How To Preserve Your Beach Community

Janice Parente, Moderator, member of Surfriders Northern New England Chapter

Welcome, this session is about what you can do in your community. Janice is with the Maine Beaches steering committee representing the recreational beach user community.
She surfs all year round, and is an active member of the Surfrider Foundation, Northern New England Chapter. She regularly meets people who have been noticing changes in there local spots, water clarity or dune erosion, access, wildlife. The steering committee took these concerns into consideration and designed this session to address them. Common issues raised are sustainability, health and access. The speakers today will address these as well as other topics.

Judy Barrett, Public Health Nurse, Town of Kennebunkport

Judy will be sharing programs that the Town has used to educate and empower townspeople. Kennebunkport is the only town in the area that has a publicly funded position to address town health.

When Goose Rocks Beach was labeled one of 10 most polluted in the country the Town went to work addressing potential sources of pollution. In 2004 they put up signs warning people to stay out of the tide pools. In 2005 the selectmen approved participation in the Maine Healthy Beaches program. They received an advisory from the first testing. There is a 24 hour waiting period for testing samples. There was a delay in posting areas of the beach, or signs needed to be moved from one spot to the next.

They were getting very high counts, 1000 colonies. DEP helped identify sources of contamination. Livestock appeared to be an issue. No one was willing to take responsibility. Other sources investigated included cruise ships, seals, beavers, everything that wasn't human caused. Maine Healthy Beaches program determined that the sources were coming down the river. Tax payers were coming in looking for a tax rebate because it was driving down there property values. Residents were saying that volunteers and the lab were partial, or biased.

They eventually hired FB environmental to shadow the volunteer testing effort, using a secret lab. This found that the volunteer testing was accurate. Bacteria counts were found as far upstream as Route 1. Kennebunkport and Biddeford share the Little River, and Code Enforcement officers from each town coordinated efforts, using GIS to analyze survey efforts of septic systems. FB Environmental suggested testing for optical brighteners to track sources of contamination. This would cost $30,000. They agreed to do this in August of 2006.

Very little of Goose Rocks Beach is on sewer. An independent tester came in to test the sewer for leaks, but the results were negative. After the issue of pharmaceutical contamination surfaced the Town developed a collection system for unused pharmaceuticals and medications. Septic systems close to high tide were major sources of leaching. Many properties were developed in the 50's and many septic tanks were not being pumped out regularly. Donations from Rotarians and other civic groups helped to mitigate problems on individual properties such as oil tanks.

In August they planned to test for optical brighteners. It was very dry and tests came back inconclusive. This was not well received. They decided to scale back signage efforts to avoid anger. Selectmen were thinking of withdrawing from the Maine Healthy Beaches program.

They decided to create a Town-wide education program. They contacted Chris Feurt at Wells Reserve to help by drafting her UNE class to host a “Septic Social”. It was televised on Town cable channel. The event was very well attended. People were able to ask questions about regulations. They did a mass mailing to all waterfront property owners to highlight things that could help water quality. A gardener from the University of Maine came and gave a presentation about native plantings and how to control invasive species. They held a river day, DEP EPA and Wells Reserve were involved. Students from the New School contributed a watershed map. The Kennebunkport Historical Society made a display of the history of the Kennebunk River. They felt that a watershed approach was beneficial because habits and problems were common throughout the watershed.

Boaters started complaining about lack of pump out stations. They started working on developing a public pump out facility in the Kennebunk River. They now have a pump out station online 2009.

Eventually water samples began to improve in quality. The town began to implement small improvements. Including bathrooms at the beach, and dog cleanup stations.


Mike Horn, Chair, Ogunquit Conservation Commission

Ogunquit has a high percentage of elderly residents, but there is large support for the work of the Conservation Commission. Ogunquit approved a yearly budget of $25,000 for land acquisition, which has now added up to enough to move forward on some projects.

Mike related a story:

Ogunquit Beach has a dune system that is vital to the estuary and the beach. It supports many species of fish and birds, as well as rare plants. The dune had been degraded by pedestrian traffic, ave 30,000 visitors/weekend day and 10,000 visitors/weekday respectively. Traffic in the dunes caused compaction and erosion and damaged plant life.

In 1971 the dune was breached by a storm, but the Town repaired it. In 1974 the York County Soil and Water Conservation District and the Department of Agriculture and the town began reconstruction and restoration of the dunes. In subsequent years the agencies passed maintenance responsibilities to the Town.

In 2005, a storm demolished fencing which had been put in place by the Town. A large storm in 2007 caused damage to most of the remaining structure on the ocean side. FEMA, US FWS, and the town of Ogunquit have come into conflict over dune management. USFWS recommended that FEMA withhold funds to reconstruct the snow fencing because of perceived detrimental effects to plover nesting. Despite studies by Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife that show no correlation between plover nesting and the presence of fences.

After 2.5 years of negotiation, the Town and the USFWS reached an agreement on reconstruction of the fence. The fence not only deters pedestrian traffic but also captures sand and promotes dune growth. Mike shared a map of the river, dune and estuary system in Ogunquit.

The dunes are a result of building in the 70's and the builders lacked the knowledge of dune construction and built a dike with gravel, which doesn't support the same community of plants and animals as a natural sand dune.

The lesson learned is that these challenges must be met head on despite challenges in dealing with government bureaucracy.

Mike brought with him a history mapping of the Ogunquit beach and dunes produced by Steve Dickson.


Kristen Grant, Extension Associate, Maine Sea Grant and University of Maine Cooperative Extension

Kristen presented an overview and demonstration of the newly released “Accessing the Maine Coast” web site http://www.accessingthemainecoast.com/. The website contains information to help waterfront users, coastal communities, and land owners address issues related to coastal access. The intent of this website is to offer communities specific tools that address their specific needs.

Access is a key theme in communities all over coastal Maine. Maine is distinct from 45 other states in that the intertidal zone is generally deeded to the abutting property owner, rather than held by the State, as is true in most states. The website is a resource that can benefit Maine communities coast-wide. The hope is that with these resources communities can work out there issues cooperatively and avoid litigation.

Maine Sea Grant, UM Cooperative Extension and other partners held workshops between 2003 and 2006 to identify needs. There was a need for legal information related to access. Sea Grant received significant funding to conduct legal research. University of Maine Law School student developed a 40 page memo on tools available for managing access. A web site was determined to be the best format for presenting this information.

In the end the research showed that the 3 things you need to determine are: your access needs; your existing rights; what tool best suits your need. Tools include: buying access, contracting for access, regulating for access, and taxing to control access.

They decided to help people find the tools they needed by asking them to identify themselves as one of 3 stakeholder groups – private waterfront land owners, government or public interest entities, and waterfront user . In addition there are tabs to jump to tools and laws, as well as FAQ's. The information is presented based on the most pertinent questions for each stakeholder type. Different tools are discussed in detail including tax policy, contracting, acquisition, planning, etc. Major headings are pulled out and highlighted. Terms are linked in the Glossary. There is also a bibliography that highlights useful resources. The FAQ section is continuously updated and provides an interactive feature for users of the site.