Sewage Leaks at Wells Harbor

Something stinks over at Wells Harbor right now in Maine -- literally. Over the last couple of weeks, the Wells Police Department has had to post notifications about issues of sewage leaks that have led to the essential closing of the Harbor. It all started just two weeks ago on July 8, when the Wells Police Department posted about the initial sewage leak that had restricted swimming, fishing, or shellfish harvesting between the Jetty.

Two days later, Wells Police updated the order on July 10, lifting all bans and saying the issue had been fixed and water was testing at normal, safe levels.

A week and a half later on July 21, Wells Police took to their social media once again to mention yet another sewage leak that was reinstating the swimming, fishing, and shellfish harvesting ban between the Jetty once again.

And once again, after a quick two day period, Wells Police lifted the order, stating that all water levels are testing normally once again.

Fast forward to the very next day, this past Sunday evening, Wells Police once again had to pump the brakes on allowing swimming, fishing, and shellfish harvesting between the Jetty due to yet another sewage leak.

And, like the time table has seen to go, earlier this afternoon, Wells Police confirmed that the Harbor is once again open (hopefully for good, this time.)

Around the same time as the original sewage leak incident two weeks ago, Seacoast Current reported that three New Hampshire seacoast beaches had tested positive for high levels of fecal bacteria. Whether or not the two incidents are related isn't clear, as no official reason for the high levels was given.

Regardless of the reasoning, Mainers are fed up with the fact that multiple times over an 18-day span, seemingly endless sewage leaks have closed the Harbor and possibly have been affecting the water in area beaches as well, as evidenced in the comments section on the Wells Police Facebook page.

"How can the other beaches possibly not be effected?!!?" - Paula Grant Duval

 

"This makes one wonder if the first two leaks were ever really fixed correctly and if so, what has really been the impact on those who have been swimming and fishing, thinking all was OK?" - Steve Peterson

 

"This needs to be fixed correctly! This isn’t right this keeps occurring." - Kristen Ardini

 

"This is sad to read!! Here we are in the midst of tourist season and there has now been many(too many) sewage breaks. Just think what this could do to that area if the wonderful word of mouth from our visitors gets blasted around and people choose not to visit the area… that is a BIG image to squash!!! Fix it right…" - Jim Bernier

 

"Should have never ran across the harbor to begin with. Why ever risk polluting the harbor and the beach." - Nick Boudreau

You can see how other Mainers responded on the post the Wells Police put up on their Facebook page about the third sewage leak.

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