Improving and protecting the environmental health of Casco Bay for 30 years
Citizens launch watchdog group
Friends of Casco Bay is founded as a grassroots, citizen watchdog group in response to the report “Troubled Waters” which highlighted Casco Bay as a pollution hotspot. This image shows snippets from the report.
How Polluted Is Casco Bay?
Friends of Casco Bay helps to organize a day-long seminar, How Polluted Is Casco Bay, featuring David Brower, founder of Friends of the Earth, draws 200 attendees.
EPA recognizes Casco Bay
Casco Bay is designated an Estuary of National Significance by the EPA, in part due to Friends of Casco Bay’s actions to raise public awareness about Casco Bay issues, history, and industries.
First Casco Baykeeper hired
Joe Payne is hired as Casco Baykeeper of Friends of Casco Bay.
Water Monitoring pilot project
Pilot program in Water Quality Monitoring trains 20 citizen scientists to collect water temperature, air temperature, and weather data at 10 sites.
The Baykeeper gets a boat
A donated vessel, Donovan’s Delight, becomes the workhorse used for 20 years.
Monitoring water top to bottom
Friends of Casco Bay staff members launch a monthly water quality testing program, conducting surface-to-bottom profiles at several stations all around the Bay.
Citizen Stewards aid research
Friends of Casco Bay staff initiates a comprehensive volunteer water quality monitoring program, training 40 Citizen Stewards to monitor surface waters along the Bay.
Clam flat restoration begins
Friends of Casco Bay initiates a Clam Flat Restoration Project to identify sources of fecal coliform pollution responsible for prolonged clam flat closures.
Pumpout boat removes poop
Friends of Casco Bay launches a pumpout service for recreational boats, siphoning away over 250,000 gallons of sewage to date that might have ended up in the Bay. First Lady Mary Herman christens our pumpout boat Wanda (aka Baykeeper II).
Dredging discussions begin
Friends of Casco Bay assumes a leadership role in helping to develop an environmentally and economically acceptable means of disposing of contaminated dredge materials.
Cleaning up Julie N oil spill
Friends of Casco Bay aids in a coordinated response to the Julie N tanker accident and helps recover a remarkable 78% of the 180,000 gallons of spilled oil (15-20% recovery is considered a success).
Flats reopened to clamming
Friends of Casco Bay’s research and monitoring lead to re-opening hundreds of acres of clam flats to harvesting.
Campaign targets pesticides
Friends of Casco Bay teams up with the Maine Board of Pesticides Control on an anti-pesticides ad campaign: Why Weed’n’Feed isn’t fish food.
Rescuing lobsters from dredging
Friends of Casco Bay catalyzes the relocation project that rescues 35,000 lobsters from harbor dredging.
Reclassifying Bay waters
Friends of Casco Bay’s data contribute to the State reclassifying waters off Peaks and Little Diamond Islands, and parts of South Portland, including Willard Beach, from class SC to SB, a higher standard for water quality protection.
Measuring low oxygen at dawn
Friends of Casco Bay initiates early morning, low tide monitoring to identify hypoxic (low-oxygen) conditions in challenged parts of eastern Casco Bay.
Helping track baby lobsters
Friends of Casco Bay joins a research study to monitor juvenile lobsters in the intertidal zone.
Founding Waterkeeper Alliance
Friends of Casco Bay helps to found Waterkeeper Alliance. Now, the Waterkeeper movement is 350 groups strong, protecting 2.7 million square miles of waterways in 46 countries.
The Bay Begins in Your Backyard
Friends of Casco Bay hosts the first BayScaping workshop, From Bethel to the Beach: Protecting Casco Bay Begins in Your Backyard, which draws 200 people and 15 exhibitors. Shortly after, we begin offering neighborhood socials on BayScaping.
Do pesticides get into Bay?
Friends of Casco Bay begins sampling stormwater runoff for pesticides washing into Casco Bay.
Local strategies to help the Bay
Friends of Casco Bay issues a report on Community Strategies to Improve the Bay, to provide tools for town planning for the municipalities bordering the Bay.
Cruise ship pollution campaign
Friends of Casco Bay organizes a forum on Pollution Solutions to Cruise Ship Discharges to alert voters and legislators that cruise ships can legally dump wastewater in Portland Harbor.
Scooping mud to test for toxins
Friends of Casco Bay scoops mud from 22 nearshore sites around Casco Bay to measure toxins in the sediments.
Freeing the Presumpscot
Collaboration with Presumpscot watershed groups results in the removal of the Smelt Hill Dam, allowing the lower seven miles of the Presumpscot River to flow unimpeded to Casco Bay.
Nitrogen is a threat to the Bay
Friends of Casco Bay staff members begin sampling for nitrogen pollution.
First Executive Director hired
Cathy Ramsdell is hired as Executive Director of Friends of Casco Bay.
Tracing toxins in Portland Harbor
Friends of Casco Bay grabs sediment samples in Portland Harbor for analysis of levels of toxins such as Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
Bay’s environmental report card
Friends of Casco Bay issues a region-by-region Health Index, an environmental report card on the health of the Bay.
Maine’s first No Discharge Area
Friends of Casco Bay’s campaign to halt to cruise ship pollution results in Casco Bay being designated the first No Discharge Area in Maine for vessel sewage.
