Maine
Maine’s aging wastewater facilities adjust to meet new challenges
Gravity is a friend of wastewater treatment plants, which is why the facilities are typically placed at low elevations, often along Maine’s extensive coastline.
Placing them in low-lying areas makes it easy to collect wastewater from uphill sinks and toilets. And placing them near waterways makes it easy to discharge filtered and disinfected water, or effluent, back into our rivers, reservoirs and harbors.
Many wastewater facilities in Maine and across the country were built after the Clean Water Act passed in 1972, meaning some are now 50 years old. They need upgrades not only given their age, but because of threats posed by climate change. Coastal facilities now see regular flooding during storms and high tides.
“Floodwaters can damage or destroy pumps, blowers and electronics kept in basements,” said Robert Lalli, the Wiscasset wastewater treatment plant superintendent. “And if salt water gets into sewage aeration tanks, it can disrupt the microbiology necessary to break down sewage and other hazardous compounds. Untreated sewage can then overflow into waterways, harming wildlife and those who fish for a living.”
It can also put Maine’s sources of drinking water at risk.
With the help of $40 million in federal funding, Maine communities are finding new ways to deal with threats to their wastewater plants.
The most common approach is to elevate tanks and buildings, and make other structural improvements that protect facilities from sea-level rise. This is happening all along the state’s coastline, from Kittery to Eastport.
In Machias, for example, a new pump station will keep the plant operating during heavy rains, which will help prevent sewage overflows like those that caused clam flat closures on the Machias River.
“More and more intense storms are working against us,” said Mike Riley, the combined sewer overflow abatement coordinator at the state Department of Environmental Protection. “But the new pump station, which will hopefully be up and running by the end of this year, will significantly reduce, if not prevent, overflows.”
The nearly $3.6 million project was paid for largely through a DEP grant.
Machias also plans to add a combination of seawalls (vertical or near-vertical walls) and berms (raised and sloping banks), which will protect the facility and downtown streets while creating a scenic river walk. This project is in the designing and permitting phase, said Dr. Tora Johnson, who runs a GIS Lab at the Machias-based Sunrise County Economic Council.
Portland, meanwhile, is installing four underground tanks that will hold millions of gallons of stormwater and wastewater, and keep its facility from backing up — and sending untreated wastewater into the nearby tidal basin, Back Cove.
“This pollution-control effort has been in the works for some time,” said Bill Boornazian, Portland’s water resources manager. “But the need is growing due to sea-level rise and regular flooding.”
“The biggest climate change challenge we have is intense rain events in the winter when the ground is frozen,” Boornazian added. They make the ground “like asphalt,” he said, noting that the new tanks will improve drainage and reduce flooding of city streets.
Portland is scheduled to start using the new tanks in December, said Brad Roland, a senior project engineer with the city’s Department of Public Works. He said the project, which began before the pandemic, will cost around $42 million.
The Ogunquit Sewer District plant sits on a long, sandy peninsula between the Ogunquit River and the ocean. At this picturesque and vulnerable spot, a second story is being added to a garage for increased office space, and the existing tank walls will be made taller, according to Philip Pickering, the sewer district superintendent. The electrical equipment and generator at a nearby pumping station will also be elevated.
But it’s only a temporary fix. A 2012 study found there was “no practical solution” that would allow the site to host a wastewater treatment plant beyond 2052 because of the “elevated risk from sea-level rise, flooding and shoreline erosion.”
Ogunquit is raising funds to relocate the facility about two miles west of its current location. The move, likely to occur between 2040 and 2055, is estimated to cost $30 million.
Facing a similar dilemma, Wiscasset officials hope to move the town’s facility as soon as a suitable site is found. The current location on the Sheepscot River is “the lowest point in Wiscasset,” said Lalli.
“We’ve had salt water come through our gates and into our tanks,” he said. “A seawall is impractical. If we moved up just three or four blocks, we’d be fine.”
If officials find a site close to the current location, it will cost around $35 million. If the new site is farther away and requires additional pipe laying and pumping stations, Lalli said, the cost could rise to at least $45 million.
Lynda DeWitt
Longtime editor and writer Lynda DeWitt has written about natural history for many organizations, including the National Geographic Society, Discovery Communications, Scholastic Productions, and Smithsonian’s National Academies of Sciences. She is the author of “What Will the Weather Be?” and splits her time between Maine and Maryland.
Maine
11 Maine legislative races headed to recounts, including one tie
Eleven races in the Maine Legislature that were contested on Nov. 5 are headed to recounts, the Maine secretary of state’s office announced Wednesday.
