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Think Blue Maine — Clean Water Starts with you!
Welcome to Maine's Stormwater Website
Mission Statement: Everyday in many ways, we all contribute to stormwater pollution. This website was created to inform the public about stormwater pollution and prevention.
If stormwater pollution were Rubber Duckies, it wouldn't matter what went down our storm drains. But stormwater pollution is not rubber duckies; it's soil, trash, oil, cigarette butts, and pet waste.
The Stormwater Story —
Raindrop to Polluted Stormwater
What is stormwater?
Stormwater is precipitation that does not soak into the ground.
Imagine a raindrop falling from the sky. It first flows over your rooftop, across the lawn and down your driveway; it makes its way along the sidewalk and into the road. At this point in the stormwater cycle, the raindrop is no longer traveling alone; it has picked up some pesticides and fertilizer from your lawn, a bit of bacteria from your pet's waste, as well as some petroleum and oil from your driveway. Don't forget about the sediment from the road or the gum wrapper and cigarette butts from the sidewalk.
As the raindrop continues down the road, it might flow directly into your local river or lake, or it might go through a ditch and/or a storm drain. 
If it flows into a storm drain it continues to flow through an underground network of pipes,
where it discharges through an outfall, untreated, into your local swimming hole.  Now imagine an entire storm — lots of raindrops — or lots of melting snow — acting like a giant broom sweeping the pollutants into streams and ponds, then into Maine's rivers, lakes, and ocean! It happens, over and over again every season, every year, and it's called stormwater pollution!
What is the problem with polluted stormwater?
It is the largest source of water quality problems in the United States, and we all contribute to it, maybe without even realizing it. Up to 70% of the rain that falls on our property leaves our property taking with it hitch-hiking pollutants. This polluted stormwater flows untreated into our rivers, lakes, streams, creeks, and the ocean. These pollutants kill sensitive aquatic life and harm the overall beauty and recreational appeal of the water body. Polluted stormwater can cause beach closures, swimming bans, algal blooms, decline in shorefront property values, and even contaminate drinking water sources.
Think Blue Maine — Clean Water Starts with you!
Maine Water Facts
Maine has 6,000 Lakes and Ponds, 32,000 miles of rivers and streams, and 3,500 miles of coastline, as well as a 92-mile Allagash Wilderness Waterway! There are miles of river and many lakes in Maine that are failing to meet water quality standards. If you want to find out more information about the Maine's impaired waterbodies and to see the names of these waterbodies, check out the 305b list on the Maine DEPs website.
The State Fish is the Landlocked Salmon which lives in lakes of the northern United States, including Maine's lakes.
The discharge of stormwater from small municipalities is regulated in 28 communities in Maine.
How can you help keep Maine waters clean? Here's how:
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