Tag: Casco Baykeeper

April 17, 2024

10 Ways to Get Ready for Earth Day

Earth Day is on Monday, April 22, 2024. Here at Friends of Casco Bay, while every day is an opportunity to advocate for and protect clean waters and healthy communities, Earth Day is our reminder that collectively we can take positive actions to help nature and inspire hope.

In this spirit, here are 10 ways to show up, aid, and honor this one precious Earth we share.

1) Be the eyes of the Bay.

Water Reporter Susan Woodman enjoys photographing the eelgrass at Willard Beach in South Portland. “It feels as though you’re contributing something and looking after the beach.”

Become a Water Reporter. Volunteer Water Reporters help us act as the eyes of Casco Bay. Water Reporters use their smartphones to photograph algal blooms, sea level rise, pollution, eelgrass, wildlife sightings, and other notable observations from on and around the Bay. Their photos are shared with our staff through the Water Reporter app, creating an archive of observational data on how the Bay may be changing over time. Sign up here.

2). Learn about superhero seagrasses.

Attend our upcoming Coffee with the Casco Baykeeper: Eelgrass happening online Thursday, April 25, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. Friends of Casco Bay is part of a two-year eelgrass pilot project to monitor eelgrass meadows, study why they are shrinking, and, ultimately, test restoration solutions. Register to attend and learn more about this vital marine plant and the pilot project.

3) Find out what you can do about stormwater pollution by watching our Coffee with the Casco Baykeeper video on stormwater. Casco Baykeeper Ivy Frignoca and Community Organizer Sara Freshley have a conversation over coffee that focuses on the increasing impact stormwater has on Casco Bay and what Friends of Casco Bay is doing to help address this issue (sneak peek: it’s a lot!). They also share upcoming opportunities for you to use your voice to advocate for clean water.

4) Educate yourself about “forever chemicals” by watching our Coffee with the Casco Baykeeper video on PFAS in Casco Bay. PFAS are known as forever chemicals because they break down slowly in the environment. They are associated with serious health issues and can be found in many common products such as fast food packaging, nonstick pans, candy wrappers, and firefighting foam.

Ivy Frignoca and Community Organizer Sara Freshley have a casual conversation about our partnership with Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences to sample for PFAS in Casco Bay. Ivy shares insights from what we learned during our first year of PFAS monitoring in Casco Bay and we also talk about what’s next in 2024.

5) Clean up our watershed. Put your gloves on, grab a bag, and help clean up the Casco Bay watershed.

Friends of Casco Bay volunteers, Andrea Martin, Steffy Amondi and Trish Peterson collect and log the different types of trash collected along the shore of Bug Light Park in South Portland.

Here are four cleanup events happening soon:

Coastal Cleanup hosted by Mere Point Oyster Co. and Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust in Brunswick on Saturday, April 20.
South Portland Annual Cleanup hosted by South Portland Land Trust at Mill Creek Park on Sunday, April 21.
Earth Day Beach Cleanup hosted by Casco Bay Cleanup Project and MaineHealth Sustainability Committee at the East End Beach in Portland on Monday, April 22.
Red Brook Cleanup Day hosted by the Sebago Chapter of Trout Unlimited and Maine Fly Guys in South Portland on Saturday, May 4.

Thank you to the businesses and organizations hosting these events.

If none of these events work for you, host your own cleanup! Picking up waste anywhere in the watershed region is helpful to the Bay – it doesn’t have to be on the coast.

6) Celebrate sustainable cities

The City of Portland is celebrating Earth Day on Saturday, April 20 with live music, food trucks, e-bike demos, composting, stories and more. Info here.

7) Drink a beer for the Bay this April.

We are thrilled to announce that our Friends at Allagash Brewing Company have selected Friends of Casco Bay as their Charitable Partner this month! What this means is that their tasting room team forwards all funds their guests add to their tabs directly to us all April long. So if you’re looking for a tasty way to support us, head over to Allagash, enjoy a beer, and be sure to add a little extra when paying your tab!

8) Take personal action.

