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Polluted Runoff Near Maine Mall Leads to Cleanup Order

December 10, 2008 - SOUTH PORTLAND -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has decided to require as many as 110 property owners in the Maine Mall area to reduce polluted runoff that has for years flowed freely into Long Creek, and ultimately into the Fore River and Casco Bay.

The EPA, together with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, will formally announce the action today, though officials discussed the decision in interviews Thursday with the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram.

It marks the second time nationwide that the agency has used its authority under the Clean Water Act to force the cleanup of a waterway polluted by urban runoff. The first was announced last month in Massachusetts, where runoff from the communities of Milford, Bellingham and Franklin washes into the Franklin River.

Federal intervention in the Maine Mall area comes after 18 months of planning by state and municipal officials, business owners and conservationists toward a voluntary long-term cleanup of the Long Creek watershed. That effort is expected to yield a plan this winter and, along with the new federal mandate that property owners participate, could become a model for similar future efforts in Maine and nationwide, officials said.

"We fully believe that we're going to have the first restored watershed" in the country, said DEP Commissioner David Littell. "I'd like to show that we can do it and we can do it right."

The cleanup is expected to cost at least $2.5 million over 10 years, Littell said.

The final price, however, will depend on the mix of cleanup strategies that are used, and how quickly they work. Installing detention ponds and treatment systems to catch dirty stormwater washing off parking lots and rooftops can cost tens of thousands of dollars, while planting trees and shrubs to serve as natural filters is far less expensive.

Each of the property owners covered by the federal mandate will be required to take some short-term actions, such as sweeping streets and parking lots, cleaning up drips and spills and covering sand or salt piles so they don't wash away, Littell said. Longer-term projects will focus on key "hot spots" throughout the area and will likely include detention ponds, tree plantings and stream-bed restorations.

It is unclear how the cost of the larger projects will be allocated among the property owners.

Littell and others said the time that has already been spent developing a collective plan -- as an alternative to an individual plan for each property -- will reduce the expense. Those leading the planning effort also said they intend to seek grant funding, as well as any money that might become available through a federal economic stimulus program in 2009.

The EPA action came in response to a petition filed last spring by the Conservation Law Foundation, an advocacy group that also has been working on the voluntary plan. Steve Hinchman, an attorney for the group, said the problem had been getting worse for too long to rely on voluntary compliance alone.

"If this pollution was coming out of a factory, the U.S. marshals would have showed up at the door and shut it down immediately," he said.

In a natural system, most storm runoff seeps into the earth or evaporates into the sky. But in a highly developed area with expansive roads, parking lots and rooftops, most stormwater is captured and sent directly into storm drains and streams.

The surge of water itself washes away aquatic organisms and habitat. But the stormwater also carries a range of pollutants that end up settling, and building up, downstream.

The pollutants range from copper residue that drops from automobile brake pads at busy traffic lights to phosphorous and nitrogen that are carried in sediments. Copper and other heavy metals are toxic to organisms in the stream, while nutrients can feed algae and reduce dissolved oxygen levels.

Long Creek, once used for swimming and trout fishing, now collects water from a network of drainage ditches and creeks that carry contaminated runoff away from acres of parking lots and rooftops. It does not meet even the state's minimal standards for water quality. The creek feeds Clark's Pond, which empties into the Fore River and Casco Bay.

Although new retail and office buildings are required to treat stormwater, the federal action here is focused on older, existing buildings. The properties subject to the new federal mandate lie within the 3.5-square-mile watershed, which includes parts of South Portland, Portland, Westbrook and Scarborough.

Properties that have at least 1 acre of impervious surface -- rooftops and pavement -- are covered by the federal action because they represent 90 percent of the stormwater sources, officials said.

The list includes the Maine Mall itself, as well as the office buildings and strip malls surrounding it. The printing facility for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram is among the properties.

South Portland, the Maine Turnpike Authority and the Maine Department of Transportation will have to take part in the cleanup because they own the city and state roads that travel through the watershed. So will the Portland International Jetport, which sits partly in the watershed.

Under the EPA decision being announced today, the designated property owners must have a federal permit and cleanup plans to legally discharge stormwater. It will be up to the Maine DEP to issue and enforce the permits, EPA officials said.

Violations of the permits could lead to fines, although officials say there is no plan to penalize property owners. The size of Clean Water Act penalties are decided on a case-by-case basis, and there is no precedent for penalties in this case, Littell said.

Properties that fall under the federal action can be covered by a collective permit based on the Long Creek Restoration Project's plan, Littell said. Or they could file their own individual plans.

Littell said the DEP will present details of a proposed collective permit in the spring and could issue the permits within six months or a year.

Many large property owners have already been involved in the planning process.

"It certainly is going to be one more expense that a business is going to have to look at in a very tough economy," said Paul Ureneck, vice president of project management for CB Richard Ellis/Boulos Property Management. The company owns and manages numerous properties in the watershed.

Ureneck has been working on the collaborative cleanup plan since spring. He said the joint effort will be a much more cost-effective way of solving the problem than if individual owners were facing regulation on their own.

"Could it have happened at a worse time? Probably not, with the way the economy is," he said. "But I don't think that anybody is looking at it as something that is going to be accomplished overnight."

James Hughes, a South Portland city councilor, said the cleanup also promises some benefits for the businesses and communities.

"If we're lucky and all things work out, we can make that into a much, much more pleasant area to go to, and a destination that's beyond shopping," Hughes said. The city also is expanding trails in the area, among other efforts.

"We're looking at bringing this watershed back to a place where people can use it, where you can swim in it and fish in it," he said. "Collectively, it's a big job, but working as a group, I think we can approach it."

By JOHN RICHARDSON Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, December 5, 2008


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