Tag Archives: Healthy Waters Coalition

Healthy Waters Coalition – What’s on Our Minds, In Our Hearts

Posted on April 25, 2013 | Leave a comment

At my Healthy Waters Coalition meeting tonight, where we discussed the value of accurate, balanced information about oil spill prevention, I accidentally spilled pink lemonade across the agenda.  (From now on, the incident will be remembered as the “pink spill,” and it can be added to a long list of funny things I have done while leading coalition meetings.) I began to think about what’s really motivating our efforts to inform and educate Sebago Lakes Region citizens and local businesses about watershed issues.

We are a water-based economy here in this part of southern Maine. Boat rentals and recreation-based businesses, real estate and restaurants, florists and landscaping contractors, summer camps for children and accommodations (think: Inn by the Pond), not to mention waterfront property in towns–and property taxes paid to Towns–all bring in millions of dollars in annual revenue for the Sebago Lakes Region. The State of Maine tracks the annual revenue for freshwater fishing and accommodations for several Lakes Region towns. Wetlands are valued for their ecological services, too, and that translates to dollars. Real dollars. Wetlands attenuate flooding and aid in filtering waters to provide good water quality in our groundwater, which produces the drinking water for those who have private wells.  All of the headwater streams (94-100% of streams) in the region are located in Source Water Protection Areas (SPAs), meaning that they directly feed into a public drinking water system. In our region, that system is Sebago Lake, which is so clean, it’s exempt from the federal filtration requirement, an expensive option if ever it were to become necessary for the Portland Water District to put in place.

I want to reach out to other groups engaged in an open dialogue about the possible transportation of oil sands through New England and the importance of protecting our local watersheds, local economy–as the two are interconnected.  While the HWC already has members in 8 Lakes Region towns, representatives from local government boards and committees, watershed organizations, local businesses and other interests, such as Saint Joseph’s College, and we have partnered with some fantastic environmental and conservation-oriented nonprofit organizations already, I’d like to connect the Healthy Waters Coalition with a broader network.  I’m interested in connecting with folks at ConservAmerica, town and city revitalization committees, regional Chambers of Commerce, and the business community. We have so much invested in our waters. While pondering this, I scribbled some thoughts and turned it into this info-graphic (below). I like how it came out. Let me know what you think.

HWC_wordle3

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Posted in Beaches & Coasts, Birds and Wildlife, Conservation & Restoration, Eco Living, Ecology, Education & Training, Environmental Issues, Fishing & Recreation, Healthy Waters, Lakes, Maine, Nature, Oil Spills, Streams, Streams and Rivers, Water quality, Water Resources, Wetlands

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Convergence: Where Streams & Stories Connect

Posted on March 21, 2013 | Leave a comment

Eighteen years ago, my brother and I eloped with our mother to Kaua’i. I say “eloped” because the trip was a romantic surprise after my step-dad proposed over the phone. He was already there—on Kaua’i. It was February, 1995, my senior year of high school, and the end of February school vacation. I turned 18 during the 23 hour plane ride to the Big Island of Hawai’i. My parents—my mother and step-dad, married at the point of convergence, where two streams met before emptying into the Pacific. Waterfalls peeled like tropical fruit through the rainforest. Two fed these streams. Neither my brother nor I had ever experienced swimming in the Pacific Ocean, let alone kayaking through a jungle. One day we hiked to a massive 40-foot waterfall, which we learned had been featured in one of the King Kong movies. I slipped behind the falls into a cave, sprayed by its awesome force. Those streams created our new family.

Flash forward to 2013:  A small perennial stream meanders through my black ash seep, past a vernal pool and flows into the pond. It’s not dramatic. It’s barely audible. The nor’easter that took everyone on the East coast by surprise yesterday dropped over a foot of snow. It’s that light fluffy stuff perfect for a snowshoe hike. Everything’s quiet, cold and white. Yet the stream trickles, melting the snow on either side. It persists. This stream is one of many, many streams in Maine that flow either perennially, intermittently or ephemerally—that is, after storms. Streams criss-cross and converge, form major tributaries like Panther Run, feed creeks and rivers, such as the Crooked River, emptying into lakes, picturesque waters such as Panther Pond, and wetlands throughout the Sebago Lakes Region of southern Maine. Most of the residents in this region depend on the groundwater for their drinking water. Those residents in the Portland Water District get their drinking water from Sebago Lake. Either way, the streams that flow and converge throughout the state—even beyond this watershed—play an integral part of life as we know it.

In thinking about the importance of headwater streams, it’s useful to see streams in a larger watershed context. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a great online tool with a headwater stream index for the entire United States. Maps showing stream data are available for 48 states (Alaska and Hawai’i are not available at the time of this post). EPA has published the summaries of findings from a 2009 study on intermittent, ephemeral and headwater streams. There’s information about public drinking water systems in the U.S., too. Local drinking waterinformation is also available by state.

