Think Blue

UMA Bangor is participating in the State of Maine’s Storm Water Program. The campus is part of the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) for Bangor and surrounding communities as designated by the Environmental Protection Agency. A map of the area is found below. An “MS4” is not just a system of underground pipes under the jurisdiction of a local municipality. It also includes roads with drainage systems, gutters, and ditches located on university campuses, hospitals, and military bases.

Polluted storm water runoff is often transported to municipal separate storm sewer systems and ultimately discharged into local rivers and streams without treatment. EPA’s Storm Water Phase II Rule establishes an MS4 storm water management program that is intended to improve the Nation’s waterways by reducing the quantity of pollutants that storm water picks up and carries into storm sewer systems. Common pollutants include oil and grease from roadways, pesticides from lawns, sediment from construction sites, and carelessly discarded trash such as cigarette butts, paper wrappers and plastic bottles. When deposited into nearby waterways through MS4 discharges, these pollutants can impair waterways, thereby discouraging recreational use of the resource, contaminating drinking water supplies, and interfering with the habitat for fish, other aquatic organisms, and wildlife.

This program is a five-year commitment and other activities will be undertaken on campus throughout the program. What can YOU do:

Click on www.thinkbluemaine.org/citizen.stm