SACO — Students from Thornton Academy took part in a project to bring awareness to storm drains and help reduce pollution entering Goosefare Brook.

The students recently partnered with the Goosefare Restoration Project and with spray paint and stencils, painted reminders near storm drains in Saco’s King Street neighborhood that water that goes down the drain flows to Goosefare Brook.

Residents can reduce their impact on water quality in simple ways — by avoiding contaminating storm drains with litter, lawn clippings, chemicals, and other potential pollutants such as fertilizers, washing agents and oils. This can be done by using less fertilizer on lawns, avoiding pesticide use, composting garden and lawn trimmings, picking up pet waste, and bringing leftover paints or used oils to hazardous waste collection days at the local transfer station.

Other ways of reducing runoff include directing water off the driveway into vegetated areas, planting a rain garden, or directing roof gutter downspouts into a rain barrel for reuse later.

The Maine DEP estimates that between 40 – 70% of rain and snow melt that falls on the average Maine residential lot runs off to storm water drains and into lakes, streams and estuaries.

The Goosefare Brook watershed is located in Saco and Old Orchard Beach and covers about 5,902 acres of land. It has been listed by the Maine DEP as not meeting water quality standards for metals, aquatic life use, and bacteria and has been listed on the list of impaired waters.

In response to the brook’s impairment listing, the City of Saco applied for and was awarded a grant to write a management plan for the Goosefare Brook watershed, and two years later, in 2016, the plan was accepted by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The City of Saco was awarded a second grant in 2017 from the DEP to implement the actions set forth in the watershed plan. This project is being carried out in partnership with the City of Saco, Town of Old Orchard Beach, and York County Soil and Water Conservation District in efforts to restore Goosefare Brook to standards for class B streams.

The current project is guided by the Goosefare Brook Restoration Committee and focuses on the construction of five stormwater treatment projects in Saco and Old Orchard Beach, the repair of three documented erosion problems, and the improvement of riparian buffer conditions at four sites in Saco.

A large component of this restoration project involves community outreach and education. In addition to stenciling storm drains in Saco, Thornton Academy students, with guidance from their teacher, Bobbie Rausch, have participated in the annual Goosefare Brook Cleanup Day and assisted project staff with buffer planting projects throughout Saco.

For more information about the Goosefare Brook Restoration Project contact Whitney Baker, Project Coordinator at York County Soil and Water Conservation District at wbaker@yorkswcd.org or 324-0888, extension 208.