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Other
Accomplishments:
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Service
Learning
Numerous
Service Learning Projects have been set up to involve college students
in ongoing research and monitoring on the New Meadows River and lakes.
Students in some Bowdoin College Geology and Environmental Studies courses
have worked with various local groups and organizations and contributed
valuable information on various aspects of the river.
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Boat
Tour
On May
31, 2003, a boat tour was organized to bring together local officials
and New Meadows River Management Project members and take a hands-on
look at the River and discuss why it is so important to protect. Representatives
from West Bath, Brunswick, Harpswell, and Phippsburg viewed specific
sites that concern the NMRWP and discussed how they were affecting the
River's unique and important role in the regional ecosystem and economy.
In addition, thanks to a bit of good luck, the representatives were
able to spot some of the less vocal inhabitants along the River as a
mother and pup harbor seal sunned themselves on the rocky shore and
a pair of bald eagles hunted for prey. Click here
for pictures of the boat tour.
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OBD
Removal
As of the summer of 2002, the Town of Brunswick successfully removed
all overboard discharges within its jurisdiction. Harpswell has also
succeeded in opening numerous shellfish harvesting areas.
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Brigham's
Cove Reopening
On March 14, 2003 over 1500 acres of shellfish flats in Brigham's Cove
and Round Cove were opened to clamming for the first time since the
1970's. Originally closed due to poor water quality caused by malfunctioning
septic systems, gray water discharges, and licensed overboard discharge
systems (OBDs), the opening was the result of five years of work by local
watershed groups, state and municipal officials, property owners, and
local volunteers to
remove the seventeen sources of pollution affecting the flats. The Casco Bay Estuary Project coordinated the efforts
of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection's Overboard Discharge
Removal Program, the Towns of West Bath and Phippsburg, and property
owners to successfully remove the OBDs. Once the OBDs were replaced,
the New Meadows River Watershed Project brought together Maine Dept
of Marine Resources (DMR) staff with municipal officials from West Bath
and Phippsburg to push for the removal of the remaining pollution sources.
In October 2002, the clean-up was completed and local volunteers working
in conjunction with the DMR conducted the necessary shoreline surveys
that confirmed the area was pollution-free.
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