Water Sector News
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Storms, flooding heighten concerns about Maine’s stormwater pollution
Feb 13, 2024
Last year’s heavy rains flushed nearly 374 million gallons of raw storm and sewer water into Casco Bay, including from the devastating Dec. 18 storm that flooded western Maine communities at the upper edge of the watershed.
It was the highest annual overflow into the 200-square-mile bay in five years – and that total does not even include the back-to-back January storms that inundated coastal communities with heavy rains, storm surge and damaging waves.
The overflow that sloshed into the bay in 2023 alone was enough to fill more than 566 Olympic-sized swimming pools. If lined up end to end, it would stretch for almost 18 miles. Using a normal garden hose, it would take nearly 30 years to fill that many up.