By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
South Portland City Councilor Jim Hughes said, in the future, people will tell their grandchildren about a time when it wasn’t safe to eat fish caught in Clark’s Pond. They will recall fewer beaver sightings and a time when the city’s largest pond was too polluted for swimming. Then they will note successful efforts in the ensuing years to clean up the area’s freshwater bodies and will say, “You kids have got it too easy.”
The Long Creek Watershed encompasses all of the land that drains into Long Creek and its tributaries, which flow into Clark’s Pond, the Fore River and eventually Casco Bay. Most of the Long Creek watershed is located in South Portland, but it also includes land in Westbrook, Portland and Scarborough.
South Portland received a $120,000 federal grant under section 319 of the Clean Water Act, which provides funds for managing non-point source (NPS) pollution or runoff carrying natural and manmade pollutants. The grant calls for the four municipalities and stakeholders in the watershed to work together to develop a plan for restoring the area so it meets state and federal quality standards.
A committee charged with creating a Long Creek Watershed Management Plan gathered for a kickoff meeting on Sept. 27 at National Semiconductor in South Portland. In addition to municipal officials, the committee includes representatives from local businesses, conservation groups, commerce chambers, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT), the Maine Turnpike Authority (MTA) and ecomaine. The committee will seek to implement proactive measures to offset the impact of new and existing development on the water quality and the overall condition of Long Creek. Once implemented, the plan could provide alternative mechanisms to DEP regulations for enforcing development standards in the watershed.
Don Witherell, director of the DEP’s watershed management department, said runoff from impervious surfaces such as parking lots, rooftops and roads has degraded the water quality in Long Creek, leading to its current status as an “impaired urban stream.” Erosion, sedimentation and the filling of wetlands have also contributed to the stream’s polluted state, resulting in “destabilized banks and turbid water,” Witherell said.  
A 1983 study of Clark’s Pond described the area as a recreational destination in the midst of forest and farmland, Witherell said. The pond was a popular spot for swimming, picnicking and fishing – a Clark’s Pond fishing derby was held in 1946. Up until the late 1950s, the pond was also used for ice harvesting.
Today, the water flowing into Clark’s Pond does not meet the standards of its Class C designation, outlined by Maine’s Water Classification Program, due to violations in the dissolved oxygen and aquatic life criteria.  According to a 2002 DEP “biological, physical and chemical assessment” of Long Creek and the upstream Red Brook – which is considered stressed, but to a lesser degree than Long Creek. Long Creek’s brook trout population has disappeared.
The 2002 assessment also found increased concentrations of metals, chloride, hydrocarbons, phosphorous, nitrogen; increased temperatures; and a reduction in forest habitat along the stream.
Witherell said the “impaired urban stream” designation leads to higher municipal costs for treating stormwater, increases in state and federal regulations for new and existing development, higher costs for developers and less local control overall. With a plan in place to treat runoff at or close to its source, future projects could receive waivers from the current stormwater regulations, lowering the costs of new development. The Urban Impaired Stream standard, for example, requires developers to “pay a compensation fee or mitigate [the] project’s impact by treating, reducing or eliminating an off-site or on-site pre-development impervious stormwater source,” according to the DEP Web site.
Witherell said developing a watershed management plan will allow municipalities and commercial property owners to “get ahead of the regulatory train.”
Rain gardens, wet ponds, parking lot bioretention areas and soil filters all represent cost-effective and proactive methods for treating runoff at the source, Witherell said. Existing developments may find it is cheaper to incorporate these projects with other site renovations, he said. Habitat and buffer work in the stream itself will also help to reduce erosion and restore shade vegetation along the stream’s banks.
“Ultimately, what the acid test is, is the water quality of Long Creek,” Witherell said. “Watershed management is very much an adaptive process. It’s going to be a continuous try-it-and-see kind of approach.”
Dave Russell, site service manager for semiconductor manufacturer Fairchild Semiconductor, said he would like to see the plan in place five to eight years from now.
“I’d like to see this done in an expeditious manner - without creating undue hardship on property owners,” Russell said.
Shay Bellas, a member of the committee and the South Portland Conservation Committee, who also helped build the newly opened 1.2 mile trail around Clark’s Pond to Westbrook Street, is looking forward to a resurgence of urban recreational activities in the city’s west end.
“I have a kayak that I would love to put into Clark’s Pond,” she said.
The South Portland Land Trust celebrated the first Long Creek Family Day on Sept. 30 to “celebrate more green miles in South Portland,” but also to bring public awareness to the community effort needed to restore the Long Creek watershed.
As the committee moves forward in developing goals for the watershed management project, it is asking property owners to stay informed and participate in the process. Property owners are encouraged to attend a Long Creek Planning Project Educational Forum from 7 to 9 p.m. on Nov. 1 at the Maine Mall.
Property owners interested in one of the project’s subcommittees may contact Pam McCarthy at 767-7675 ext. 7578 or pmccarthy@southportland.org.