carefully designed survey conducted just 2 weeks before the 1977 hunting 

 season began indicated that over 41,000 lead pellets per acre (101,000/ha) 

 were present in the top 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm) of soil in the intertidal 

 area of Merrymeeting Bay (region 2; personal communication from J. R. 

 Longcore, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Orono, ME; April, 1979). 



INDUSTRY AND POPULATION 



The release of organic and inorganic wastes and the modification of natural 

 habitats are the most pronounced ecological stresses of industry and 

 population in coastal Maine. The effects of water pollution, air pollution, 

 oil pollution, surface water control, and construction are discussed below. 



Water Pollution 



The extent of water pollution in coastal Maine is difficult to describe 

 accurately, because comprehensive data on the number, types, and amounts of 

 substances discharged are unavailable. Licenses have not been issued for all 

 discharges for which they are required, and all of those licensed are not 

 monitored. Among those that are monitored, all components of the discharge 

 are not monitored. Most water pollution in Maine is in rivers and estuaries 

 below large towns. 



Four classes of waste water discharges are monitored by the Maine DEP: 

 industrial, municipal, commercial, and residential. Industrial and municipal 

 dischargers produce the largest amount of effluent. The exact amounts of 

 effluent cannot be determined due to variations in effluent flow. 

 Furthermore, license data do not include inactive or expired licenses. Most 

 inactive licensed activities produce effluent seasonally (summer), and many 

 discharge facilities whose licenses have expired still are producing effluent 

 (personal communication from L. Fontaine, Maine Department of Environmental 

 Protection, Augusta, ME; December, 1979). Municipal and industrial 

 dischargers may have local impact and cumulatively may have impacts on lakes, 

 rivers, estuaries, and bays. Atlas map 3 shows the locations of permitted 

 industrial and municipal discharges. A list of these point sources is given 

 in appendix A. 



Water pollution has a major impact on the clam industry, the State's second 

 most important fishery. Each year an average of 9658 acres (3910 ha), or 21% 

 of the State's clam flats, are closed due to bacterial pollution. Closures in 

 the characterization area vary from 9% in Washington County (region 6) to 71% 

 in Sagadahoc County (region 2; Maine State Planning Office 1978). This 

 situation has developed in coastal Maine because of the inadequacy of soil 

 (thin overburden and near-surface bedrock) for septic systems and the general 

 lack of centralized sewage treatment facilities. The impact is especially 

 acute in the summer, when the numerous cottages that line the shore in many 

 areas are occupied. A survey of residential point sources adjacent to 

 intertidal shellfish flats revealed that only about 56% were licensed by the 

 DEP (Winters and Fuller 1980) . The latter authors have prepared maps showing 

 waste-water discharge locations (point sources of pollution; primarily 

 residential) in each coastal community. Each report summarizes the pollution 

 status, size, production (in terms of bushels per acre), and cash value of 

 each currently producing shellfish area, by town. These reports are valuable 

 because they identify pollution problems, their causes, and economic impact. 



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