Great strides have been made to restore the Long Creek watershed during the past five years, but a lot more work still must be done to bring the water quality up to state and federal environmental standards.

That was the message shared at the recent annual meeting of the Long Creek Watershed Management District, which consists of public-private partnerships between local government and businesses, particularly in the area of The Maine Mall.

The watershed includes the communities of South Portland, Scarborough, Westbrook and Portland, which are all working with the Cumberland County Soil & Water Conservation District to bring Long Creek back to where it can support life again.

Tamara Lee Pinard, who works at the soil and water district and directs the Long Creek watershed project, said the good news is that the hard work of the past five years is starting to bear fruit and measures to treat polluted runoff are having a positive impact.

The Long Creek Watershed Management District was created to oversee the implementation of a 10-year plan that includes restoration of stream banks and stream channels and the installation of various structural retrofits, including stormwater and other improvements, in various priority locations.

The goal is to bring the Long Creek watershed back up to par and meeting water quality standards in the least expensive and fastest way possible, according to Pinard.

Dan Bacon, the town planner in Scarborough and chairman of the Long Creek Watershed Management District board, said “(we) have accomplished a lot to be proud of over the past five years (and) recent monitoring of different areas of the watershed indicate that significant improvements have been made.”

But, Bacon said, the next five years of the watershed plan are crucial to meeting the goal of fully restoring water quality.

“This will be a challenge, as there is a lot of work left to do,” he said. “But, we have some significant projects that we expect to make some meaningful improvements, most notably stormwater enhancements and greening (around) The Maine Mall.”

Bacon added, “It’s important to the environment to have streams and a watershed that are healthy, support habitat and is resilient to storms and flooding.”

He also said the Long Creek Watershed Management District is a model for “how to collaboratively restore a watershed in a planned, systematic way.”

In the past five years, Pinard said, the management district has installed new stormwater treatment systems on Philbrook and Darling avenues, Gorham and Maine Mall roads, and at the Mall Plaza, Port Resources and Fairchild Semiconductor all in South Portland.

The district has also completed improvements in the stream and along the stream banks on Blanchette Brook in Westbrook and at 100 Foden Road in South Portland.

Pinard said a study last summer of the main stem of Long Creek, which flows under Maine Mall Road and behind the Cornerbrook development, “indicates that the water quality is good enough that if we restore the habitat, we should be able to bring the bugs back.”

She said that the Maine Department of Environmental Protection bases its evaluation of stream health on the bugs that live there because insects are sensitive to pollution and other activities.

“If there is too much pollution in a stream, the bugs cannot survive,” Pinard said.

In the near term, she said, the Long Creek Watershed Management District would work with General Growth Properties, Macy’s, and Sears to upgrade their stormwater treatment systems, as well as identify areas of the parking lot where new stormwater treatment systems can be installed.

Other next steps include “targeted investigations in the North and South branches (of the watershed) in order to determine what type of treatment is needed to help the stream meet state water quality standards,” Pinard said.

She said even with completion of the 10-year restoration plan, “the stormwater treatment systems (now) being installed will need to be maintained in order to preserve the stream water quality (for the future).”

Johanna Hunter from the Environmental Protection Agency praised the Long Creek Watershed Management District for the collaborative effort of restoring Long Creek.