There are a myriad of ways to walk more gently on the earth, heal the wounds of pollution, and be part of the solutions. Here are just a few ideas:

Photo by Sam Bengs

• Remember to pick up after your pooch, and carry it out too.

• Green your ride by biking, walking, or carpooling.

• Stop using pesticides and fertilizers on your lawn.

• Get an energy audit on your home.

• Compost or use a service like Garbage to Garden.

• Eat local.

• Use less plastic.

And remember: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin

9) Share some Earth love!

Clammers in Casco Bay. Photo by Heidi Holloway

Post a photo of you and the Bay, then tag @FriendsofCascoBay on Facebook or Instagram.

10) Take a moment to connect with Casco Bay and the watershed.

“One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, ‘What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?’” –Rachel Carson

Harpswell sunset. Photo by Stephen G. Hobson

April 1, 2024

Featured

Join us for Coffee with the Casco Baykeeper: Eelgrass

Join us on Thursday, April 25 for our last Coffee with the Casco Baykeeper event of the season. This time we’ll be talking about our eelgrass pilot project.

Like coral reefs, eelgrass meadows provide a variety of critical services for our oceans and planet:

Eelgrass meadows in Casco Bay declined in size by 54 percent between 2018-2022, a loss described as “staggering” by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection in a January 2023 report. Many factors can contribute to loss of eelgrass. Nitrogen pollution is one of them, and unlike other contributing factors such as warming water temperatures, the amount of nitrogen in the Bay can be controlled at a local level. Photo credit: Steve Karpiak

• Nursery habitat for fish, lobster, horseshoe crabs, and other shellfish
• Vital food source for birds and fish
• Stabilizes sediments, reducing erosion
• Raises pH levels and buffers the effects of ocean acidification
• Carbon capture, helping reduce the effect of climate change

We became alarmed when we learned that 54% of this critical habitat had disappeared between 2018 and 2022. This year we are partnering with other groups to launch an eelgrass pilot project to better understand what’s happening and explore how to restore eelgrass habitats. This is a collaborative project between Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, Friends of Casco Bay, Manomet, and Team Zostera.

On Thursday, April 25, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. grab a cup of coffee and hop online to join Casco Baykeeper Ivy Frignoca and Community Organizer Sara Freshley for an early morning conversation about our eelgrass pilot project. Whether you’re cozy on your couch, doing your morning routine, or listening on your phone while you walk the dog, join us for this informative event.

What: Coffee with the Casco Baykeeper: PFAS
When: Thursday, April 25, 8:00 to 8:45 a.m.
Where: Zoom, Register here to receive a link to attend

March 29, 2024

10 Things We’ve Learned About PFAS in Casco Bay

Last updated: April 17, 2024

Concerns about PFAS have surfaced as more of Maine’s lands and waters are tested. Before 2023, no one had gathered samples from the marine waters of Casco Bay yet. Last year, Friends of Casco Bay and Bigelow Laboratories for Ocean Sciences partnered up to test for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in Casco Bay. We’ve gathered the results from our first year of samples and have learned some interesting things about PFAS along the way.

1. We found PFAS at all 18 sites we sampled in Casco Bay in 2023. While there are no safe limits set for marine waters, all of our samples were lower than Maine’s interim drinking water standards. [Update on 4/17/24: The EPA finalized new and more stringent standards for drinking water on April 9, 2024. We understand that drinking water regulations are not the best framework to compare to marine waters since we don’t drink bay water. We are discussing how to evaluate the 2023 PFAS results and hope this continued study will help inform setting standards for PFAS in marine waters.] PFAS levels appeared to dilute quickly at sites further offshore.

Friends of Casco Bay and Bigelow Laboratories for Ocean Sciences conducted six months of PFAS sampling in Casco Bay in 2023, finding low levels of PFAS at all 18 sites.

2. Research shows PFAS to have serious and long-term health consequences, including increased risk for kidney or testicular cancer, liver damage, high cholesterol, pregnancy complications, decreased fertility, lower birth weight in infants, and other potential health risks.* We know that PFAS-contaminated seafood affects human health so our sampling efforts in Casco Bay can help us better understand the risks.

