legislature clarified nuisances to include “the corrupting or rendering unwholesome or unpure, the water of any river, stream or pond.” However, the law was unenforceable. No government agency (with sufficient resources) was charged with the responsibility to regulate and abate water pollution, with judicial review in cases of dispute.
The first known case of harm related to water pollution on the Aroostook was an 1849 outbreak of (water-borne) cholera that killed 30 settlers and children at Salmon Brook Plantation (Washburn).
In 1867, a State Fish Commission was appointed to study the practicability of restoring fish to the rivers and inland waters of Maine. The causes of “decay” in productivity from that in olden times were known to be impassable dams, overfishing, and pollution.
Commissioners said “the only pollution that has yet been sufficiently extensive in Maine to cause serious apprehensions is that of sawdust; and we are inclined to think that the injury arising from this source has been much overrated.” They acknowledged that sawdust settling in “great drifts” on stream bottoms “deprives the fish of a portion of their feeding ground, and compels them to seek new pastures.”
The Aroostook’s first salmon run was documented in 1873. Bailey noted in 1894 “some idea of that fish’s strength and activity may be conveyed by merely stating that a few small salmon succeed in ascending the Aroostook Falls. Within are five principal cascades aggregating 75 feet in height; the largest fall of 16 feet, at the foot of the gorge, where a remarkable dike of diorite overhangs the water.” Bailey also said “Of late years grilse [young Atlantic salmon on their first return from the sea] have been taken with the fly at the mouth of the Little Machias River.”
In 1878, Maine’s Board of Agriculture met in Presque Isle. The theme was Dairying in Aroostook County. J.R. Nelson of Winthrop noted, in part, “We are told of your farmers who are growing 3,000 to 5,000 bushels of potatoes, the starch from which [9 pounds per 63-pound bushel] is being shipped from your county, the refuse perhaps floated down your beautiful streams.”
In 1894, Jacob Whitman Bailey wrote a “keeper” booklet entitled “The St. John River: In Maine, Quebec, and New Brunswick.” This he said about the Aroostook, the St. John’s largest tributary: “On no other large branch of the St. John does the water fall so low in dry weather. Even Green River, with an area less than one fourth as great, is generally navigable when it would be almost impossible to work a canoe over the partially dry bed of the Aroostook. The causes are, probably, the paucity of large lakes which retain the flood water, the extensive denudation of forest, and the widening of the channel by heavy lumber driven from the upper waters.” He also noted “Aroostook waters are not well stocked with fish.”
The Rivers and Harbors Act of 1890 prohibited the discharge of any refuse or filth that would impede navigation in interstate/international waters (including the Aroostook). Unfortunately, the Act was greatly “watered down” with amendments in 1899. Conveniently exempted from the navigation impedance prohibition was “refuse flowing from streets and sewers and passing therefrom in a liquid state.”
In 1900, Chemist J.M. Bartlett of Maine’s Agricultural Experiment Station published research showing the dry matter residue left in the manufacture of potato starch (containing nearly all the fiber, protein, fat, and a large part of the starch found in the fresh potato) “would have considerable value as a [cattle] feeding stuff.”
By 1900, 45 starch factories operated in The County, producing over 12 million pounds of starch. Combined with municipal sewage sources, several cheese factories, dozens of sawmills, and silt produced by soil tillage, the Aroostook became a “working” river — working to assimilate waste.
In 1910, the total number of farms in Aroostook County crested at 7,289, up spectacularly from the 1,228 farms tallied in 1850.
Although the Public Health Service Act of 1912 authorized the federal government to investigate waterborne disease and water pollution, the next few decades would be lean ones in terms of federal involvement in water pollution control.
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.
