Scientists say this summer's heavy rains caused the release of more sewage into Casco Bay.
In a webinar Tuesday, Friends of Casco Bay staff scientist Mike Doan said this year's abundant summer rain contributed to a dramatic increase in combined sewer overflows, a mixture of sewage and storm water that is discharged to the bay. Doan said between January and August of last year, which was much drier, those overflows were measured at 70 million gallons.
"Which is a lot, but doesn't really compare to this year, over the same time period, when we had over 250 million gallons of mixed storm water and sewage getting into the bay," he said.
On the upside, Doan said there were fewer algae blooms observed in the bay this year. But he noted that the bay's water temperature has increased about 3 degrees Fahrenheit since the group started monitoring three decades ago.