3. PFAS have been manufactured since the 1940s. They are used to make products durable and resistant to water, flames, and stains. PFAS can be found in a wide range of products — microwave popcorn bags, candy wrappers, camping gear, smartphones, pesticides, yoga pants, cosmetics, cleaning products, shampoo — the list goes on. It can feel a bit overwhelming.

4. PFAS really are “forever chemicals.” Two of the top PFAS suspects, PFOA and PFOS showed up in higher concentrations at our Casco Bay test sites than any of the other PFAS compounds, even though these two were phased out in the US by 2016. This demonstrates just how persistent these chemicals are and the importance of bans.

5. It’s still safe for a lobster bake. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection collected and analyzed American lobster meat from across the coast of Maine in 2021.** Half of the sites had no detectable PFOS in lobster meat, while the rest showed very low concentrations that should not pose a risk to your next lobster feast according to Maine CDC. PFAS levels also tested low and are considered safe for Maine’s soft-shell clams, striped bass, and bluefish.**

6. Things are a bit fishy on the lower Presumpscot River. Maine CDC recommends anglers consume only four meals per year of any fish caught from the lower Presumpscot River due to PFAS.***

7. We dressed up special for the occasion. To avoid contaminating our samples, our scientists had to wear special clothing that didn’t contain any PFAS. We also had to stop using Sharpie markers and the write-in-the-rain paper we typically use because they both contain PFAS. Bigelow Laboratories has also developed very specific protocols in their labs for analyzing samples and is now certified to test water and sediment samples for PFAS for the state.

8. We’re looking for specific sources. For this next round of sampling in 2024, we’ll take our boat and PFAS sampling kits to 71 sites around Casco Bay and the watershed to better understand how PFAS are entering our waters. This information will help Maine’s state agencies protect local water quality.

9. Maine is taking action. In 2021, Maine passed groundbreaking bipartisan legislation banning all nonessential uses of PFAS in products used in Maine, some of the most stringent PFAS regulations in the country.

10. You can be part of the solution too. We believe the best way to address the PFAS crisis is to enact regulations that limit or eliminate PFAS at the manufacturing level. You can support legislation requiring manufacturers to report their use of PFAS and oppose bills that move us backward. For example, right now there is a proposal we’ve testified against that would exempt agricultural pesticides from reporting requirements and the ban on PFAS until 2030. Until better regulations go into effect, here are some things consumers can do to reduce their PFAS exposure.

Want to know more about PFAS in Casco Bay? Watch this video of our Coffee with the Casco Baykeeper webinar to hear a casual conversation on this complex topic with Casco Baykeeper Ivy Frignoca and Community Organizer Sara Freshley.

Sources:

More Information:

March 20, 2024

Coffee with the Casco Baykeeper: PFAS video

In this video from our Coffee with the Casco Baykeeper series, Ivy Frignoca and Community Organizer Sara Freshley have a casual early morning conversation about our partnership with Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences to sample for PFAS in Casco Bay. Ivy shares insights from what we learned during our first year of PFAS monitoring in Casco Bay. Sara and Ivy also talk about what’s next in 2024.

PFAS are chemicals that are used in a wide variety of products from clothing to firefighting foam. They break down slowly so they build up in our environment and are detrimental to human health. Last year, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and Friends of Casco Bay partnered as we conducted the first study of PFAS in the waters of Casco Bay. Ivy will share an overview of PFAS monitoring at Friends of Casco Bay’s seasonal sites in 2023. Sara and Ivy will then talk about our more extensive plans to monitor the Bay and lower watershed for PFAS in 2024. All of this work is in collaboration with Bigelow Laboratory scientists, who developed the protocols and are analyzing the samples. We are excited to share our plans with you and how the data will help further our understanding of the health of our waters.

