As the federal government contemplates classifying wild salmon as an endangered species, a group of Mainers is still arguing over whether the state needs an irrigation policy, one of the major sticking points in the fish debate. The two federal agencies that are now considering listing Atlantic salmon in eight Maine rivers as endangered ranked the lack of water withdrawal plans for the rivers high among their concerns when they reviewed the fish s status last year.
Water is taken from the rivers to irrigate crops, primarily blueberries in Washington County.
He was part of a group of farmers, blueberry growers, ski area operators, environmentalists and state officials meeting to discuss the issue Wednesday. Dave Courtemanch of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection s Water Bureau countered that there is a problem because there are documented cases of fish being killed when too little water remained in some streams and ponds. When he was deputy commissioner of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Matt Scott traveled to Aroostook County in 1995 to look at Caribou Lake, which had been drawn dry by three farmers. The bottom of the lake, located in Washburn, was dry and cracked, Scott recalled. To prevent another Caribou Lake incident, standards are needed, Scott told members of the Sustainable Water Withdrawal Policy Work Group, which met for the first time at the Augusta Civic Center to begin hammering out a water withdrawal policy for the state.