Ballots will be recounted in nine House races and two Senate races. Recounts will start on Friday and continue through Nov. 25.
Preliminary counts included a dead-even tie in House District 141, and three races where the margin between the apparent winner and loser was fewer than 20 votes.
The results below are unofficial preliminary counts provided by the secretary of state’s office.
House District 44
William Pluecker – 2,731
Ray Thombs – 2,369
House District 52
Sally Cluchey – 2,748
David Guilmette – 2,732
House District 58
Sharon Frost – 3,158
Daniel Newman – 3,114
House District 75
Stephan Bunker – 2,318
Randall Gauvin – 2,308
House District 81
Peter Wood – 2,835
Joan Beal – 2,816
House District 96
Michel Lajoie – 2,550
Kerryl Clement – 2,514
House District 98
Kilton Webb – 2,995
Guy Lebida – 2,941
House District 141
Patricia Kidder – 2,476
Lucas Lanigan – 2,476
House District 142
Anne-Marie Mastraccio – 1,938
Amy Bell – 1,874
Senate District 8
Leo Kenney – 10,112
Michael Tipping – 10,229
Senate District 15
Richard Bradstreet – 10,820
Raegan LaRochelle – 10,621
Maine law does not have mandatory recounts, but when the apparent margin of victory is 1 percent or less in statewide or multi-county races, or 1.5 percent or less in legislative or single county races, a candidate can request a recount free of charge.
When the margin is larger, the candidate must pay a deposit. That money is refunded if the result is overturned by the recount.
Wednesday was the last day that a candidate could request a recount in a non-ranked-choice race, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Maine
Transgender support groups in Maine see spike in contacts after election
Transgender support groups in Maine said they are seeing a spike in contacts similar to those reported by national LGBTQ+ groups since Donald Trump’s election last week.
Bre Danvers-Kidman with the Maine Trans Net said about 100 people came to the group’s post-election support event and that many others have reached out through various platforms in the week since.
Some have expressed fears about losing their gender affirming care, the potential roll back of Title IV protections and a rise in harmful rhetoric.
Danvers-Kidman said that though there is valid concern about federal funding for care being rolled back, Maine has its own protections in place.
“We have the good laws here, we have the infrastructure to fight those battles with. And so to the extent that those battles rear their heads, Maine is going to be a place where I feel like we can fight them and we can win,” Danvers-Kidman said.
They expressed confidence that the “good laws” in Maine would remain, even if policy changed at a federal level.
“If the state offers greater protection to citizens than the federal government, the state wins. And so those greater protections that Maine offers to trans people, those will hold. I expect those to hold,” Danvers-Kidman said.
The Trevor Project, a national suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ+ youth, reported a 700% increase in crisis contacts the day after the election.
Maine
As Maine’s farmers struggle through extreme weather, local restaurants feel the pinch – The Boston Globe
Scientists would soon find the culprit: longfin squid followed warmer waters into the Gulf of Maine migrating from farther south, which led to the collapse of the fishery. A decade later, as heating in the Gulf of Maine continues to outpace most bodies of water in the world, the shrimp fishery still hasn’t recovered.
The shrimp were an early sign of how changes in the climate can decimate a food source, affecting a harvest and the restaurants that depend on it.
Increasingly, those signs are hard to ignore. Farmers and fishermen around the state said erratic weather patterns are leading to regular crop failures, loss of infrastructure as roads and farm structures are battered by rain and wind, and more — issues that add costs and stress onto a livelihood that was already costly and stressful.
Restaurant owners — who also face dips in tourism during extended rainy periods, and expensive repairs when extreme heat pushes air conditioners past their limit — said local food is a core tenet of many of Maine’s vaunted restaurants. Losing those sources means losing a piece of what makes their food so special. Shipping food in from other places means sacrificing taste and quality, while also adding new sources of carbon emissions from long-haul deliveries.
“We get a lot of people in the restaurant who believe in the same stuff that we do,” said Jake Stevens, head chef and owner of Leeward in Portland. “They want to eat local food. They want to get organic food. But it does get to a tipping point . . . some people just can’t abide paying, you know, $75 for a pork chop. It’s just untenable.”
Independent restaurants such as Leeward are the fifth-largest employer in the United States, according to a recent report by the James Beard Foundation, and they are among the most vulnerable. More than a quarter fail in their first year of operation, and 59 percent fail in the first three years. While restaurant revenues have largely rebounded from the hit they took during COVID-19, it isn’t expected to last, as a warming climate impacts crop yields and drives higher inflation.
The worst of those impacts are expected in years to come, but already, some are showing up.