December 21, 2023

Our Top 10 Moments of 2023

As this year comes to an end, let’s reflect and celebrate the many ways that we worked together to protect the health of Casco Bay in 2023. Here are our top ten stories of the year:

1) We won a four-year moratorium on new sources of pollution into the lower Presumpscot River. The moratorium prevents the permitting of new industrial or wastewater discharges into the river near where it empties into Casco Bay. As the Presumpscot drains two-thirds of the Casco Bay watershed, this was a big win for our waters. Portland Press Herald wrote an in-depth story on this effort. Our lead advocate, Casco Baykeeper Ivy Frignoca won the Chief Poulin Award for her work on the moratorium. Ivy is shown here receiving the award from Friends of the Presumpscot River board member, Will Plumley.

2) More than 100 of our volunteer Water Reporters deepened their knowledge about Casco Bay. Volunteer Water Reporters attended a wide array of meet-ups and trainings all around the Bay this year. Water Reporters spent time with experts and heard the most up-to-date information about living shorelines, marsh restoration, invasive species, and stormwater pollution.

3) The “Sensor Squad” is moving science forward for Casco Bay and all of Maine’s coastal waters. Good decisions are made using good data. Led, in part, by our Staff Scientist Mike Doan, the Sensor Squad is working to ensure we are using the most accurate climate change and acidification techniques and protocols we can. This work is a part of Maine Ocean Climate Collaborative, a coalition of scientists and marine organizations from the University of New Hampshire to the border of Maine and Canada working to improve climate change data collection. Friends of Casco Bay helps to lead the Collaborative.

4) Passamaquoddy Language Keeper Dwayne Tomah was the featured speaker at our Members Annual Meeting in August. He shared the Passamaquoddy word for ceremony, “olotahkewakon,” noting that our gathering was a ceremony for our mother earth. Dwayne’s refrain throughout the evening was “We are all in this together.” Watch the inspiring talk here.

5) We maintained the strength of the permit that regulates stormwater pollution from large urban communities. You may remember that we celebrated this stricter permit as our top story of 2022. Stormwater is one of the largest sources of pollution into Casco Bay. Since the permit that regulates urban stormwater went into effect in July 2022, we have been working to ensure that it is properly implemented. In November, the Maine Board of Environmental Protection agreed with us that the Maine Department of Environmental Protection must ensure that towns covered by the permit implement low-impact development ordinances that include nine strategies designed to reduce stormwater pollution from new construction and redevelopment.

6) The City of South Portland launched 100 Resilient Yards, providing a grassroots way to bring best practices in yard care directly to neighborhoods around the city. Residents and businesses who took part in the program were given technical and physical assistance to build healthy soils that protect Casco Bay. Experts and volunteers helped residents build rain gardens, grow pollinator gardens, and more. We hope other towns around the Bay look at this program as a model!

7) We organized 15 fun coastal cleanups, including one with the surf rock band Easy Honey and one with the Harpswell Heritage Land Trust. These cleanups gave community members a hands-on way to make a direct difference in the health of our waters by preventing waste and litter from being washed into the Bay.

8) We hired Community Organizer and Volunteer Coordinator Sara Freshley! Over the past 10 months, Sara has become an integral part of our team. She’s helped deepen the knowledge of our Water Reporters, organized storm drain stenciling and coastal cleanups, and worked to expand our outreach efforts.

9) We helped organize an expired flare collection event in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Casco Bay and the Maine State Fire Marshall. The event was a great success, collecting 1,945 expired marine flares. Marine flares are pyrotechnic devices that boaters can use as a distress signal in emergencies. They burn at high temperatures, posing a serious fire hazard for long-term storage. Flares also contain toxic chemicals that can contaminate water and soil. Due to these hazardous qualities, it is illegal to throw flares in the trash, and ill-advised to store them at home.

Scenic Category Winner 1st Place, Student Category Winner, Best of Show, by Ava McKinley

10) We got in touch with our artistic side! Our online event, Water as Inspiration, brought together three regional artists to draw the connections between creativity, the environment, and climate change. We had dozens of submissions to “Frame the Bay,” our first-ever photo contest at our Members Annual Meeting. And we shared the stage with filmmaker Maximillian Armstrong at our Film Fest for Casco Bay.

