BIDDEFORD — A state agency has ordered the clam flats in Biddeford Pool to close for the months of August and September and that has some in Biddeford upset.

Roland Pelletier,a commercial clam digger and member of the Biddeford Shellfish Conservation Committee, said he was disappointed by the Maine Department of Marine Resources’ order to close the clam flats and that it will hurt him financially.

“I don’t think it’s necessary,” Pelletier said. In addition, the retiree who has a commercial shellfish license relies on selling the bivalve molluscs to supplement his income.

“Yes it is hurting me as a commercial clam digger,” he said.

An investigation into the closure was taking place, Pelletier said, but declined to discuss specifics of the investigation.

Pelletier is one of 10 — the maximum — who have been issued a commercial shellfish license in Biddeford for the 2018-2019 season, said City Clerk Carmen Morris. The city has also handed out the maximum number of non-resident recreational licenses, 60, as well as 122 resident licenses — there is no maximum for those licenses. The city can also issue one-day licenses, but will not during the duration of the closure.

The reason for the closure, said Bryant Lewis, the Growing Area West program supervisor for the DMR, is because of “intermittent elevated fecal coliform scores found particularly during the months of August and September.

“All our testing,” Lewis said, “showed there was fecal contamination.”

The state typically takes water quality samples in specific areas six times a year, he said, and then it uses the five most recent years to determine whether there is contamination in particular areas and if the amount of contamination is high enough to warrant a closure for any particular length of time.

Although there was no closure last year, he said, by adding the more recent 2017 water quality samples, they showed increased contamination.

The reason for the closure, which was announced in a May 16 DMR memo, was “seasonal non-point source pollution and proximity to the Biddeford WWTP (Waste Water Treatment Plant) outfall.”

Though the water samples couldn’t pinpoint the exact cause of the increased contamination, “traditional causes are more human activity and more wildlife,” Lewis said, particularly birds.

In a memo Lewis sent to city officials last week, he noted that the elevated fecal coliform scores were not associated with the Biddeford Pool WWTP.

Lewis said along with the bad news of the downgrading of a portion of Biddeford Pool, the western portion of the Pool was upgraded.

The DMR routinely issues closures up and down the coast of Maine, but also uses the frequent testing to upgrade areas. Lewis said the department tries to balance its mission to safeguard public health with the interests of Maine’s fishery and aquaculture industry.

— Associate Editor Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 324, or dmendros@journaltribune.com