Ogunquit News
Ogunquit and Wells working to expand water testing program
By C. Ayn Douglass
Wells and Ogunquit officials met with representatives from Maine Healthy Beaches and the Wells Reserve on Monday at the Dunaway Center to identify additional testing sites along estuaries and rivers that affect the health of local beaches. Both towns are concerned that high bacterial counts could cause beach closures and are working together to find problem areas where septic systems may be failing.
Photo by C. Ayn Douglass
OGUNQUIT - At a day-long water quality seminar last year hosted by the Ogunquit Conservation Commission, residents and town officials were advised and encouraged by representatives of local and state conservation groups to look beyond Ogunquit's four-square-mile geographic borders in protecting natural resources - particularly water resources.
On Monday, Jan. 22, Wells town officials including Code Enforcement Officer Jodine Adams, Town Planner Mike Huston and Dennis Thayer of the Sewer District met with members of Ogunquit's Conservation Commission, Tin Smith from the Wells Reserve and representatives from the Maine Healthy Beaches program. The goal is to work in partnership in monitoring and protecting the health of Ogunquit's rivers, beaches and watersheds and expanding the current number of sites tested weekly from 12 to 17. Some of these sites extend into neighboring Wells and South Berwick, as it is estimated that 62 percent of Ogunquit's watershed is located in Wells.
Last year, volunteers monitored five sites along the beach and nearby on the Ogunquit River including locations near the Norseman, on the river, near the footbridge, Little Beach and at the parking lot entrance. Seven sites along the Ogunquit River were also monitored.
Locations were monitored weekly and only once during late summer were bacteria counts high enough in one area, Little Beach, to cause the town to post an advisory. It occurred after heavy rainfall over several days - conditions under which bacteria counts traditionally increase until tidal influences cleanse the water.
Testing is done by Ogunquit volunteers and Phil Pickering and Allan Pinkham of the Ogunquit Sewer District and the samples are couriered to Nelson Analytical Laboratory in Biddeford with results made available to the town within 24 to 36 hours.
A less-than-favorable bacterial count found in any site requires a second test. If the follow-up test is also high in bacteria, town officials are encouraged to post an advisory. While beach closure is at the discretion of town officials, and in Ogunquit that would be the town manager, Healthy Beaches posts testing results on its website. Healthy Beaches has no authority to close the effected beach, but will assist in posting advisory warnings.
Any sustained beach closure in Ogunquit has serious implications for the financial health of the community as the town depends on approximately $1.3 million dollars annually from parking fees in its operating budget.
The meeting on Monday between Wells and Ogunquit officials was to establish a mutually beneficial relationship to continue testing in headwaters and watersheds that fall into Wells' geographic borders - particularly those that flow across Route 1 and ultimately go into the Ogunquit River and the ocean.
As subdivisions continue to be approved in Wells - most recently a subdivision of 186 new units on Route 1 near Old County Road - failing septic systems are the most likely culprits contributing to a higher bacterial count in water flowing to the ocean.
As Healthy Beaches representative Esperanza Stancioff said, "Most studies show elevated bacteria is from failed septic systems."
To Wells' credit, Adams said that in those tightly-congested subdivisions "everybody knows everybody's business" and a failed or faulty system would be brought to the attention of town officials very quickly.
Ogunquit intends to expand its monitored sites to 17 in the spring with an earlier start date.
"Healthy Beaches doesn't start estuary and beach testing until late May or early June," Conservation Commission Chairman Mike Horn said, "but we are considering some special testing at an earlier date to watch for any changes as a result of spring rains and runoff. Healthy Beaches are testing the beach and the estuary, but who's testing the source?"
Horn said in order to add five testing sites, the commission will be looking for approximately nine more volunteers to commit to an hour one day per week this year.
"We're going to try to make it a specific time and day each week and not take into account any inconsistency in the tides," he said. "It will average out over the summer and the tides don't make any difference on the river anyway."
