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Matthew Scott of Belgrade is a retired fishery biologist and former chair of the Maine Board of Environmental Protection.
Sen. Edmund Muskie was an environmental leader and champion of the 1972 Clean water Act and the 1970 Clean Air Act. He was a native of Rumford, a graduate of Bates College and earned his law degree from Cornell University. He later was elected to the Maine House and became governor before moving onto the U.S. Senate in 1959.
He recognized pollution as a public health problem and became chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution. He was a pioneer in creating these two environmental masterpieces. These two acts might very well or could have been called “Muskie Acts.”
He was recognized by the Senate and many non-governmental organizations as the “most important environmental leader” at that time. He maintained his devotion to environmental advocacy and knew how important it was to protect people’s health and welfare from pollution. He also strongly felt that protecting the environment also protected the economy and he retained that commitment even during his failed attempt for the presidential race in 1968.
Muskie knew what he was talking about. He grew up in the town of Rumford, on the banks of the Androscoggin River. He saw, smelled and felt the ravages of pollution and considered knowledge and data to be valuable for making good decisions.
He was prepared in his committee deliberations with Senate colleagues who became impressed with facts that Muskie knew. He was not bluffing. Ed Muskie wanted to solve problems by being an inclusive legislator and felt that technology could be used to reduce pollution and safeguard human health. He didn’t feel that compromise was a dirty word and really understood the collaborative approach to reach consensus.
This strong belief was so instilled with the Senate that the Clean Water Act survived a veto by then-President Richard Nixon.
So may we conclude that Ed Muskie’s work in the U.S. Congress represents the best legislative behavior of the times and he was a giant in environmental law and the making of the two acts.
This year, October 2022 we celebrate 50 years of the Clean Water Act, which has improved and protected the quality of our Maine waters and especially Maine’s Androscoggin River, which was considered one of the most polluted rivers in the nation in the 1970s. The act is and has been a long road long lived, effective and a model of supreme effectiveness for all people.
On Earth Day 1974, Ed Muskie concluded his speech with this:
“Brotherhood is both a form of freedom and a promise of sacrifice. As we learn that our planet is a fragile physical support, we learn as well that cooperation is what holds it and us together. We learn to see ourselves as free men able to give up that part of our freedom which is license, and able to give it up by our own choice in order to preserve freedom for all men”
This year as we continue our journey with the Clean Water Act, and with every step along the way, we do what Ed Muskie wrote about. The road to recovery is long because environmental protection is forever.