To the editor:
Following are some of the comments to USDA Rural Development that I sent on Aug. 19 regarding the $4.3 million rural development grant application from the Limestone Water & Sewer District. The District proposes to extend their wastewater outfall (discharge) an additional 3.4 miles from the Little Madawaska River to the Aroostook River at Caribou. After examining the official Environmental Report prepared by the engineering firm Wright-Pierce in Portland, I strongly support Alternative 5 – No Action, as described on page 2–5. My reasons are primarily related to protecting current and future water quality of the lower Aroostook River.
On Aug. 18, 2009, I confirmed with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (MDEP) in Augusta, that bio-monitoring on the Limestone Stream in 2004 indicated the stream met Class B both above and below the current Limestone Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) discharge. The stream below the STP is classified a lower Class C. Both classifications support brook trout fisheries. So, there’s no evident problem there.
If current discharges to the Little Madawaska River from the Loring Development Authority (LDA) indicate violations of toxicity testing for arsenic and Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate as noted in the Report, this situation should be studied to determine the source, rather than just “solve” the problem with the additional dilution the larger Aroostook River would provide from Caribou to Fort Fairfield.
Finally, page 2-5 of the Report reveals the prime “purpose and need” for this proposed $4.3 million publicly-funded wastewater pipeline “extension” is to be a magnet for large industry to the LDA, including a “wet” industry, such as a potato processing plant. I encouraged the USDA to seriously consider the potential environmental impacts I noted in letters to the editor of several local papers. In that writing, I stressed excess nutrients from current MDEP-licensed dischargers, principally total phosphorus, which MDEP noted in 2004, after the most comprehensive water quality assessment in the Aroostook River’s history. I also reminded reviewers of the anti-degradation provision of the federal Clean Water Act.
In addition, I advised USDA Rural Development that — based on my research of government reports — the lower Aroostook River does not have the assimilative capacity to accommodate another major industrial wastewater discharge. Under Maine law, wastewater discharges are not a right, they are a regulated privilege – allowed only if other designated uses such as habitat for fish and other aquatic life, fishing, and recreation in and on the water are met.
Presque Isle