At Bumbleroot Organic Farm, an 8-acre plot outside Portland that sells vegetables and flowers to roughly 30 local restaurants, it’s been one challenge after another.
The summer of 2022, it was sweltering temperatures and little rain. Crew had to wake up throughout the night to irrigate fields and save the crops. The following year, the reverse — the rain didn’t quit. One field got so saturated, it never really dried out, causing entire plantings to fail.
“We have to literally be ready for every scenario, because it’s not just wet, it’s heat, it’s extended heat, it’s late frost, it’s early frost,” said Ben Whalen, co-owner of the farm. “The extreme nature of what we’re dealing with, even right now, is crazy.”
Leeward is one of the restaurants that get regular deliveries from Bumbleroot.
“The carrot that was $2 a pound is now $4 a pound because half the crop got washed away,” said Stevens. “That either gets passed on to consumers or we have to make tough decisions and not serve that stuff.”
When it comes to vulnerability and carrots, farmer Seth Kroeck knows the story well. This spring, a major storm dropped 3 inches of rain not long after fields of carrot seeds were planted at Crystal Spring Farm in Brunswick. Thousands of tiny seeds floated up from the quarter-inch of soil they were buried under. In the end, they were only able to harvest about 30 percent of the expected 18,000 pounds of carrots.
It’s not just the carrots. “In two of the last four springs, we’ve had a late enough frost that we’ve lost our entire blueberry crop,” Kroeck said. “Old timers” in Maine’s farming community have told him that no one can recall such frequent and severe losses.
Crop insurance and some business planning has allowed Maine’s farmers to squeak through, “but it’s been a huge challenge,” he said. Increased costs for labor, fuel, and packaging have further hurt their bottom lines.
Similar challenges are playing out in the ocean. In 2023, Maine lobstermen reported the smallest catch since 2009, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources. While this year’s official numbers won’t be reported for months, locally, lobstermen report a more typical catch. It’s not yet clear what caused that, though winter temperatures in the Gulf were not as warm as they have been in recent years and lower bait and fuel prices may have led to more consistent fishing. Regardless, researchers expect that as the Gulf of Maine continues to warm, lobster will move north.
“It’s the slow change that really is going to be the problem in the long run, right?” said Matt Moretti, co-owner of Bangs Island Mussels in Portland. “It’s the constantly warming, slow crawl up in temperature” and the increased acidification, as the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide, which over time can weaken the shells of some ocean species.
Then there are unexpected acute events, triggered by climate change. A few years ago, when Moretti’s team went out to harvest wild mussel spawn, which they use to grow mussels for restaurants, instead of finding ropes covered in spawn, they were met with an ugly surprise: 100,000 pounds of sea squirts, an invasive species that’s becoming more common as the gulf warms.
“We could not capture the muscle seed at the time when we’re supposed to catch it,” Moretti said.
Both at sea and on the land, harvesters aren’t sitting back and waiting for the next crisis. Moretti has begun buying mussel spawn that’s more resilient to warming waters from the Downeast Institute, a marine research laboratory in Beals, Maine. Bangs Island is doing regular ocean monitoring to better understand how changes in the Gulf of Maine may be affecting seafood. They have also diversified, growing oysters and kelp in addition to mussels.
Diversification is key on land, too. At Bumbleroot, low vegetable sales last year could have been devastating had their cut flower sales not buoyed the business.
Meg Chase, whose family owns Chase’s Daily — a restaurant in Belfast — and grows food and flowers on 20 acres of their farm in nearby Freedom, is transitioning to no-till farming, a method that increases the drainage capabilities of fields. She’s also working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, an arm of the US Department of Agriculture, to plan for resiliency and apply for grants.
One thing that’s top of mind: funds for a new farm road. “At this point, we can’t even access our fields at some points, because it’s too wet,” Chase said.
All this stress takes a toll.
Last year, as the fall came to a close, Whalen, of Bumbleroot Organic Farm, gathered his crew together to take their temperature: How was everyone feeling?
Over and over, he heard the same thing. “We put so much energy and effort into growing high-quality food . . . you do all this work, and then yet you get a zero,” he said. “Their souls were just crushed.”
This year, as the farm diversifies its crops and looks for other ways to become more resilient, they’re also seeking out ways to support each other, including a mandatory week of paid vacation during the summer for all year-round workers.
Soon, they’ll repeat last year’s mental health poll. “I think everyone’s gonna be at like, 80 percent,” said Whalen. “That’s a win. That’s a huge win.”
Sabrina Shankman can be reached at sabrina.shankman@globe.com. Follow her @shankman.
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