NATIONAL
ESTUARY
PROGRAM
STORMWATER PHASE II
When the Clean Water Act's Phase II stormwater regulations required small and medium-sized communities to implement a stormwater management
program, 14 towns in the Casco Bay watershed had daunting challenges to meet. Suburban development and related construction of roads, parking lots,
and rooftops had increased runoff and stressed Casco Bay's water quality, aquatic habitat, and biological diversity.
But a collective management plan, championed by the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership (CBEP), proved so effective that participating municipalities quickly
came to fund it themselves. Along the way, it also became a foundation for other work by CBEP and its partners, as well as a regional and national model for collaborative ap-
proaches to the problems of urban watersheds.
THE NATIONAL ESTUARY PROGRAM IN ACTION
Casco Bay Estuary Partnership
Though the Casco Bay water-
shed comprises just three per-
cent of Maine's land mass, it is
home to more than 25 percent of
its population, including Port-
land, the largest city in the state,
and 13 smaller communities. To
assist those municipalities to re-
spond to new Federal regula-
tions, the Casco Bay Estuary
Partnership helped initiate a col-
laborative, regional approach to
stormwater pollution manage-
ment in 2002. The payoff from
that effort has been more signifi-
cant than anyone could have
imagined at the time.
Because Maine has a strong tra-
dition of local control, most
towns prefer to address their
problems independently of state
efforts—or those of surrounding
communities. Faced with exten-
sive new regulatory require-
ments, however, along with
limited municipal budgets, some
communities agreed that a re-
gional collaboration, no matter
how novel, might be the best so-
lution.
CBEP invested considerable
funding and staff support to build
the Interlocal Stormwater Work-
workshop participants learn about stormwater
pollution prevention. Photo Credit: Casco Bay
Estuary Partnership
ing Group (ISWG), which shared
experiences and developed a
common vision for stormwater
management. As a result, mu-
nicipalities saved money by
gaining access to experts and by
pooling their resources. Indeed,
the program proved so cost-ef-
fective that local communities
quickly agreed to fund the group
out of their own budgets. And
savings have extended beyond
the towns themselves. When the
original five-year permits ex-
pired, the Maine Department of
Environmental Protection worked
through ISWG to develop the
structure of the revised 2008
permits. Only specific details had
to be negotiated by individual
towns, which saved the state
agency time and money.
ISWG, CBEP, Cumberland County
Soil and Water Conservation Dis-
trict staff, and subcontractors
worked together to complete an
operations manual, Guidelines
and Standard Operating Proce-
dures for Stormwater Phase II
Communities in Maine. In addi-
tion, CBEP provided funding for
workshops and classes to train
employees from each of the
ISWG municipalities on storm-
water prevention measures. In-
terest in the manual and the as-
sociated training has been
strong: requests for information
have come from across New
England and from as far away as
Hawaii. Its educational programs
are one of ISWG's greatest sue-
EFFECTIVE
EFFICIENT
ADAPTIVE
COLLABORATIVE
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cesses. Permit requirements ob-
ligated municipalities to teach
residents and businesses about
stormwater, and specifically to
promote educational activities to
change behaviors that contrib-
ute to stormwater pollution. The
communities did not have the
resources to tackle that require-
ment individually, so CBEP
helped to fund an outreach coor-
dinator and also leveraged fund-
ing from Maine's 28 Small Mu-
nicipal Separate Storm Sewer
Systems to launch "Think Blue,"
a media campaign managed by
the Cumberland County Soil and
Water Conservation District. Ad-
ditional CBEP and ISWG funding
has supported efforts to educate
homeowners about environmen-
tally friendly lawn and garden
care practices.
But ISWG's most significant
impact may have been indirect.
Over the past seven years, its
members developed personal
and professional relationships
among and between themselves,
their towns, and with the Maine
Department of Environmental
Protection. Links to potential
partners and funders have also
grown. What started as a col-
laboration to address short-term
regulatory imperatives has
evolved into a regional network
for sharing information, ideas,
and opportunities.
The importance of cooperation
that rests on a foundation of ex-
isting relationships is hard to
overstate. Nowhere was that
more evident than in the 2007
effort to address water quality
issues in the Long Creek water-
shed-a 3.5-square-mile water-
shed located within four ISWG
municipalities. It contains one of
the largest commercial centers
in Maine, and largely as a conse-
quence, Long Creek fails to meet
state water quality standards.
In an 18-month planning
process, the municipalities,
state transportation agencies,
local businesses, and many
other partners (including CBEP)
developed an ambitious 10-year
plan to restore Long Creek: a
locally administered public-
private partnership to fund some
$5 to $6 million in watershed
protection. Long-time members
of ISWG were key to developing
that model, and their existing
relationships and trust greatly
facilitated the search for
solutions for Long Creek.
Municipalities still prefer to
maintain local control of issues
but they now understand the
many values of collaboration.
They have also learned to
balance local control with a
regional approach when local
priorities diverge from the
general requirements of meeting
a stormwater permit.
ISWG's successes have greatly
exceeded CBEP's expectations
and hold significant national
promise. Municipalities and
regions across the country can
learn valuable lessons from
the collaborative structure of
the Casco Bay Interlocal
Stormwater Working Group.
Visit www.cascobay.usm.maine.
edu to learn more about this and
other CBEP efforts.
EPA's National Estuary Program
(NEP) is a unique and successful
coastal watershed-based program
established in 1987 under the
Clean Water Act Amendments.
The NEP involves the public and
collaborates with partners to
protect, restore, and maintain the
water quality and ecological
integrity of 28 estuaries of
national significance located in 18
coastal states and Puerto Rico,
For more information about the
NEP go to www.epa.gov/owow/
estuaries.
The NEP: Implementing the Clean Water Act in ways that are Effective, Efficient, Adaptive, and Collaborative.
EPA-842F09001
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