As YOU know, Casco Bay is an inspiration! Thank you for helping us protect this amazing place and for being a Friend of Casco Bay.

December 8, 2023

Ever-Changing Casco Bay

Casco Bay is ever–changing. The Bay changes with each tide, each day, and each season. And now, because of climate change, our coastal waters are transforming in different ways and faster than we thought possible.

At our Ever–Changing Casco Bay event on November 28, Staff Scientist Mike Doan dove into the data we use to track the health of the Bay. Community Organizer and Volunteer Coordinator Sara Freshley shared observational data our volunteer Water Reporters posted over the course of the summer. Casco Baykeeper Ivy Frignoca discussed how these scientific and observational data are helping to move the needle for a cleaner, more protected Casco Bay.

If you missed the event or want to rewatch it, click here. If you don’t have time to watch the whole event, you can click here to hear Mike delve into the data, here for Sara talking about Water Reporters, and here to listen to Ivy describe the big picture.

More than 60 Friends attended the event along with members of the media. The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, Maine Public, Bangor Daily News, and WGME covered the event and the issues we discussed.

June 28, 2023

Great news for the Presumpscot River and Casco Bay

Presumpscot Falls is a natural haven that many visit for recreation and solace in the middle of Maine’s most densely populated and continuously developing region. The Falls are located in the lower Presumpscot River, which currently has only Class C protections (see our fact sheet linked below for more information).

The largest river that flows into Casco Bay is officially protected from new sources of pollution under Maine law! A four-year moratorium on new industrial or wastewater discharges into the Lower Presumpscot River was passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Mills on Friday.

The Lower Presumpscot flows from Saccarappa Falls in downtown Westbrook to head of tide along the Portland-Falmouth border. This section of river was historically heavily polluted by untreated industrial discharges. Today it is a thriving urban waterway thanks to years of restoration efforts under the Clean Water Act. Temporarily preventing new discharges into the river – for example, from a new factory or other industry – will protect the Lower Presumpscot’s substantial gains in water quality while a long-term solution is identified to preserve the river’s health.

“The Presumpscot River drains two-thirds of the Casco Bay watershed,” says Casco Baykeeper Ivy Frignoca. “Flowing from pristine headlands through some of Maine’s most densely populated and diverse neighborhoods, this river is intimately tied to the health of Casco Bay, the wildlife it supports, and the people who live here. Protecting the Lower Presumpscot from new discharges over the next four years will help us figure out how to more permanently protect the health of the river.”

If you were one of the many Friends of the Bay who submitted testimony in favor of the moratorium, thank you. The legislators truly heard the importance of the connection between the health of the river and the Bay, strengthening their support for the moratorium. We are also grateful for our partners at Friends of the Presumpscot River and their leadership on this effort. You are all Friends of Casco Bay!

If you want to learn more about the many reasons we supported the moratorium, check out the fact sheet on our website. In short, we believe this bill supports our region’s growing communities, the local economy, and most importantly, the health of the Presumpscot River and Casco Bay.

If you would like to celebrate this clean water victory, we would love for you to join us in Portland on July 13! Click here to learn more and RSVP.

June 8, 2023

31 Years of Seasonal Sampling

Today, on World Ocean Day, we are celebrating our 31st year of collecting seasonal water quality data on the health of Casco Bay!

It also happens to be Casco Baykeeper Ivy Frignoca’s birthday – Happy Birthday, Ivy!

Every year, from May to October, Ivy and Staff Scientist Mike Doan take to our Baykeeper boat and truck to assess water quality at more than 20 locations in Casco Bay. This seasonal sampling includes measuring temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, total nitrogen, water clarity, salinity, and chlorophyll fluorescence (an estimate of phytoplankton abundance).

This year, for the first time, seasonal sampling will include testing for PFAS contamination in Casco Bay in collaboration with marine chemist Christoph Aeppli of Bigelow Laboratories for Ocean Sciences. PFAS are a class of widely-used, long-lasting chemicals and are an emerging pollutant of concern in Maine and around the world.

