The South Portland Water Resource Protection department determined that the source of the bacteria enterococcus at Willard Beach is human, not canine.

This finding, shared in a presentation before the City Council, indicates that the water quality issues at Willard Beach are likely the result of sewage leaking into stormwater rather than dog waste, according to Tracy Krueger, with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

Last year, Willard Beach was added to the MDEP’s list of impaired waters because of persistent bacterial contamination. This designation does not mean the beach is unsafe for the public, but it does indicate a persistent issue that needs to be addressed.

The city has been trying to understand and resolve the water quality problems at Willard Beach for more than a decade. In 2014, the city conducted dye testing to track water flow. In 2019, the city did smoke testing to identify potential leaks. In 2024, the city lined the stormwater pipe on Coolidge Avenue, adding another 30 to 50 years to the pipe’s lifetime and significantly reducing bacteria traces.

Since it was labeled as an impaired water, the department and MDEP, through its Maine Healthy Beaches program, have been working in earnest to collect water samples, identify the problem areas and put together a restoration plan.

Aubrey Strause, the stormwater program coordinator with the city’s Water Resource Protection department, said that out of the four outfalls that empty into the water at Willard Beach, the pipe that’s visible from the beach shack — WB-17 — is the biggest culprit.

It also has the largest flow, drawing upon a watershed of 117 acres. That area of South Portland is primarily residential, with 581 parcels, 167 stormwater structures, more than 3 miles of stormwater pipe, 110 wastewater structures and 4.2 miles of sewer pipe.

“This watershed, as big as it is, is the haystack that we are looking for sources in, sources of bacteria and sources of nutrients,” Strause said. “It’s a pretty big haystack. And there are large needles and small needles.

“The tricky part is that we don’t know how many needles are in the haystack,” she added.

This summer, after routine and varied testing, the department found a few of these needles. And it’s planning to address them.

A manhole on Angell Avenue at Brookside has a sewer pipe running through the catch basin, and this site was identified as a source of bacteria. Strause said that WRP is taking action within the next two weeks to reroute the sewer so it can no longer contaminate the stormwater line.

“We’ve already gone out and taken the elevation and ordered the pipe,” she said.

The department also identified two other sources on Angell Avenue, both residential. Within the coming weeks, WRP will further investigate these sources, conducting a dye test to identify if and how sewage pipes may be accidentally hooked up to the stormwater system.

The department will also increase its public outreach to residents that abut the drainage easement that connects Preble Street to the Willard Beach parking lot.

In addition to immediate fixes, the city will continue to monitor water quality — the data from which is public — and encourage routine housekeeping and street sweeping.

The WRP department also has longer-term plans for this site. Strause said that it will hire a third-party water quality professional to review the WRP data and identify potential bacteria sources that the WRP department might have overlooked.

She also said that it plans to update outreach about fertilizer use and work with lifeguards at Willard Beach to discourage people from having direct contact with the outfall. Strause also said that the WRP department hopes to further invest in lining sewage and stormwater pipes.