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Move Begins to Rescue Tainted Watershed for Capisic Pond in Portland

February 02, 2010 - PORTLAND -- Andy Graham remembers when signs of life could still be seen in Capisic Brook and Capisic Pond.

"Otters would come up over the dam and play in the pond," he said. "You used to see turtles all the time, sunning themselves. And then you never saw them. They just went away."

Fifteen years later, a steady flow of pollution washing off roads, parking lots, driveways and lawns has helped turn Capisic into Portland's largest "urban impaired" stream system, a hostile place for fish and other aquatic animals.

On Thursday, city officials will meet with neighbors such as Graham to begin a community effort to clean up the watershed.

"I'm really excited that this is being addressed and treated as an issue," said Graham, who is a member of Friends of Capisic Pond. "The intention of bringing it back to a level that sustains fish is a very heady thought. I'll be very interested to see what the plan is."

Capisic Brook and its tributaries collect water from an area of about 1,500 acres, according to the city.

One tributary collects runoff from the densely developed commercial zone around the Westbrook border and Warren Avenue. Other sections of the stream system flow through the neighborhoods of Riverton, Nason's Corner, Deering Center and Rosemont. Water drains into Capisic Pond before flowing over a dam into the Fore River and Casco Bay.

Sewage discharges into the streams contributed to the problem, although the city has spent millions of dollars to eliminate most of those discharges. The largest source of trouble now is polluted stormwater, which washes off pavement and lawns and empties into the stream through storm drains that collect the water from streets and parking lots.

"It's just been overlooked. People knew that nasty stuff was running off their parking lots and driveways, but it's not until the last five to 10 years that it's been brought to the forefront as an issue," said Doug Roncarati, Portland's Stormwater Program Coordinator.

The runoff carries a large variety of pollutants, from toxic metals and motor oil to lawn fertilizer. Water running off driveways and parking lots can raise the temperature of the stream and scour away stream banks. In some cases, development or public works projects altered the stream flows, adding to pollution and erosion.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection recently awarded Portland a $98,000 grant, using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to develop a restoration plan for Capisic. The city has hired a consultant, Woodard and Curran, to study the problems and is assembling a committee of residents and landowners to help develop the plan.

City officials will discuss the effort at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Riverton School and Community Center on Forest Avenue.

Capisic's problems are similar to those of Long Creek, which flows through the Maine Mall area in South Portland. Long Creek is now the focus of a 10-year, $14 million cleanup effort, with more than 100 large commercial property owners expected to pitch in thousands of dollars a year each to capture and clean stormwater before it flows into the stream.

The Capisic cleanup is expected to be more complicated because there are several hundred properties in the watershed, ranging from large businesses to individual homes.

"We can't completely undo what has gone on in the past, but we can certainly take steps to fix areas that are really bad and we can also work with people to address their daily practices," Roncarati said. "Many of the changes that will have to occur will be behavioral-type changes."

Graham said he hopes the cleanup plan will attack the biggest problems and won't rely only on a new public education effort to change people's behavior.

"I'd like to understand what the science is," he said. "What is in the stormwater and what's actually causing (the problems)?"

Lois Winter, who lives near the pond and is a former federal wildlife biologist, said the cleanup will likely require both changes in individuals' behavior and expensive engineering solutions.

Winter said she served on a similar committee years ago that recommended a never-completed multimillion-dollar cleanup. She hopes this one will go somewhere.

"You hope that when these efforts get started, the plan is the beginning of the story, not the end of the story," she said. "It could cost lots of money, but you'll never justify getting money for anything unless you have a plan."

By JOHN RICHARDSON, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, January 27, 2010


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