1.) Did you know that what we put on our lawns is showing up in Casco Bay?
In the summer of 2005, Mike Doan, Research Associate at Friends of Casco Bay, opened an envelope and gasped. Before him appeared a table of laboratory numbers, an analysis of a sample of stormwater Mike had collected a month earlier, from the end of a pipe in Back Cove. The readings for 2,4-D, a primary component in weed and feed products, were at the highest levels he’d seen yet in stormwater samples. This herbicide has been classified by the World Health Organization as a possible carcinogen.
The sampling was part of our work in BayScaping, our effort to document that lawn chemicals are going into Casco Bay and to educate residents about strategies for achieving a chem-free lawn. Between 2001 and 2009, we collected rain water flowing into the Bay and analyzed the samples for a suite of pesticides. Lab results identified 7 different pesticides in 13 locations all around the Bay.
Now several municipalities are considering ordinances to restrict or ban pesticides and fertilizers. We are sharing our data and point out that fertilizers are of equal concern.
2.) Do you know why it shucks to be a clam?
When it rains, nitrogen-laden fertilizers are swept into Maine’s nearshore waters. This nitrogen pollution triggers algae blooms that release carbon dioxide when they die and decay. In seawater, carbon dioxide forms an acid. Acidification changes the chemistry of the water, inhibits shell growth in clams, mussels, oysters and other marine organisms, and is suspected as a cause of reproductive disorders in some fish.
We are encouraging communities to consider banning high-nitrogen fertilizers and weed and feed products, which contain both pesticides and fertilizers. Limiting or eliminating the use of fertilizers locally will lower the amount of nitrogen coming in to Casco Bay; this can help slow the devastating effects acidification is having on our marine resources. We are also working on several other projects to reduce nitrogen pollution from sewage discharges and stormwater runoff.
3.) Did you know that discarded hypodermic needles are regularly found on our beaches and marshes?
“Yipes! Here’s another needle!” That is a shout we frequently hear at our beach cleanups. Citizen Stewards Coordinator Peter Milholland rushes over, warning the volunteers not to pick up the discarded hypodermic needles. He uses rubber gloves and tongs to dislodge the needles from the sand or salt marsh. He places them a Sharps disposal kit—basically a plastic box that can hold medical waste—to drop off later at a safe disposal site.
Even though insulin users may use sharps several times a day, the only officially recommended way that residents can dispose of them is to place them in a rigid container, such as a liquid laundry soap container, and toss them in the garbage. When these containers end up in a landfill, they may break open and spill their contents. Many users simply flush them down the toilet. When it rains, overflows of the sewage treatment system can wash the needles into the Bay.
If you should find a sharp, do NOT pick up it up. Notify local police to come pick it up. Should you be pricked by a needle, call the Maine Center for Disease Control at 1-800-821-5821.
4.) Did you know that microbeads are a megaproblem?
Those tiny granules in acne scrubs, moisturizing cleansers, whitening toothpastes, and wrinkle creams wash down the drain and may end up in our waterways. Researchers have found that ocean filter feeders such as mussels and oysters ingest these tiny pellets, passing them all the way up the food chain to humans. Last spring, Friends of Casco Bay, along with concerned citizens, other environmental and health organizations, and even industry representatives, successfully persuaded the Maine Legislature to pass a state law to phase out microbeads.
President Obama recently signed into law a federal ban on microbeads! Emma Halas-O’Connor of the Environmental Health Strategy Center observed, “Congress never could have passed this ban had it not been for individual states passing their own legislation, which put tremendous pressure on the industry to change, and creating the right conditions for a national ban.”
5.) Did you know that populations of blue mussels in Casco Bay are hanging by a thread?
Blue mussels, besides being a delicious and economical seafood for humans, provide a rich habitat for other bottom dwellers. Dense mussel beds also can dampen wave action and buffer the shorefront against storm surges.
Friends of Casco Bay Board member Ann Thayer wanted to verify anecdotal accounts that mussel beds, once so common in Casco Bay, have all but disappeared. Ann offered to head up a volunteer effort to survey the Bay. Over the past two summers, she and her team covered more than 25 areas between Portland and Harpswell. They discovered juvenile mussels on mooring ropes, wharf pilings, and floating docks. They found far fewer thriving on the ocean floor.
