Water from the Town of Durham’s wastewater treatment plant is discharged into the Oyster River, which feeds into Great Bay Estuary.

As New Hampshire’s population climbs, wastewater and sewage are the talk

By Maureen Kelly

New Hampshire’s population is growing and the march of new residents into the Granite State shows no signs of slowing.  By 2025, projections indicate that the state’s Seacoast region could see a 30 percent population increase. It is not too early, state officials have determined, to start planning for their arrival and for their sewage. In the coming years, 44 communities must decide how to manage their wastewater and septage. Those decisions may influence how the Seacoast develops and whether New Hampshire can protect its coastal resources in the face of a population boom.

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Plans underway to restore tidal marsh

By Lee Bumsted

Mapmakers don’t often get the chance to redraw natural features on maps of well-known areas. But after the earthen embankment of Sherman Lake in Newcastle, Maine, gave way last October, they were given such an opportunity. The name "Sherman Lake" needs to be pulled from those maps too. "Upper Marsh River," anyone?  What had been a body of fresh water for 71 years is returning to some semblance of what it once was, the upper end of the tidal Marsh River. 

From lake to marsh. (Click on photo to enlarge). NEWCASTLE, MAINE

 

A "doer" with a lengthy list of contributions, New Brunswick's Sheila Washburn receives the Art Longard Award

By Lori Valigra

Shelia Washburn in St. Andrews, New Brunswick PHOTO: MICHAEL CAUGHEY

Sheila Washburn describes herself as a doer, someone who can take on a project and get the necessary people involved to get things done. Add that to her love of the New Brunswick coast and Passamaquoddy Bay, and her husband being an environmentalist, and you get a strong advocate for the environment and for its preservation. Washburn, who recently received the Gulf of Maine Council’s Art Longard Award, is a consummate volunteer who has made substantial contributions to teaching people of all ages how to care for and safeguard the natural environment.

Features and Columns

Editor's Notes: Building a case for sound coastal management By Andi Rierden

Gulf Voices: Tidal power - a green dream?
By Stephen Hawboldt

Visionary Awards
By Lori Valigra

Q & A with Don Hudson, Chewonki Foundation
By Lisa Capone

Growing cod in New Hampshire
By Maureen Kelly

"Rain gardens" in Massachusetts
By Maureen Kelly

Gulf Log:
Harnessing power from Fundy tides; Moving turbines for the birds; Alewife loss linked to cod disappearance; Better tracking of red tides

© 2006 The Gulf of Maine Times
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Science Insights

Climate changes everything...

The existing coastline at Wells, Maine, (left) and projected coastline after a 3-foot rise in sea level. IMAGES: MAINE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

 

The scientific message is that climate change will totally transform marine ecosystems in ways that today's management, conservation and policy paradigms don’t necessarily accommodate, and the biggest changes are yet to come.

What do these changes mean for ecosystem-based management in the Gulf of Maine?