Collaborative Stormwater Management

CBEP actively supports and participates in the Interlocal Stormwater Working Group (ISWG), a coalition of 14 municipalities working to address stormwater pollution in the watershed.  The ISWG has identified the need for a locally-adaptable set of guidelines to improve the quality of municipal stormwater practices, and published two manuals to help meet that need:
- Guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures for Stormwater Phase II Communities in Maine.  Vol. 1: Information for Program Managers
- Guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures for Stormwater Phase II Communities in Maine.  Vol. 2: Standard Operating Procedures and Forms

CBEP Law School intern, John O'Hara, researched the legal implications of Maine's proposed new impervious cover "Total Maximum Daily Loads" (TMDLs) on behalf of ISWG.
-  Maine's Statewide Impervious Cover TMDL: What it might mean for municipalities (September 2011)

Low-Impact Development

Working through its Stormwater Committee, CBEP provides technical assistance, training, and funding to promote the use of low-impact development (LID) techniques to help developed sites mimic natural hydrology and reduce stormwater pollution.  LID projects funded by CBEP include:
- Coastal Communities Stormwater Management Manual is an online manual of low impact development and other techniques for reducing stormwater pollution.  The web-based manual developed by the City of South Portland, provides user friendly information for developers and homeowners on stormwater and stormwater management techniques suitable for use in coastal Maine.
- East End Community School Green Roof Demonstration Project
- Freeport Community Center Porous Pavement and Rain Garden
- USM Wishcamper Center Green Roof and Porous Pavement
- Sebago Lake Ecology Center Pervious Pathway
- Low Impact Development Fact Sheet

Education

Because the majority of polluted stormwater comes from diffuse, nonpoint sources, public education is a critical component of stormwater management.  CBEP supports a variety of stormwater education programs, including:
- Maine Stormwater Conference
- Think Blue, a statewide stormwater education campaign
- YardScaping, a social marketing-based educational initiative to encourage homeowners to reduce fertilizer and pesticide use
- Maine Children's Water Festival
- Maine Envirothon competition
- Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District's watershed education programs    

Urban Watersheds Initiative

The CBEP Urban Watershed Initiative continues to evolve as program goals are clarified and specific strategies to benefit urban watersheds are identified and implemented.  For example, CBEP has been working for a few years with faculty at the University of Southern Maine to integrate work on urban watersheds into their educational and research programs.  Professor Karen Wilson's team is looking at the ecology of urban streasm while Dr. Lucille Benedict's work focuses on the presence and fate of toxic contaminants in street dust in Portland and in the Long Creek watershed.

Casco Bay Water Quality Montoring Equipment Loaner Program.  A 2011 pilot program to deploy CBEP water quality data sondes and other monitoring equipment to support the monitoring efforts of our partner organizations.

"Collaboration, Clean Water Act residual authority and collective permitting: A case study of Long Creek" CBEP Director Curtis Bohlen is a coauthor on this article with Dave Owen, a faculty member at the University of Maine School of Law.  The article appeared last year in the inaugural issue of the Center for Watershed Protection's new journal, Watershed Science Bulletin.

Monitoring CSO Abatement

Combined sewer overflows are discharges of stormwater and untreated sewage during heavy rain or snowmelt, when flow exceeds wastewater treatment plants' capacity.  Over the last two decades, communities in the watershed have made progress reducing both the number of CSO outfalls as well as the volume of discharges.  Four communities still have active CSOs, and CBEP continues to monitor progress toward abatement.  Learn more in the 2010 State of the Bay Report Chapter on CSOs.

Subwatershed Planning & Management

CBEP supports the development of management plans for subwatersheds within the Casco Bay watershed.  Locally developed and implemented, those plans build capacity for addressing the unique social, economic, and ecological conditions of each region.  Plan implementation is underway in the following watersheds:
- Presumpscot River
- New Meadows River
- Long Creek
- Pleasant River