What I found interesting in looking at stream data for the State of Maine is that I live in an area where 94-100% of stream miles are contained in Source Protection Areas (SPAs). An SPA is an area “upstream from a drinking water source or intake that contributes surface water flow to the drinking water intake within a 24-hour period.” (EPA, Office of Water) That means that most of, if not all of, the intermittent, headwater and ephemeral streams in those areas support public drinking water systems.

It makes sense. I live in a town that’s home to the “landlocked salmon” in Sebago Lake. The lake is one of the few lakes in the country that receives a Filtration Avoidance Waiver from the EPA. This waiver saves the communities in the region $125 million in construction and operation costs—since there is no need for a water treatment facility. I recently learned that if the Portland Water District had to invest in such a water treatment system, it would cost over $100 million. Currently, the cost-savings come from the convergence of headwater, intermittent and ephemeral streams throughout the Sebago Lakes Region watershed.  We also know that area wetlands are equally valuable for their ecological services, including flood attenuation and protecting water quality in those very streams. It is my hope as a local conservation official, and through volunteering with small watershed groups, like the Healthy Waters Coalition in the Sebago Lakes Region, we can inform and educate municipal decision-makers on the value of protecting headwater streams.

Meanwhile, the Maine Association of Wetland Scientists is holding its annual meeting on March 25th. This year’s meeting focuses on rivers and streams.

For further reading, check out these related blogs:

Streams Take Me By Surprise, by Travis Loop, EPA blog

Rivanna streams not safe for swimming and boating? Find out more on Thurs, March 21
Rivanna River Basin Commission (Charlottesville, VA)

Managing Municipal Stormwater: Protecting Water Quality, Streams and Communities
Penn State Extension Blog

Rivers, Streams, Water Falls, Food and More, by Bill Trussell, Fishing Through Life

For further information about streams, click here.

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Posted in Conservation & Restoration, Fishing & Recreation, Healthy Waters, Lakes, Nature, Oil Spills, Streams and Rivers, Water policy, Water quality, Water Resources, Wetlands

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Watershed Modeling & Wetland Mapping

Posted on August 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

Strange WetlandsI recently attended a luncheon meeting on planning for the Sebago Lake watershed, facilitated by University of Maine. Two goals were to discuss types of watershed modeling and mapping that had been done in the past—in that watershed and elsewhere in Maine—and what was important to watershed managers in the future. The group consisted of wetland scientists, code enforcement officers, town planners, representatives from conservation commissions and waterways associations.

Many of us gave examples of modeling or mapping watersheds. For example, I talked about my experience mapping water features, such as streams and wetlands, and analyzing development patterns in the Northeast Creek watershed on Mount Desert Island, as part of a larger USGS-led aquifer study. At that time, I was working at a land trust and volunteering for the Bar Harbor Conservation Commission.  During the project, I learned about hydrology, groundwater recharge in a granite aquifer and the importance of understanding the limits of an aquifer when planning for development, ie. subdivisions. When a friend’s septic tank erupted, I saw (and smelled) the repercussions of exceeding those limits. It’s not polite dinner conversation.

Good thing we were only having lunch. When the subject turned to watershed modeling, a number of people, including myself, raised issues about data—because a model is only as good as the data put into it. Further, we discussed the merits of a model in the context of a constantly changing climate. Most noted the weather of 2012 and that a model based on water levels this year might be outdated by next year, and so forth. A recent report by Environment Maine on the link between extreme weather events and climate change can be found here.

When asked what important factors should be included in a watershed model, the “hot button” topics included climate change, invasive species, water quality, wetlands, conservation priorities and water quantity. For more information about University of Maine’s watershed modeling project, click here. ASWM has posted links to a number of wetland and watershed tools and resources under its Watershed heading on the main website. For example, there’s a wetlands and watershed protection tool kit, link to a “Wetlands-at-risk Protection” tool, as well as the Natural Floodplain Function Alliance.  Local governments and watershed managers may be interested in ASWM’s guide, Establishing Local Government Wetlands and Watershed Management Programs by Jon Kusler, Esq. Ph.D.  See the Healthy Waters Coalition’s links to resources about watersheds.

In addition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Virginia Tech recently launched a new website, Wetlands One-Stop, with information about wetlands and wetland mapping. Virginia Tech’s Conservation Management Institute (CMI) designed “Wetlands One-Stop” to provide online access to geospatial data on wetlands and soils produced by federal and state agencies. For more information, click here. For additional information on wetland mapping, visit ASWM’s wetland mapping page.

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Posted in GIS, Healthy Waters, Water quality, Water Resources, Wetlands

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