By Steve Sutter
On the morning of May 1, 2008, the Aroostook rose to within two inches of the river’s official flood line (unaffected by ice). This historic event was recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey gauging station at Washburn, which has measured daily height and flow records (now web-based and real time) since August 1, 1930. In 1900, Maine’s Inland Fisheries and Game Commissioners fielded the first fish and game wardens in the State. The first warden stationed in the Aroostook River watershed was George H. Huston of Perham.
On Aug. 1, 1903, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) established a gaging station on the Aroostook at Fort Fairfield, measuring the water flow and depth through 1910. Throughout the country, stream gaging had “come of age.”
Under the Treaty between Great Britain and the United States signed Jan. 11, 1909, “there shall be no injurious pollution of boundary waters of the U.S. and Canada on either side.” The Aroostook River is among the boundary waters covered.
In 1913, Maine’s Legislature amended the Fish and Game code to prohibit placement of sawdust and other milling waste “in any of the lakes or ponds of the state,” and in or on the banks of specified streams. Protected streams included the Aroostook or its tributaries above the mouth of Beaver Brook in Sheridan Plantation and the Little Madawaska River or any of its tributaries.
In 1914, Olof O. Nylander, one of Maine’s first environmentalists, remarked “Many of the tributaries of the St. John are in forest. Sawmills large and small are to be found nearly everywhere. The sawdust and other waste is thrown in the water, and is forming extensive deposits in the river and its tributaries. It is very destructive to molluscan and other animal life.”
On Aug. 1, 1930, the USGS commenced collection of daily flow records on the Aroostook at Washburn. Based on 82 years of records (now Web-based and real time), the river has never gone dry, nor has it ever (when unaffected by ice) flooded. The river did rise to within 2 inches of the official flood line on May 1, 2008.
In 1931, Maine’s Legislature approved a law that could allow sawmills to deposit sawdust and other waste in or on the banks of streams wherever it was otherwise prohibited. If such dumping was believed by proprietors to be “necessary in the prosecution of business,” they could apply for a “permit” from the commissioner of inland fisheries and game and the commissioner of health. After public noticing and a hearing, these agencies could either approve or deny the petition.
Published in 1937, the classic paper “Detection and measurement of stream pollution” by M.M. Ellis of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, concluded, in part, that dissolved oxygen content of fresh-water streams should be higher than 5 parts per million for cold-water fishes (such as brook trout).
Years earlier, a Committee of the Paper Manufacturers, chaired by Joseph A. Warren, conducted (and funded) an extensive survey of five Maine rivers (St. Croix, Penobscot, Kennebec, Androscoggin and Presumpscot). In a Report to the Governor submitted March 9, 1931, authors had established somewhat arbitrarily that “three parts per million (ppm) is to be considered the minimum oxygen content desirable in a stream where fish life is involved.” Ellis’s later studies showed that 3 ppm is lethal to the sensitive trout — but tolerable to goldfish (native to Asia).
In 1936, the Water Resources Committee, established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, produced an exhaustive study of “Drainage Basin Problems and Programs” throughout the United States. Concerning the Aroostook River, “immediate” investigation of pollution control was recommended. Ashland and Fort Fairfield needed sewer systems. Ashland needed a new water supply.
In 1939, the Water Resources Committee recommended establishing state enforcement agencies and stream segment classifications in the report “Water Pollution in the United States.” Maine was among states with control of pollution “incomplete because of special limitations.”
On April 9, 1941, the Legislature created the Maine Sanitary Water Board to study, investigate, and recommend means of eliminating and preventing pollution in waters used for recreation. However, the Legislature rendered the Board harmless since no effective pollution control mechanism was vested in it, and only $400 was appropriated for each of the following two years. From 1942-53, no legal actions were initiated against a polluter.
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 third installment of his series on the history of the Aroostook River.
