09/18/2013

Town seeks grant to ease stormwater runoff from equestrian center, church property

The town is planning to use funds generated by local storm-water impact fees for a clean-water project along Ocean House Road, adjacent to Trout Brook

At their meeting Sept. 9, 2013, the Town Council authorized an application for a federal grant for a project designed to reduce runoff into the brook behind the Walnut Hill Equestrain Center and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, both located on Ocean House Road just north of the Spurwink Avenue intersection.

The grant, part of the federal Clean Water Act, would help fund a project designed to minimize stormwater runoff into Trout Brook, which has been indentified as an "an urban impaired stream" by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The grant would fund 60 percent of proposed improvements, which include:

• Construction of a manure storage shed
• Collection of roof water on the horse barn
• Construction of two gravel wetlands upland of the brook
• Rehabilitation of a detention basin upland of the brook; and,
• Installation of an underdrain planted soil filter to capture parking lot stormwater before it enters the brook.

The owner of the equestrian center has agreed to fund up to $10,000 in cash, and both property owners are contributing in-kind service.

The town, as part of the grant-application authorization, agreed to use $22,000 from its Community Fee Utilization Program fund if the grant is approved. The fund holds fees from developers who build within the Trout Brook watershed to help compensate for stormwater impact.

The fee was established in 2007 as a way of complying with state standards for water quality. Rather than have developers who build in the Trout Brook Watershed sponsor a mitigation project anywhere along the brook, which extends into South Portland, the local fees can be used for watershed projects in Cape Elizabeth.

Development of the Eastman Meadows condominiums prompted the council to establish the fee. Since that time, the money has been waiting for a good mitigation project to come along, Town Planner Maureen O'Meara told councilors at their meeting Sept. 9. "We are talking about a whole series of improvements to basically the clean water that's flowing off these properties before it enters the brook," O'Meara said.

Also speaking at the meeting was Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District Urban Watershed Director Patrick Marass, who has been managing implementation of the Trout Brook Watershed Managment Plan. The first phases include education and outreach to watershed residents in Cape Elizabeth and South Portland, he said.

The church and the equestrian-center properties were indentified as having adverse effects on Trout Brook water quality through stormwater, Marass said. Through outreach efforts, owners of both properties said they were interested in doing more work with the conservation district, he said.

Results of the grant application may be available in December.