A common interest in the York River watershed once again led to some uncommon alliances last Friday morning (March 29th), as some 25 leaders from divergent disciplines gathered at 8:30 a.m. in the Parish Hall of the First Parish Church for an hour-and-one-half-long meeting organized by the York Rivers Association.

Among those in attendance were the York Town Manager, York's Superintendent of Public Works, members of the York Conservation Commission, the York Planning Board, and York Land Trust, and representatives from the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, the Southern Maine Regional Planning Commission, the Coastal Conservation Commission, and the Cape Neddick River Association.

A chief reason for the meeting was the launching of the York River 319 Watershed Management Project. That project's aim is to study non-point-source pollution in the York River watershed, and to develop plans to minimize it. To that end, the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve applied for and was recently granted  $43,000 in federal monies distributed in support of Section 319 of the federal Clean Water Act. Additional, non-federal, matching funds bring this project's total funding to $71,237. Serving as project manager is Vallana Pratt-Decker, a recent former CEO with the York Planning Department, and Pratt-Decker's accomplishments on Friday included the listing and presentation of her working team, the selection of potential members for a steering committee, and declaration of an initial plan of action.

The York Independent will address the subject of the York River 319 Watershed Management Project in greater detail in Part II of this article next week, in the April 10 issue of The Independent.

A second focus of attention on Friday was the Wheeler marsh, also known as the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge, a 28-acre expanse of marshland, long and narrow, adjacent to Route 103 just south of York Harbor and running between that road and Harris Island .

In an interview subsequent to the Friday meeting, Erno Bonebakker, who is directing efforts to restore the marsh, delineated some of its critical history. The refuge is a somewhat artificial construct, an area once (prior to late in the 19^th Century) consisting primarily (except on its northern end) of mud flats and entirely open to tidal flow on three sides. Over time, however, it became constricted by human activity, by, first, and on its west, a rail bed for the train that used to run where Route 103 now lies, then, on its east side, by a road built to Harris Island and beyond. (Remnants of that road, from the time when it was known as "Three Bridge Road" and was the only route out of the Harbor to the south, can still be seen in pilings rising from the marsh's southern mudflats.) The railroad bed was turned into a road in 1957. Finally, when York Harbor came to be dredged in 1961, dikes were erected at spots on the marsh's west and east, and across its southern border, and leavings from the dredging were then dumped there, after the property had been deeded to the town by prominent York summer resident Nathaniel Wheeler. Tidal flow is now largely restricted to that coming and going through a culvert at the refuge's northern end, near Town Dock #1.

Funded chiefly by a $23,920 grant channeled through the Fish America Foundation from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the marsh restoration project, Bonebakker reported,  seeks to increase tidal flow in the area and thereby improve the vitality of the marsh vegetation, improving, at the same time, the habitat for birds, fish and other estuarine inhabitants. The project's plan is to lower the heights of the marsh's dikes to the south and west, by an amount still to be determined.  Thus far, he said, the project has measured current tidal flows on the marsh, and constructed a computer model to determine optimal tidal exchanges.

On Sunday, March 21st, the project sponsored a volunteer cleanup of the marsh area, and, at Friday's meeting, the organizer of the cleanup reported harvesting some 45 cubic feet, or between 25 and 30 bags of rubbish from the site, including one dead fox. That effort represented an educational and community-involvement component of the project, she said, one other aspect of which will be the planned enlistment, as ongoing monitors of the site, of  high school and middle-school students.

Critical to maintaining optimal tidal flow over the marsh will be the proper replacement of  the existing metal culvert to the north, which is now in a state of decay. According to York Superintendent of Public Works Marvin Swain, who addressed the group on this subject on Friday, engineering studies have determined that the cost of a  cement box culvert, the recommended replacement, would total $270,000. That cost has been split in two, and the first half, or $135,000 is being presented to voters for their approval in the May 18 referendum, with the second half to be put to a vote next year, assuming approval this year.

The matter is complicated by political considerations, however, for Swain told the Friday group that, given the current disposition of the Budget Committee, some of whom object to asking voters to revisit an issue upon which they've already expressed themselves, rejection of the first round of funding would mean that another vote in the following year would be extremely unlikely. And Conservation Committee Chair Stan Moody volunteered that any permanent avoidance of a repetition of that possibility, on this or other issues, would require a change in the town's charter.

With voter approval in each year, and with all permitting in place, replacement of the culvert, Swain told The Independent in a telephone interview, could occur in the fall of 2004. The road, which provides the only land access to Harris Island, would have to be closed temporarily for the work, though left open for emergencies.

If voters reject the funding. Swain reported that he has contingency plans in mind, but he declined to elaborate on them, citing the delicacy of the bidding process. The  1959 culvert does need replacement, he said, because its "structural integrity is used up," and, he added, noting the damaging effect of salt water on steel, "It’s lucky that it's lasted so long."

Swain also noted that any replacement culvert should be smooth-sided, because fish seem to be disturbed by the vibrations in current caused by the ribbing in steel culverts.

Swain also reported to the group on two other bridges: Rice's and Cook's.

Plans for the rebuilding of Rice's Bridge, on Route 1, he said, have recently  been approved to include  railings and four-foot-wide sidewalks on both sides, and elevated curbs rather than guard rails. Work, Swain told The Independent, is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2003, with the process to go out to bid this summer, and "pre-loading," or the process of slowly adding weight to new support structures, to start this fall.

Lanes, Swain said, will be added upstream of the bridge to carry traffic continuously as the bridge is rebuilt, and it has now  been determined that work will be done at Shorey's Pond and Rogers Brook, off Birch Hill Road, in remediation for disruption of the embankment and vegetation in the Rice's Bridge area.

At Cook's Bridge on Birch Hill Road, on the uppermost reaches of the York River, two side-by-side steel culverts installed in 1970 need to be replaced. Planning for that work, Swain said, is still in preliminary stages; a hearing was held in December to permit neighbors to express their concerns, and traffic issues there have been subjected to some computer analysis, but culvert replacement there is not seen as an urgent matter. Other public hearings, Swain added, will be held before the project gets to the design stage, which, he forecast, might take "three to four years."

One issue there to be decided: whether a replacement bridge or culvert would permit boat traffic beyond it, upstream, as it does not now.

Friday's meeting also included brief reports on the status of the study made, last summer, of fish in the York River , and on progress being made in monitoring pollution in the Cape Neddick River. According to Larry Reilly, of the Cape Neddick River Association, the York Sewer Commission has been "extremely helpful" in helping devise a summer sampling and testing program. "We seem to be making progress," Reilly said.

Caroline Donnelly, Rivers Association President, reported that the Association, using funding provided by the Old York Garden Club, is creating its own web site, which will have links to the sites of related organizations.

Also included in Friday's discussion was some informal reporting, from various quarters, about steps being taken to minimize competition, repetition, and duplication of effort in addressing watershed issues in southern Maine.

Photo by Virginia L. Woodwell

A view of the Wheeler Marsh, from the Harris Island Road. The marsh is soon to be rehabilitated by the restoration of tidal flow.