Defining a Nuisance: Pollution, Science, and Environmental Politics on Maine's Androscoggin River

Abstract

During the first half of the twentieth century, science, and chemistry in particular, played a key role in sanitary engineers’ efforts to understand and control pollution in America’s waterways. This study explores how people’s views of science and the environment were reshaped during the transition from localized nuisance control to concerted environmental action, from the 1940s to the 1970s. Conflict occurred when environmental managers refused to follow in the public’s footsteps by embracing the scientific discipline of ecology. This case focuses on chemist Walter Lawrance’s efforts to control offensive odors on Maine’s Androscoggin River, which were largely the result of several polluting pulp and paper mills along the river. While Lawrance and local residents disagreed over proper methods for pollution control, both parties frequently went beyond the boundaries of science through subjective odor observations or emotional appeals. These individuals and their ideas were influenced as much by the river itself as by the myriad scientific and political communities that they represented.