NEWRY – Restoration plans for the Sunday River are to be discussed today from 10 a.m. to noon at Sunday River Inn. The public meeting is sponsored by the town and Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection.
Increased stream-bank erosion, new channel cutting and a declining fishery prompted several Sunday River area residents to share growing concerns in the 1990s.
Tons of eroding soil, silt and sediment drastically curtailed fishing opportunities by smothering fish-spawning beds and filling in the pools favored by adult trout.
The river’s adjustment attempts to the sediment woes caused it to cut new channels, threatening roads, homes and flood-plain property.
In 2000 and 2002, residents, local businesses, town and county officials, and state personnel conducted nonpoint-source pollution surveys in the river’s watershed.
“Widespread erosion was determined to be a major culprit in destabilizing the river,” stated rivers’ consultant Jeff Stern in a recent release.
The surveys led to cooperative, erosion-control work by a variety of partners.
In 2002, erosion-control work near the river by the Oxford County Soil and Water District of Paris, Sunday River Ski Co. and the town of Newry prevented an estimated 344 tons of sediment from washing into Sunday River.
In 2003, Parish Geomorphic, a Canadian company, was recruited to do a detailed river assessment. Since that year, there has been a lull in restoration activities.
“The June 28 meeting will bring together the major players – watershed residents, local businesses, town officials, the soil and water conservation district, and state personnel – to discuss regaining and sustaining momentum to restore the Sunday River watershed,” Stern stated.
Agenda items include the timeline for erosion control efforts and plans for large-scale stream restoration activities.
For more information, contact Stern at 583-2733 or [email protected].
Comments are no longer available on this story