KENNEBUNK, Maine — Erosion is a big concern for Central Maine Power at its site in the Kennebunk Plains preserve.
"It was exacerbated by heavier and heavier rainfall," Dustin Wlodkowski, a spokesperson for CMP, said. "Some of it was by ATV activity in this area."
For the past several years, CMP has been working to clean up and repair that erosion which is on the same land where transmission structures are.
"We don't want those structures to become compromised in any way. So it was critical that we shore up some of the soil here to make sure that doesn't happen," Wlodkowski said.
The area used to look very different, but now the terrain has been made to keep the soil where it is.
"You'll see some areas where we put objects in the way to stop the flow of sediment," Wlodkowski said. "We built stone walls in some areas to hold up some of the hillsides and in addition to that, we put mulch down, which seems like a pretty simple thing, but it actually stops some of this very, very fine, sandy soil in this area."
While making the land stable was the priority, water quality was also important, especially with an aquifer under the project site.
"We have the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, and Wells Water Districts. The aquifer that you mentioned actually feeds some of the customers from that," Wlodkowski said.
As the project wraps up, CMP says it also wants to protect the species that call that land home and the sense of peace people have when walking the trails at the preserve.
CMP will monitor the earth underneath the transmission corridor in the Kennebunk Plains preserve year round, as it does for other sites.
