Multiple groups working together
to improve water quality of Aroostook River
By Julia Bayly
BDN Staff
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Officials with multiple local, state, federal and private organizations have joined together to eliminate some sources of pollution that have put the Aroostook River on a list of “impaired rivers.”
“This is a water body to be concerned about,” said Bill Sheehan, environmental specialist with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection office in Presque Isle. “The Aroostook River is very important for recreation, industry and agriculture.”
The Partnership to Improve Soil Health and Water Quality in Aroostook County is funded by a four-year, $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Among the partners are the Maine Potato Board, DEP, the three soil and water conservation districts in Aroostook County, McCain Foods, the Maine Department of Transportation, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry and the Maine Rural Water Association.
The group will receive $300,000 annually for four years to work on formulating and implementing plans to control so-called “nonpoint source” pollution running into Merritt Brook, a 3,500-acre watershed that feeds into the Aroostook River near Presque Isle.
Nonpoint source pollution comes from a variety of sources and is spread by rainfall or snowmelt moving over and through the ground.
“It’s any kind of pollutant — soil, fertilizer or animal waste — without an easily detectable source,” said Tim Hobbs, Maine Potato Board director of development and grower relations. “It’s the stuff you really can’t put a finger on where it enters the river.”
It differs from “point source” pollution, which is easily traceable to specific sources like a municipal wastewater plant, he said.
Agriculture runoff, according to Sheehan, has pushed the phosphorus levels in the Aroostook River over the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s accepted levels from Presque Isle to the Canadian border.
“The pH scale is from 0 to 14, with 7 being ‘neutral’ and ideal,” Sheehan said. “In the Aroostook River we are at about 9 and that is not good for the little critters that live there.”
Phosphorous levels climb, Sheehan said, when nutrients like fertilizer flow into the water and create accelerated algal population growth, known as “blooms.” The algae will consume quantities of carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.
“Normally you would think sucking the carbon dioxide out of the environment is a good thing,” Sheehan said. “But it’s the carbon dioxide that helps keep the pH levels down.”
The pollutants are carried by soil washing into the water on rainy days, which is not good for the farmers or the river, according to Hobbs.
“In the spring and fall you have bare soil and in heavy rains it gets washed into the river,” he said. “That is bad for the river and bad for the farmers who lose that topsoil.”
Working together, the project partners last summer assessed the Merritt Brook watershed and are working with the four major landowners within it to address agricultural runoff, Hobbs said.
Strategies to deal with runoff have been around ever since the early part of the 1900s and the creation of federal soil agencies in the 1920s, Hobbs said.
“This partnership is a little unique,” he said. “We are not only looking at keeping the soil from reaching the river, we want to keep it in the fields where it should be [because] the farmers need it.”
The Aroostook River runs from Masardis up through Presque Isle, Caribou and on through Fort Fairfield to the Canadian border in northern Maine.
Sheehan said DEP sampled about 24 spots along its length in 2012 when it found the elevated pH levels.
In the past, efforts to control runoff have involved digging ditches, creating buffer zones and terracing crops, Hobbs said.
“We will be looking at those plus some other possible creative options we may not have thought of in the past,” he said. “By starting with Merritt Brook we can see the results quickly on a smaller watershed, measure them and build on them.”
Growers in Aroostook County have about 150,000 acres in production and recognize the part they play in helping to control water quality, Hobbs said.
“The industry recognizes we are a contributor to phosphorus loading in water bodies,” he said. “We want to do our due diligence.”
