Maine cities could cooperate more to meet new federal water quality regulations, according to a state environmental official.

Cities and towns in four parts of Maine have to clean up stormwater that drains off into rivers and lakes. David Ladd, director the Maine Department of Environmental Protection stormwater phase 2 effort, said he has money and a system to help those communities meet federal requirements inexpensively.

“Now they need to use it,” Ladd said. “I don’t have the municipalities working together as much as I’d like. The first thing, you always hear complaints about how much this is going to cost the cities. Well, they can save money and be more effective if they work together.”

Federal stormwater regulations target any water running into a stream, river or lake. That includes municipal storm sewer systems and rural ditches. Pollution can come from a number of sources, he said, including rain runoff from mall parking lots to people dumping trash in storm sewers.

“So one of the goals of this program is education,” he said. “We need to come up with programs to change people’s behavior.”

Cities and towns are also required to get the public involved, locate and stop sources of pollution, create guidelines for construction projects and change their own behavior.

Federal regulations targeting stormwater runoff in medium to large cities went into effect in 1990. Maine didn’t have any cities big enough to qualify in that phase.

The second phase of those regulations went into effect in March. They require municipal areas with populations of more than 50,000 people or areas with 1,000 people per square mile to meet the federal standards.

Ladd said 28 Maine municipalities meet those standards, and they are clustered in four areas: the southern tip of the state around Kittery and Berwick; greater Portland; Lewiston, Auburn and part of Sabattus; and the greater Bangor area. Those cities have five years to comply.

Ladd said he was given a federal grant to buy tracking software for the effort. That allows the cities to report what they’ve done. He’s working with some cities to design pamphlets and radio and television promotions.

He’d like to see more, especially in Lewiston and Auburn and in the Bangor area.

“If they’d cooperate, say on a pamphlet or something on the local cable access channel, it wouldn’t matter if it’s Lewiston or Auburn,” he said. “But if they do it individually, it just claims a bigger chunk of their budget. I think they should be looking for the biggest bang for their buck.”

staylor@sunjournal.com

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