Projects > Spruce Creek Watershed Management Plan
The Spruce Creek Association, working with the Towns of Kittery and Eliot, as developed a watershed-based management plan. The Spruce Creek Watershed-based Management Plan will serve as a blueprint for restoring and protecting our estuary. With crucial input from stakeholders, it identifies the most pressing problems in our estuary and establish goals, objectives, and actions for resolving them. The Management Plan also contains strategies for monitoring progress and financing implementation. The plan will be a living document that will be reexamined and revised on a regular basis to ensure that the goals, objectives, and specific actions continue to address the most pressing problems.
We'd love to hear from more of you and welcome any and all additional ideas - thanks for taking time to review this information and please feel free to contact us!
Spruce
Creek Watershed-Based Management Plan
The
Kittery Town Council has generously committed to funding this effort and
contracted Forrest Bell of FB Environmental in Portland to help us through
this process. Thanks to everyone who helped to make this plan a reality!
- Spruce
Creek Watershed-Based Management Plan - Final Version (7,240
Kb Adobe Acrobat PDF*)
- Executive Summary (7,240 Kb Adobe Acrobat PDF*)
- Action Plan (7,240 Kb Adobe Acrobat PDF*)
As per DEP
and EPA guidelines, our Watershed-Based Plan was designed to achieve pollutant
load reductions and address EPA's nine minimum elements for watershed
planning:
1. Identification of Causes & Sources;
2. Estimation of Load Reductions from Planned Management Measures;
3. Description of Management Measures;
4. Description of Technical & Financial Assistance Needed;
5. Information & Education Outreach;
6. Implementation Schedule;
7. Milestones to Measure Progress Implementing Management Measures;
8. Criteria to Determine Progress in Attaining Water Quality Standards
& Load Reductions; and
9. Plan to Monitor Progress Compared to Criteria.
Since the Spruce Creek Watershed has been given a "TMDL designation" by the State of Maine based on bacterial counts in the clamflats. While the State will continue to report on and pursue this issue, it means that in order for us to be eligible for EPA funding for work on the Creek, our watershed management plan also includes some modeling on pollutant and bacterials load amounts and to give estimates for their planned reductions. More, or maybe even way more than you'll ever want to know... about TMDLs is available at the EPA's website.
The following documents may also be of interest:
- SCWMP
Draft 2 - Full document version (7,291 Kb Adobe Acrobat PDF*)
- SCWMP Part 1 (2,467 Kb Acrobat PDF*)
- SCWMP Part 2 (724 Kb Acrobat PDF*)
- SCWMP Part 3 (3,343 Kb Acrobat PDF*)
- SCWMP Draft 1 High-resolution version (6,665 Kb Adobe Acrobat PDF*) or Low-resolution version (4,296 Kb Adobe Acrobat PDF*).
- US EPA's Draft Handbook for Developing Watershed Plans to Restore and Protect Our Waters
- Sample
watershed management plans:
- Highland Lake - Bridgton, Maine
- St. Joseph Watershed Initiative Watershed Management Plan, Michigan, Ohio & Indiana
Meetings
Kittery
Town Council Meeting
Kittery Town Hall
Monday, May 12, 2008
- Presented final version of plan: Towns
move toward Spruce Creek cleanup (Portsmouth
Herald, May 13, 2008)
Steering
Committee Meeting
Kittery Town Hall
Monday, October 15, 2007 from 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Meeting
Minutes (29 Kb, Adobe Acrobat PDF*)
-
Reviewed initial draft of plan for review: SCWMP
High-resolution version (6,665 Kb Adobe Acrobat PDF*) or
Low-resolution version
(4,296 Kb Adobe Acrobat PDF*)
Steering
Committee Meeting
Kittery Town Hall
Tuesday, July 24, 2007 from 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Meeting
Minutes (42KB, Adobe Acrobat PDF*)
- Reviewed the proposed
plan outline (142KB, Adobe Acrobat PDF*)
Steering
Committee Kick-off Meeting
Kittery Town Hall
Monday, June 4, 2007 from 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Meeting
Minutes (35KB, Adobe Acrobat PDF*)
- Discussions on the "lumped" categories that FB
Environmental created:
1. Protect and restore vegetated buffers / control
invasive plants
2. Reduce bacteria loads / open shellfish beds
3. Treat impervious surfaces / minimize stormwater
impacts
4. Increase conservation lands within Spruce Creek
Watershed
5. Water quality assessment and evaluation
- These categories were further broken down into sub-projects
or goals and attendees were given 3 votes (stickers) per category,
and the results of this round of "sticker voting" are attached.
Spruce
Creek Watershed Community Forum
Kittery Town Hall
November 29, 2006
Community
Forum Notes (76KB, Adobe Acrobat PDF*)
- 30 attendees
- Presentation on "Introduction
to Protecting our Children's Water" (1,113KB, Adobe Acrobat PDF*)
by Christ Feurt and "Elements of a Watershed Plan" by Tin Smith,
both of the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve
- Defined concerns, goals, objectives, projects
and ideas and conducted "sticker voting" to priortize
Spruce Creek Watershed: Concerns, Goals, Objectives, Projects and Ideas
Learn more about the goals and objectives decided upon in our November 2006 meeting.
Spruce Creek Watershed: Historic Data & Background Information
- Other Assessments, Studies & Inventories
- Previous Watershed Management Plan work (1991)
- Historic photos
*You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the PDF file. If you don't already have Adobe Acrobat, you can download Adobe Acrobat Reader for free.
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