Staff Scientist Mike Doan collects water quality data from our Casco Baykeeper boat, R/V Joseph E. Payne. Mike uses a data sonde – a scientific device that measures water quality characteristics – to measure temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and other parameters.

“There is an important gap in PFAS testing in Maine,” says Ivy. “Current monitoring for contamination in sources like drinking water, fish tissues, and wastewater appropriately focus on public health. However, we don’t know how PFAS pollution is affecting water quality and the environment more broadly, especially in tidal waters like Casco Bay.”

Our collaboration with Bigelow this summer will help develop a baseline understanding of PFAS levels in Casco Bay, and lay the groundwork for testing in the marine environment moving forward.

At Friends of Casco Bay, we use all of our seasonal sampling data to help assess the health of the Bay. Mike compares this seasonal work to a regular health check-up. “Like a doctor checking your blood pressure, if we find an anomaly or problem, we can do more thorough investigations,” says Mike.

Seasonal sampling also enables us to assess water quality over a large area by visiting more than 20 different sites in the Bay. That’s a key difference from our Continuous Monitoring Stations, which collect data at a much higher frequency from three locations in Casco Bay.

Friends of Casco Bay conducts seasonal water quality monitoring at more than 20 locations in Casco Bay, marked by the blue dots. We also gather year-round data at their three Continuous Monitoring Stations, marked by the yellow stars.

The seasonal data we collect this year will add to our historic 30-year dataset, which has become one of the most long-term marine water quality datasets in the United States. Our data show that Casco Bay is warming at the same alarming rate observed in the greater Gulf of Maine. They have helped to designate Casco Bay as a federal No Discharge Area and strengthen legal protections for large areas of the Bay.

We share our data with other scientists as well as with state and federal agencies that use them to meet regulatory mandates.

“For over three decades, Friends of Casco Bay’s monitoring efforts have provided scientists and regulators a crucial part of the data used to understand the condition of Casco Bay,” says Curtis Bohlen, Director of the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, one of 28 federal National Estuary Programs. “The next thirty years will see unprecedented change in the Bay. Friends’ monitoring will undoubtedly be at the center of our efforts to witness and understand those changes.”

May 31, 2023

We Are Water: Friends of Casco Bay Members Annual Meeting

Wednesday, August 2, 2023, 5:00-7:30 p.m.

Program begins at 6:30 p.m.

Location: Spring Point Field, Southern Maine Community College
50 Lighthouse Circle, South Portland, Maine

Friends of Casco Bay invites you to celebrate the Bay we all love! Join us for delicious hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and the company of Friends who, like you, care about clean water. At the event we will:

Hear Passamaquoddy Language Keeper Dwayne Tomah talk about the importance of working together for cleaner waters and a better world
Share a special update on the health of the Bay from Executive Director Will Everitt
Announce the winners of the Casco Bay photo contest
Celebrate clean water heroes for Casco Bay

Bring a friend! Let’s connect!

$25 suggested donation is appreciated, not required. Event includes hors d’oeuvres, cash bar.

Directions: From I-295, Take the Forest Avenue South exit (6A). Follow Route 77 (State Street) across the Casco Bay Bridge into South Portland. As you come over the bridge, continue straight. You are on Broadway. Stay on Broadway for approximately 1 mile, until it ends. At the stop sign, turn right onto Pickett Street. At the stop sign, turn left onto Fort Road and take it to the end. Look for Friends of Casco Bay signs.

Thank you to Southern Maine Community College for hosting us.

Announcing: Frame the Bay
The Casco Bay photo contest

Submissions have closed for Frame the Bay.

Winners in five photo categories – scenic, recreation, wildlife, working waterfront, and student photographer – will be announced at We Are Water! Click here to learn more.

