Liberating a river (Penobscot River, Maine)

[jpak]

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/stories/20090116260109200.htm

UNDOING the damage done by human beings to nature is not a novel idea any more, not in the face of climate change. But actual actions in this regard are rare. So, when one hears of a project that actually aims at restoring the health of a river and bringing back the migrating fish species in order to benefit indigenous and other communities living along it, it comes as a breath of fresh air or rather a cup of pure water.

The Penobscot river and its tributaries form the largest river system of Maine, a State in north-eastern United States. This area has been inhabited by the Penobscot Indians for the past 10,000 years. These tribes treated the river and its inhabitants and everything that depended on the river with respect and restraint. The earliest European settlements in America came up in this region, which is also known as New England. In the past couple of centuries, the new Americans dammed, polluted and poisoned the river and its tributaries, and over-harvested its aquatic wealth.

All that is set to change. Now, in a bold people’s initiative, Maine’s inhabitants, old and new, have agreed to restore a considerable part of the river’s health. Significant progress has been made in the past couple of decades to clean the river of pollutants by enforcing pollution control measures in the paper mills on its banks and installing municipal wastewater treatment plants with the active involvement of the State and federal environmental agencies, backed by independent research by the native tribes and environmental non-governmental organisations.

The most radical move, however, involves the decommissioning and complete removal of two dams – the Veazie dam, the first one to be built in 1834, and the Great Works dam – and the redesigning of the Howland dam, to provide a full bypass channel for the fish run.

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