York County Soil and Water Conservation Distgrict wants inut on the Kennebunk River watershed in a bid to reate a plan that would improve water quality. Courtesy Image

Interested in improving the water quality of the Kennebunk River watershed?

York County Soil & Water Conservation District is, and wants input from people in Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Arundel and Lyman.

Currently, the Kennebunk River does not meet Maine water quality standards, according to Mindee Goodrum of the district.

The soil and water conservation district, in partnership with Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, FB Environmental, and other community and municipal organizations, are creating a watershed-based plan to identify current problems within the watershed and provide long-term strategies to address them.

The project partners seek input from the public to share what they believe to be the most important water quality issues in their communities. An interactive story map presentation has been created to highlight the results of surveys and monitoring that have been completed in the watershed and is available at https://bit.ly/33AwnOc.

Goodrum said the conservation district is looking for people to read the story map and complete a survey to identify which issues are critical in their community and what actions should be taken to address these water quality issues in the future. Priorities identified by members of the watershed communities will be incorporated into the final watershed-based management plan.

Online public input sessions will be held to allow for more in-depth discussions of specific watershed issues.

Three sessions will be held 7 to 8 p.m. via Zoom in Lyman on Aug. 25; Arundel on Aug. 27; and the Kennebunks on Aug. 31. Those interested in attending the online public sessions are asked to contact Annie Cox at Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at acox@wellsnerr.org.

The work is made possible due to a $41,600 grant awarded to the conservation district in partnership with Wells Reserve. Funding for this project was provided, in part, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Section 604(b) of the Clean Water Act. The funding is administered by the MDEP in partnership with the U.S. EPA.

For more information about the development of the Kennebunk River Watershed-Based Management Plan, contact Mindee Goodrum, Interim Project Manager at York County Soil and Water Conservation District at mgoodrum@yorkswcd.org or 207-432-3516.