SOUTH PORTLAND – South Portland last week received a $20,000 grant from the Royal Bank of Canada’s Blue Water Project to help protect the Trout Brook watershed.
According to South Portland’s stormwater program coordinator, Fred Dillon, Trout Brook and its tributary Kimball Brook do not meet state water quality standards primarily due to impacts from surrounding development. Earlier this year, the city got a $70,000 grant from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to implement key recommendations from the Trout Brook Watershed Management Plan, which took a volunteer committee two years to create.
The new grant, said Dillon, will be used for plan recommendations not covered by the DEP grant, primarily the correction erosion problems in Hinckley Park.
“It is really great that we are partnering with the Royal Bank of Canada on this project,” said City Manager Jim Gailey. “We are leveraging their support by providing an additional $10,000 of in-kind services from local and nonprofit involvement. This funding will go a long way towards protecting the ponds that South Portlanders enjoy within Hinckley Park.”
The Royal Bank of Canada awarded funds to a consortium of partners working with the international Gulf of Maine Council, which is leading the Blue Water Project on behalf of several groups in the Gulf of Maine Watershed, including two in the maritime provinces of Canada and two in seacoast New Hampshire, in addition to the city of South Portland.
“This international partnership is intended to raise awareness about urban water resource issues and is targeted towards ‘on the ground’ projects that improve water quality in cities and towns,” wrote Dillon in a June 7 press release.
Local partners for the South Portland project include the South Portland Land Trust, the Cumberland County Soil & Water Conservation District, the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership and the Maine DEP.
The long-term goal, said Gailey, is to restore water quality and aquatic habitat so that Trout and Kimball Brooks are removed from the DEP’s list of impaired streams.
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