According to a report this past Friday (June 24) by The Quoddy Tides (Eastport, Me., USA), new water quality standards proposed by the federal government for the St. Croix River could cost the Woodland Pulp mill millions of dollars and also could affect a number of communities, including Baileyville and Calais, that discharge carefully treated wastewater into the river.

 

The proposed rule by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would make more stringent 96 human health criteria as well as other standards related to bacteria, ammonia, pH, temperature, phenol, and the state's mixing zone statute. The EPA proposed the water quality standards to address various disapprovals of Maine's standards that the EPA issued last year. The federal agency had disapproved of the state's standards as a result of a lawsuit the state has filed challenging the EPA's authority to set standards in Maine.

 

The EPA has identified 33 dischargers to waters in reservations or tribal trust lands or upstream tributaries that are affected by the proposed rule changes. Along with the Woodland Pulp mill, other facilities along the St. Croix that could be affected by the proposal are the Baileyville, Calais, and Pleasant Point wastewater treatment plants, the Passamaquoddy Water District, Calais School Department, Washington County Community College, and Grand Lake Stream Fish Hatchery.

 

Scott Beal, communications manager for Woodland Pulp, said that "if these standards go forward as proposed, it will have an adverse impact on our mill as, but one example, our thermal mixing zone will be eliminated. We've had this in place for more than 20 years. Without this in place, we are looking at millions of dollars to cool our effluent sufficiently to meet the new temperature limit, and additionally we will then run the risk of our treatment system becoming too cold in winter months to function properly." 

 

Beal also notes, "Another aspect includes the proposed fish consumption rate, which is nothing short of astonishing and would set a troubling national precedent if it becomes a reality."

 

According to the EPA, Maine's current criteria for toxic pollutants are intended to protect residents consuming up to 32.4 grams, or 0.07 lb. per day of fish. The federal and state statutes that settled the Indian land claims in Maine provide for the four federally recognized tribes to engage in sustenance fishing in waters in tribal lands and all waters subject to the reserved fishing right under the Maine Implementing Act. According to the EPA, the best available data indicate that Maine's tribal sustenance fishers consume more fish than the state's general population. EPA proposes criteria to protect the sustenance fishing use in those waters based on a fish consumption rate that represents an unsuppressed level of fish consumption by the tribes.

 

EPA proposes to use a daily fish consumption rate of 284 grams, more than half a pound, which is greater than three servings a day, combined with the most protective risk level. A letter from attorneys Bill Taylor and Matt Manahan of the law firm of Pierce Atwood to parties interested in joining a coalition to oppose the rule changes states that "the use of a 284 grams per day fish consumption rate and other proposed changes on aquatic life impacts would establish an unsupported, unscientific basis for further water-quality rulemakings."

 

Concerning the pulp mill's compliance with the state's current water quality regulations, Beal said that "our discharges to the receiving waters of the St. Croix are in substantial compliance. We're not perfect, but our compliance track record is solid."

 

Baileyville Town Manager Richard Bronson noted that both Baileyville and Calais could have "real hurdles to get over" if the proposed rules are enforced, with substantial funding needed to upgrade the treatment plants. He maintains that the proposal would seek to have the water downstream from the pulp mill meet standards that the water above the mill does not meet. "They're trying to clean the river to a standard that may be arbitrary and artificial," he said. The town manager believes that there is a "secret agenda" and that "some people would like to see the pulp mill go away."

 

 

In a written commentary on the EPA's proposal, Jay Beaudoin, environmental superintendent at Woodland Pulp, maintained that, while sustenance fishing rights are affirmed for the Passamaquoddys and the Penobscots, there are no reservation or trust lands affected by the Woodland mill's discharge. The State of Maine took ownership of the river bed in the 1980s, which differs from typical state property law where the riparian owner owns to the middle of the stream.

 

     

Beaudoin also writes, "The disapproval of the state's mixing zone law is for the purposes of bio‑accumulating pollutants. Temperature is not a bio‑accumulating pollutant. Maine rules deal with mixing zone bio‑accumulating pollutants, which EPA does not address. Inclusion of Woodland Pulp's thermal mixing zone in this proposed rule will significantly harm the mill's and local economic outlook."

 

"Additionally, the EPA has reserved the right, pending further analysis, to disapprove Maine's arsenic criteria. This change will result in nearly every industrial and public discharger in the state having arsenic limits that are difficult or impossible to meet," Beaudoin added.

 

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Maine Attorney General's Office asked the Pierce Atwood law firm to support them in filing comments opposing the proposed rule. The deadline for comments was June 20.