Pig fecal bacteria in Brooklin linked to selectman’s farm

DNA testing confirms pig feces as a source of pollutant in Herrick Bay, report says

Herrick Bay in Brooklin. Photo by John Epstein.

By John Epstein

BROOKLIN—An effort by Brooklin’s shellfish committee to improve the water in Herrick Bay has led to the discovery that feces from pigs owned by the chairman of the town’s select board have contaminated the water, according to reports gathered by the group.

The revelation comes after water samples collected by members of the town’s shellfish committee were sent to Maine Maritime Academy for testing, using equipment that can identify specific animal source of fecal contamination through DNA analysis.

The select board chair and owner of the pig farm, David Reiley, said he is aware of the issue. He secured a $12,000 grant from the US Department of Agriculture to pay for a remediation analysis at his farm near the head of the bay. He also said he plans to move his 30 pigs to another area of his 20-acre farm to reduce the contamination.

Closed bay

Herrick Bay was once abundant with clams and urchins. But over the years, large portions of the bay have been subject to periodic closures due to pollution. While part of the bay is now open to shellfishing, the part of it near Reiley’s farm where a small stream enters the water is not. 

During the Covid pandemic, members of the Brooklin Shellfish Conservation Committee began gathering water samples from Herrick Bay and delivering them to Maine’s Department of Marine Resources for testing. Prior to the pandemic, DMR, part of whose mission is to “identify and assess the impacts of pollution sources on shellfish growing areas,” had gathered the samples directly.

“But there were accessibility issues [during the pandemic]. DMR needed to limit staff visits to individual towns,” said David Tarr, who serves as chair of the town’s shellfish committee. 

So members of the committee, including Tarr, Si Balch and Jon Hopkins, took matters into their own hands, climbing into kayaks and skiffs to gather samples to hand off to state employees on a monthly basis, first at DMR offices in Lamoine and later at the Brooklin General Store. That arrangement continues to this day.

But DMR testing is limited in scope.

“[It] only tests specifically for the fecal coliform E. coli and we are not able to determine the species of animal responsible,” said DMR scientist Hannah Horecka, who consults with the shellfish committee.

Tarr fishes for scallops and lobsters, and once gathered previously abundant clams and urchins from Herrick Bay. But over the years, large portions of the bay have been subject to periodic closures due to pollution. He and other committee members, in an effort to maximize water quality and expand the opportunities for shellfishing, decided to send out samples to be analyzed with more in-depth testing methods. 

“We were sending them to the University of New Hampshire for a few years,” Tarr said. “Then we started sending them to Maine Maritime Academy. They have better equipment.”

Si Balch, a member of Brooklin’s shellfish committee, collecting water samples last winter on Herrick Bay to be sent to Maine's Department of Marine Resources. Photo courtesy of David Tarr.

DNA analysisFarm with pigs near a feeder stream

Tarr said that MMA tested water samples using DNA analysis, a more precise method than previous protocols used for Herrick Bay water samples. Students at the Castine-based academy tested the samples under the supervision of LeAnn Whitney, a professor of oceanography who holds a Ph.D. in cellular microbiology.

Those MMA water sample tests, first conducted in 2024, showed contamination in the bay, which in part was attributable to swine fecal bacteria.

In a telephone interview with The Rising Tide, Whitney said the testing results were “qualitative, not quantitative,” meaning that the bacteria count per liter of water was not determined. In other words, while contaminants emanating from pig feces were found in the water, the volume is unclear.

“We used molecular tools designed to detect the presence of fecal indicator bacteria for human, cattle, and dog, in addition to swine. All were detected, but not consistently (meaning that at each sampling site triplicate samples were taken, but we didn’t consistently detect human, cattle, and dog from each replicate),” Whitney said in a follow-up email.

The findings were based on water samples found near the head of the bay where Watson Brook drains into Herrick Bay. The Brooklin shellfish committee members noted the issue in its Oct. 2, 2024 meeting minutes, stating that “property owners near the stream had been informed of the test results.”

According to the minutes of its November 6, 2024 meeting, the shellfish committee then “discussed the finding of probable swine-related e-coli in the stream sampling.” The minutes further note that “(t)he owner of a possible source is working with a conservation agency to determine if his animals are the source and what remediation and best practices could alleviate the problem.”

DMR’s Horecka, who attended the meeting virtually, advised the committee to await the recommendation of the conservation agency. 

Both committee chair Tarr and committee member Jon Hopkins confirmed that the property owner discussed at the meeting is David Reiley, the chair of the town’s select board and the owner of a farm where pigs are raised.

Actions taken to address the problem 

In a telephone interview with The Rising Tide, Reiley, who has lived with his family in Brooklin for 40 years, discussed his 20-acre former dairy farm off Old County Road, which he bought about eight years ago. Reiley said his farm is near Watson Brook, which feeds into the head of Herrick Bay near the intersection of Bay Road and Flye Point Road..

“I raise about 30 pigs,” he said, “and a couple dozen chickens.”  Reiley sells his pork to local provisioners and private customers.

He said that after learning of the water quality findings presented to the shellfish committee, he submitted an application to the Natural Resource Conservation Service, a division of the United States Department of Agriculture, and received a $12,000 grant. He used most of the funds to pay for a remediation analysis from the Belfast-based firm Northern Tilth, which provides organic waste technical services. 

“They developed a soil management plan,” Reiley said. That plan includes moving the pigs to parts of the farm that are less susceptible to run off and paving their pens with concrete to better control manure clean up.

Reiley said he has applied for another grant to implement the remediation plan.

“NRCS is a federal agency and everything is being held up by the government shutdown,” Reiley said.

In the meantime, the Brooklin Shellfish Committee continues to monitor the water quality of Herrick Bay in partnership with Maine’s Division of Marine Resources. In an email to The Rising Tide, Horecka, the DMR scientist said that water quality has been improving and clam flat closures have been reduced at Herrick Bay.