THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2006

Topic: Water Quality of the Penobscot River
The US Clean Water Act, fathered by Maine's own Senator Ed Muskie, and Maine statutes have a goal that all waters of the state be swimmable and fishable. Attainment of the swimmable goal involves assessment of a relatively risk of waterborne disease, as measured by E. coli bacteria, and aesthetics, as affected by algal blooms. Attainment of the fishable goal involves many trophic levels of the aquatic community. All species must be protected. Fish must be able to survive, grow, and reproduce and be safe to eat in unlimited quantities. DEP has many programs to measure the attainment status, from both biological and chemical effluent monitoring to ambient monitoring of macroinvertebrate communities, indices of fish population status, and bioaccumulation. There is a statewide fish consumption advisory for all freshwaters due to elevated levels of mercury and more restrictive advisories for some rivers like the Penobscot due to dioxins, which are declining, and dioxin-like PCBs. Other issues include occasional algae blooms, impacted inverebrate communities, and combined sewer overflows.

Speaker: Barry Mower, Division of Environmental Assessment, Maine Department of Environmental Protection
Barry Mower has been employed with Maine DEP since 1974. Barry is responsible for the review of point source discharges of industrial and municipal wastewater, and evaluation of attainment status of Maine's Water Quality Standards. He is also responsible for review and approval of 401 certification of FERC hydropower development and implementation of Maine's whole effluent testing program and Toxic Pollution Control Strategy. He has developed and implementated several fish contaminants monitoring programs including dioxin, mercury, PCBs, pesticides.
Barry holds a B.S. degree in Wildlife Science from the University of Maine and a M.S. degree in Fisheries from Oregon State University.