Adapting our data for educators
Friends of Casco Bay creates the Casco Bay Curriculum, incorporating our water quality data into classroom activities for schools.
State law to limit nitrogen
Friends of Casco Bay’s advocacy pushes through a state law requiring the Department of Environmental Protection to set a limit on nitrogen levels in coastal waters.
Portland to deal with sewage
Friends of Casco Bay helps convince the Portland City Council to commit $61 million to construction projects to stem the flow of raw sewage, industrial wastes, and stormwater into Casco Bay, by shortening the timeline to clean up and eliminate dozens of combined sewer overflows.
Data help protect The Basin
Friends of Casco Bay’s data are instrumental in the State reclassification of waters in The Basin in Phippsburg, from class SB to SA, the highest standard of water quality for marine waters.
Taking on “Green Slime”
Friends of Casco Bay’s vigorous campaign against “Green Slime” combats nitrogen pollution on three fronts: stormwater runoff, fertilizers, and sewage treatment plants.
Climate change curriculum
Casco Bay: A Changing Estuary revamps Friends of Casco Bay’s 2006 curriculum, focusing on the impact of climate change on Casco Bay and the Gulf of Maine.
Ready to respond to oil spills
Friends of Casco Bay’s participation in an oil spill clean-up exercise for the Gulf of Maine is immediately followed by advising Waterkeepers involved in the Gulf of Mexico Deep Horizon oil rig disaster.
Collect mud to test for toxins
Friends of Casco Bay collects jars of mud at 60+ sites to document changes in levels of Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and other toxins in Casco Bay sediments.
Storm drain stenciling
We create storm drain stenciling kits for community service projects to remind people, “Do not dump. Drains to Casco Bay.”
Measure acidity on clam flats
Friends of Casco Bay begins to investigate coastal acidification by measuring the acidity of sediments in clam flats.
Share stormwater cleanup costs
Friends of Casco Bay’s Executive Director Cathy Ramsdell serves on a citizen’s committee to help the City of Portland craft an equitable stormwater utility fee. It gives concessions to residents and businesses that limit rainwater runoff from impervious roofs, parking lots, and driveways.
Clam condos in acidic mud
Friends of Casco Bay’s experiments on clam spat placed in “clam condos” in acidic mud show evidence of pitting after one week.
New Baykeeper research boat
Friends of Casco Bay christens our new Baykeeper research vessel Joseph E. Payne.
South Portland Pesticide Ordinance
Friends of Casco Bay’s data and BayScaping information help South Portland enact an ordinance that restricts the use of synthetic pesticides on public and private properties.
Nabbing Nitrogen flash mob
Friends of Casco Bay undertakes a Nabbing Nitrogen event to coordinate a “flash mob” of volunteers to simultaneously collect nitrogen samples in the Fore River.
Maine Ocean and Coastal Acidification partnership
Casco Baykeeper Ivy Frignoca helps organize the first meeting of the newly named Maine Ocean and Coastal Acidification partnership to coordinate policy and research to address this little-known impact of climate change. Later that year, the first Ocean Acidification Symposium draws 110 participants to share data on the causes and effects of ocean and coastal acidification in Maine waters.
Monitoring Casco Bay 24/7
Friends of Casco Bay installs a Continuous Monitoring Station to collect water quality data hourly, 365 days a year.
Baykeeper leads MOCA partnership
The Casco Baykeeper assumes role as coordinator of the Maine Ocean and Coastal Acidification partnership (2016-2019), organizing twice-yearly symposia.
Setting nitrogen limits
Our advocacy for setting nitrogen limits in sewage treatment plant permits results in the Department of Environmental Protection requiring nitrogen standards in municipalities’ Clean Water Act discharge permits.
Historic agreement to reduce nitrogen
Friends of Casco Bay secures an agreement with Portland Water District to work to significantly reduce nitrogen discharged into the Bay by treating effluent water from the East End Wastewater Treatment Facility. The goal is to reduce nitrogen pollution entering the Bay by 20-40% within 5 years. Engineering modifications result in nitrogen discharges dropping by 70% on average by 2018.
Portland task force on pesticides
Friends of Casco Bay’s Executive Director Cathy Ramsdell serves on a citizen’s task force that leads to the passage of an ordinance to restrict the use of synthetic pesticides on public and private properties.
Launch volunteer Water Reporter
Friends of Casco Bay launches a year-round Casco Bay volunteer observing network: Water Reporter.
Shaping fertilizer ordinance
Friends of Casco Bay’s Executive Director Cathy Ramsdell is recruited to serve on a Working Group to draft an ordinance to regulate fertilizers in the City of South Portland.
Casco Bay Matters series
Friends of Casco Bay hosts our first Casco Bay Matters lecture series, attended by 380 participants.
Our Climate Council bill expands
Friends of Casco Bay shepherds a bill to create a state-funded Science and Policy Advisory Council on the Impact of Climate Change on Maine’s Marine Species, which is integrated into the Governor’s omnibus bill to address climate change and establish the Maine Climate Council.
Headmaster joins our fleet
Friends of Casco Bay christens and launches our new pumpout boat, Headmaster.
Helping state with action plan
Casco Baykeeper Ivy Frignoca is appointed to the Coastal and Marine Working Group of the Maine Climate Council.
Friends of Casco Bay celebrates our 30th anniversary all year long.
