Seal Harbor Beach has traditionally been one of the most polluted beaches on Mount Desert Island. Using a matrix devised by the Maine Healthy Beaches Program, we determined that the beach has a “D” rating (A-F) based on its location, the development around it, and its poor water quality.   Public awareness of this problem has increased since the Town of Mount Desert has been a member of the Maine Healthy Beaches Program in 2003.  The Stanley Brook Watershed Survey is the result of the citizen concern for the health of their watershed.

This spring, the MDI Water Quality Coalition is engaging community volunteers to conduct the Stanley Brook Watershed Survey to determine potential causes of pollution to the watershed. A watershed survey is a comprehensive investigation of land uses and pollution sources that could possibly affect water quality of a watershed.  Fieldwork for a watershed survey includes visiting properties in the watershed, talking to property owners about their land, and taking water samples when necessary. Volunteers are needed to complete the field survey and to help with non-fieldwork including data entry, press releases, and report writing.  The MDI Water Quality Coalition will generate a final report that identifies specific problem areas that contribute to poor water quality in Stanley Brook, and suggest possible solutions for these problems.  The information gathered in the watershed survey is not for enforcement purposes.

What is the Pollution Problem in Seal Harbor?

Seasonal elevations of Enterococcus bacteria have been cause for citizen concern about Stanley Brook and Seal Harbor Beach.  However, five types of pollutants bacteria, nutrients, sediments, toxics, and temperature impact watersheds. Many or all are factors that maybe contributing to poor water quality in Stanley Brook and Seal Harbor Beach.  We are conducting the watershed survey as a first step in a process of addressing each of these water quality problems.

The MDI Water Quality Coalition has been documenting bacteria levels on Seal Harbor beach for 10 years, and has noticed a trend in these levels over time. Historically, the MDI Water Quality Coalition has found consistently high counts of Enterococcus in Stanley Brook. Enterococcus is a bacterium that comes from the gut of warm-blooded animals and is an indicator of bacteria that cause swimming illness. The Enterococcus levels reveal a pattern over time: very low levels in June, which rise above the EPA limit (104 colonies of Enterococcus per 100 milliliters of water) for safe water contact during July and peak at the end of July to mid-August. In past years the testing ended in mid-august with the conclusion of our summer internship program and would resume testing with local schools in October at which time Enterococcus levels had gone down again.  However, in 2004, citizen volunteers continued monitoring until mid-October until counts dropped again.

Where is the problem coming from?

We don’t know exactly.  The Enterococcus levels seem to be lower upstream, and then suddenly get high under the bridge.  We do not see a gradual increase in Enterococcus levels as we sample downstream, nor do we see a spike immediately downstream from the sewage treatment plant.  The spike comes directly under the Route 3 Bridge. We do not know if the high bacteria levels in Stanley Brook are from one or more point sources or a non-point source.  Point source pollution is pollution coming from a known location (discharge pipe, smoke stack, etc.)  Non-point source pollution is pollution that comes from an unknown source. Often called Polluted Runoff, it is the Nation's largest source of water quality problems.

Timeline

September-December 2004 : (COMPLETE) Work with volunteers to sample the water in Stanley Brook and on Seal Harbor Beach once a week, set up an advisory team consisting of representatives from the Village Improvement Society in Seal Harbor, Mount Desert Public Works, Maine Healthy Coastal Beaches Program, the DEP, the DMR, and Acadia National Park.

January-April, 2005 : Hire a volunteer coordinator (COMPLETE- Americorps volunteer Zack Steele) to train and oversee volunteer efforts on this survey, work with a GIS consultant to set up GIS maps of Seal Harbor, send letters to property owners in the area informing them of our project, hold volunteer training sessions, continue regular meetings with the advisory team.

May-August, 2005 : (COMPLETE)Continue sampling water on Seal Harbor Beach and up Stanley Brook, survey properties with volunteers, start ruling out possible contamination sources, begin writing final report

September-November, 2005 : (COMPLETE) Finish writing final report, publicize findings and have meeting with Town of Mount Desert and Seal Harbor residents. Work with Hancock County Soil and Water Conservation district to mitigate impacts on the brook.