OLD ORCHARD BEACH — Students at Loranger Memorial School are urging residents  to do their part to help keep contaminants out of the brook. 

Goosefare Brook runs between Saco and the Ocean Park section of Old Orchard Beach and empties into Saco Bay. Known by generations of Ocean Park summer residents as “The Creek,” the Goosefare Brook has long been a popular place to swim, kayak and stand up paddle boarding. 

In 2013, water tests in Goosefare Brook determined high levels of enterococci bacteria, which determines whether there is fecal matter in the water, making this popular outdoor area a less attractive place for recreation. 

At the time, local conservationists were concerned the brook might not be safe for swimming and other recreational use, and on Sept. 5, 2013 the Ocean Park Conservation Society had posted a sign near the mouth of the brook warning beach goers that the water tests that week indicated “unacceptable” levels of bacteria.

Sixth graders at Loranger Memorial School read a 2013 article by this reporter about the Goosefare Brook and guided by science teacher Laura Seaver and Gifted and Talented Enrichment Teacher Cynthia Nye, decided to do some research on the area.

Thanks to funding from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute Vital Signs Freshwater  Investigation Mini-grant, a program funded by the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund, the students were able to take trips to different areas of the Goosefare Brook, take water samples and collect data to study biodiversity, invasive species, water quality, and human impact on Goosefare Brook.

Students also reviewed data from Maine Healthy Beaches and discovered that the Goosefare Brook is a lot cleaner than it was in 2013.

According to date from Maine Healthy Beaches, the number of days per year the brook has had high levels of fecal contamination has decreased since 2013, and in 2017  the brook had no days of high fecal contamination. 

This is good news, and students at Loranger Memorial School want to educate the community about the brook. 

Some students made signs, some met with members of the town’s Conservation Commission, others made slides for the town’s public access channel and some made presentations to younger students. 

Sixth grader Ian Blake contacted this reporter to help get the word out that the brook is cleaner than it was in 2013. He said he had fun working on the project and learned a lot. 

Having a clean brook is important, because swimming in a contaminated brook could make people sick, he said. 

Blake has some simple advice for people in the community to help keep the brook clean.
“Pick up your trash, and clean up after your dog,” he said.

Some of the students painted a message next to storm drains that said, “Keep Water Clean, Drains to Ocean.” Many people don’t realize that storm water drains to the Goosefare Brook, and trash and pet waste littering streets can get washed down the drains and contaminate the brook, said Seaver.

A few students comprised a press release in September on the research they were conducting. In the press release, the students spoke about working with Kimbark Smith from the Conservation Commission and learning about Phragmites, a tall invasive plant with purplish seed heads. It fills in marshes, ponds, and streams and kills off other plants, according to the press release. 

 Smith told the students why the Goosefare marsh area is so important. 

“All of Ocean Park is below sea level, so the marshes are our protection from storms and rising tides,” he said. Salt marshes absorb the water from high tides and help filter pollution out of the water. They also have high biodiversity levels. Many types of plants, fish, shellfish, mammals, insects, and birds depend on the marsh for food, shelter, and space to live, according to the press release. 

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.