Where We Monitor

Monitored on Tuesdays
S1 ME/NH Border along Routes 302 and 113 Conway, NH Saco River
S2 Westons Beach along Route 113 Fryeburg, ME Saco River
S3 Fiddlehead Campground off Route 5 Fryeburg, ME Saco River
OCS4 off Route 5 Fryeburg, ME Old Course of Saco River
S5 Upriver of Brownfield Bog off Walkers Bridge Road Fryeburg, ME Saco River
S6 Downriver of Brownfield Bog off Route 160 Brownfield, ME Saco River
MPB22 Below Moose Pond off Route 160 Denmark, ME Saco River

Monitored on Wednesdays
O7 ME/NH Border off Huntress Bridge Road Freedom, NH Ossipee River
O8 Downriver of Kezar Falls Village off Powerhouse Road Parsonsfield, ME Ossipee River
OS9 Baldwin/Cornish Station Bridge along Routes 5 and 117 Cornish, ME Ossipee River
S10 off Route 11 Standish, ME Saco River
S23 Below Hiram Dam off River Road Hiram, ME Saco River
S24 Below Watchic Pond Dam off Hi-Vu Drive Standish, ME Saco River

Monitored on Thursdays
LO11 ME/NH Border off Whitehouse Road Wakefield, NH Balch Lake
LO12 Below Balch Lake Dam off Acton Ridge Road Newfield, ME Little Ossipee River
LO13 Below Shapleigh Pond off Main Street Shapleigh, ME Little Ossipee River
LO14 off Silver Lane Limerick, ME Little Ossipee Flowage
LO15 Below Lake Arrowhead off Route 117 Limington, ME Little Ossipee River
LO16 off Hardscrabble Road Limington, ME Little Ossipee River
LO25 Below Little Ossipee Pond off Chadbourne Ridge Road Waterboro, ME Little Ossipee River

Monitored on Fridays
S17 Bonny Eagle Island off Route 35 Standish, ME Saco River
S18 Near site of old Rogers Fibre Mill off Depot Street Buxton, ME Saco River
S19 Skelton Head Pond off Union Falls Road Dayton, ME Saco River
S20 off South Street Biddeford, ME Saco River
S21 Public Boat Launch off Front Street Saco, ME Saco River
SPB26 off South Street Bridge Biddeford, ME Swan Pond Brook
TB27 off Main Street Bridge Biddeford, ME Thatcher Brook

Please click here for a complete listing of our monitoring locations including driving directions.
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With a corridor that flows along over 170 miles of river, it is to be expected that the lands adjacent to the waterway experience many different uses. If one were to look at a map of the Saco River Corridor Region, they would see an excellent example of those different uses. As the Saco River enters the State of Maine in Fryeburg and flows south through Brownfield, Denmark, and Hiram it sees high agricultural and recreational use. As the Saco reaches Cornish and Baldwin it is joined from the west by the Ossipee River after its 18 mile journey from Ossipee Lake in New Hampshire.

The Ossipee sees a mix of residential, agricultural, and industrial uses as it flows through the villages of Porter and Parsonsfield, Maine. The waters of the Saco and the Ossipee continue through a short distance of residential areas in Limington and Standish including a couple of campgrounds and a popular swimming spot at the Limington Rapids before being joined again from the west by the Little Ossipee River. At the confluence of the Little Ossipee and the Saco Rivers, the Little Ossipee has already traveled a distance of 31 miles.

The Little Ossipee sees high residential development as found on the shores of Balch Pond in Acton and Newfield, Shapleigh Pond in Shapleigh, and the Little Ossipee Flowage (Lake Arrowhead) in Limerick and Waterboro. The combined waters of these three great rivers travel through the historical towns of Buxton and Hollis passing the sites of existing mills and those long forgotten. As they search for the sea they finally flow through the quiet landscapes of Dayton and then on to the high demands of Biddeford and Saco including commercial, industrial, and residential uses. Here, the river reaches what could be considered its highest and most critical use - that of a drinking water reservoir. Although this is where the water is drawn from the Saco River by the Biddeford and Saco Water Company, its quality has been affected by all land and water uses from its origin and the origins of the three major tributaries.

When choosing the sites for our program, we tried to pinpoint those areas most critical to the rivers and the communities they support. For example, we chose to test all three rivers as they enter the State of Maine from New Hampshire to give us an idea of the quality of water as it enters the state and enters the regulatory jurisdiction of the Saco River Corridor Act. It was also very important for us to have each municipality represented. Although at this point it is financially impossible for us to physically take a water sample in each municipality, our testing locations do provide all municipalities with data that represents the waters flowing through their community. As the program grows we continually research additional site locations.