Materials for the Annual Meeting portion of the event

2022 Annual Meeting Minutes, Friends of Casco Bay

Friends of Casco Bay 2022 Annual Report to the Community

Board of Directors Elections

New directors are elected by the Board during the year and ratified by the membership at each Members Annual Meeting. Directors serve three-year terms, and they are limited to three consecutive terms. The following board members will be voted on as a slate at the meeting:

For their third three-year term: Board President Sandy Marsters, Sebastian Milardo

May 12, 2023

Fact Sheet: Presumpscot River Discharge Moratorium, LD 1926

Protect the restored health of the lower Presumpscot River: the largest freshwater source to Casco Bay

LD 1926, An Act to Impose a Moratorium on New Point Source Waste Discharge Licenses on the Lower Presumpscot River, places a four-year moratorium on new pollution discharges into the river from downtown Westbrook to head of tide.

This bill provides emergency, temporary, and necessary water quality protection for the lower Presumpscot River. This section of the river is designated a Class C water, though it functions at or near Class B following years of restoration efforts.* LD 1926 places a four-year moratorium on new point source discharges into the lower Presumpscot River. Temporarily preventing new discharges will protect the Presumpscot’s substantial restorative gains in water quality until stakeholders agree on a plan for long-term protection.

The lower Presumpscot River is designated as Class C, but in almost all respects meets the higher Class B water quality standards. This is a remarkable improvement in water quality as the lower Presumpscot was once known as “the dirtiest little section of river in the state,” and could not meet Class C standards.**
The Presumpscot River drains two thirds of the Casco Bay watershed. The river has a significant influence on the health of the Casco Bay estuary and its many species that depend on both fresh- and saltwater habitat. 20% of Maine’s population lives in the Casco Bay watershed, an area that represents only 3% of land in Maine.
This four-year moratorium will preserve the river’s significant advances in water quality. These advances have restored habitat for fish, birds, and other wildlife. At the same time, the lower Presumpscot has seen a surge in recreational use and property values along its shores. This section of river flows through Maine’s most densely populated and ever growing region, from revitalized downtown Westbrook to head of tide in Falmouth.
The moratorium allows for continued operation of existing discharges and will not thwart urban growth. The existing discharges are the Portland Water District, Westbrook Wastewater Treatment Facility, and the Sappi Mill. They are all permitted with ample discharge capacity to treat current and future wastewater loads, and to continue commercial operations.
The four years allotted in this moratorium will allow sufficient time to finish studies of the lower Presumpscot River and determine appropriate means of protecting water quality, including a potential upgrade to Class B status.

*Under the Clean Water Act, bodies of water in Maine are classified as Class AA, A, B, or C based on their health. Class AA and A waters are the healthiest and receive the highest protections. Class C waters allow for some modification to natural conditions caused by human activity, but must still be swimmable, drinkable, and fishable.
**Robert M. Sanford et al., River Voices: Perspectives on the Presumpscot, North Country Press, Unity, ME, 2020. p. 239.

The Presumpscot to Casco Bay:

The lower Presumpscot River flows through downtown Westbrook, along the northern border of Portland, to head of tide in Falmouth.
The Presumpscot provides habitat for fish that live part of their life in the ocean and part in rivers, including commercially important species like alewives and American eels. The only remaining area for commercial elver fishing is just below the head of tide. The river also provides nesting and hunting grounds for many sea birds.
The Presumpscot is the largest river that flows into Casco Bay. Its freshwater inputs to the bay support the health of the estuary, including the nursery grounds for countless species. We need a healthy Presumpscot River to have a healthy Casco Bay.
Together, the environmental health of the Presumpscot River and Casco Bay sustain our regional economy and quality of life. These waters draw many to the region for work, play, and solace.
The lower Presumpscot River is heavily used for recreation. People swim and fish in areas that were once too polluted for human contact and fish consumption. The lower Presumpscot hosts public trails, preserves, and boat launches. There are many areas for fishing, as well as locations for swimming, tubing and white water kayaking. Its waters flow past Maine Audubon’s Gilsland Farm as it enters the bay, another highly visited nature preserve that showcases the ecology of the estuary, such as jumping sturgeon.
The lower Presumpscot River is rich in indigenous and colonial history. In 2019 the Falmouth Town Council adopted a resolution designating this stretch of the river “The Lower Presumpscot Historic and Natural River Corridor.”

Whitewater kayakers paddle Saccarappa Falls in Westbrook (credit: westbrookmaine.com).