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Restoring 'Urban Impaired' Waterways: Maine's 5-year Effort Bearing Fruit

Irwin Gratz
/
MPBN

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine - The state is now half-way through a 10-year effort to clean up Long Creek in South Portland.

The creek and its tributaries drain an area that includes the Maine Mall, Portland Jetport, office parks and busy roads. In a historic agreement in 2009, the Environmental Protection Administration allowed all the affected businesses in the area to join in a single environmental permit governing water quality. In the second of two reports, Irwin Gratz looks at the progress that's being made.

The problem is easy to describe, but difficult to solve. When rain falls on the Maine Mall roof, its massive parking lot, or on the other developments and roadways that surround it, numerous pollutants are washed into storm drains. Those drains empty their water into adjacent Long Creek.  Over the decades, the creek's water, once used for fishing and ice harvesting, has become unfit for people and most fish.

Since creation of the Long Creek Restoration Project five years ago, property owners throughout the area have paid a $3,000-an-acre fee each year. That, and other funding, has paid for projects to clean-up the water.   

One of the early projects re-paved part of Maine Mall Road with a "porous" pavement.  It lets water percolate through the pavement, filling spaces between rocks.  Eventually the water flows down through sand to remove contaminants.  

Peter Newkirk worked on the porous pavement project for the transportation department five years ago and is now  head of the surface waters resources unit. Newkirk says, so far, the porous pavement appears to be working:

"We have a reduction in what they call the 'peak flow' - that flash flow coming off pavement that can disrupt the structure of the stream," Newkirk says. "We've also had a reduction in total, suspended solids and in two metals - heavy metals in particular:  zinc and copper."

But, overall, is the project helping to clean Long Creek? "What we've seen so far is, it is," says Tamara Lee Pinard.

Pinard is executive director of the Long Creek Restoration Project. She told me about another way they measure progress: "All of the stream standards are based on the bugs."

The bugs?

"Mayflies, catusflies," Pinard explains. "When the stream is in good condition, those are the bugs that you want, because those definitely indicate higher water quality."

So, one of the improvements being made is to place some tree-root-like structures into portions of the creek, providing a habitat for the bugs. And Pinard says they are seeing progress in the upper watershed.

"The samples from last year indicate that the bugs in that area of the stream are actually meeting state water quality standards," she says. "It's only one year of data, so we need another year of data to confirm that, but we're feeling really positive."

One of the more recent projects involves plantings in the median of Gorham Road, between Western Avenue and the mall. The new grasses and trees will again prevent rainfall from picking up harmful contaminants and rushing through storm drains into Long Creek.

It's a part of the project that Craig Gorris, manager of the Maine Mall, says provides an extra benefit. "A lot of the stuff that goes on with Long Creek is 'back-of-the-house' stuff," Gorris says. "So, when we're really able to make a beautification improvement where we can add trees and landscaping and really enhance the experience, if you will, of coming to the mall, that's what really makes me happy about the project."

While it's not yet clear how much improvement is possible in Long Creek, those involved in the project like what they see. Tamara Lee Pinard:

"This is really at the forefront of what we're doing here in Maine," says Tamara Lee Pinard. "There hasn't been an urban-impaired stream in Maine that has been restored.   So, the fact that we are seeing some success here - we're figuring out how to get this stuff done, and how to get it done in the most cost-effective way possible."

And Sean Mahoney, of the Conservation Law Foundation, says the project has succeeded by raising awareness. "The Long Creek experience has really served to get other groups and other cities to address this problem before having to face a petition like those in the Long Creek Watershed did."

Mahoney praises recent efforts by the city of Portland to deal with storm water runoff into Back Cove.  In 2013 the city installed huge underground tunnels to trap and hold storm water runoff until it could be sent to the city's water treatment plant. Another such storage tunnel will be built in the near future under Marginal Way in Portland, with a third being planned.