Portland's dog owners seem to be doing a better job these days of scooping up their pets' poops.

But the city's Public Works Department is not exactly jumping for joy.

That's because, while it's much easier to navigate the city's sidewalks, there is still a whole lot of doggy doo ending up in the city's storm drains and waterways, all wrapped up nicely in plastic bags.

"They go all through the trouble of picking it up," said John Emerson, the department's wastewater coordinator. "Then, rather taking it home with them, they'll flip it into the storm drain."

Those left to clean the resulting mess say dog walkers probably figure the bags of poop will go directly from the storm drains to the city's sewage treatment plant. But about half of the city's storm drains lead instead to places like Capisic Brook, the Presumpcot River, the Fore River and Casco Bay, they said.

"Dog bags have been a particular problem as of late," Emerson said.

But this pet peeve also represents a much bigger problem facing the city and Maine's other urban centers.

Anything that's spilled on a road, dripped on a parking lot, flicked out a car window, poured in a storm drain or spread on a lawn can ultimately be washed away by storm runoff and flushed into streams and rivers.

"Storm water is a huge problem. It's one of the largest pollutant sources that we have in the state of Maine," said David Ladd, storm water coordinator for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

The runoff can carry everything from toxic antifreeze and pesticides to road sand, and each pollutant does its own kind of damage. In the case of pet waste, the problem is bacteria, pathogens and nutrients that can accumulate and overwhelm smaller streams and whatever lives in them.

Portland is the largest of 28 urban centers in Maine that are required under federal rules to clean up their storm water. The city, in fact, is under the gun to complete a new cleanup plan by the end of the year. It has to come up with especially aggressive measures to protect Capisic Brook, which is not meeting even the state's minimal standards for water quality due to the pollution, Ladd said.

The plan will include finding and eliminating wastewater discharges into the storm sewers, cleaning streets and parking lots, erosion controls and public education. Some communities have painted "no dumping" signs next to storm drains or mailed pleas directly to registered dog owners.

"Outreach and education is going to be a huge part," said Doug Roncarati, associate engineer in the city's Public Works Department. The goal is to persuade people to carry their poop bags home and throw them in the trash.

It'll be a challenge. The city has about 6,000 storm drains, making them a lot easier to find than trash cans.

It's common to look into a storm drain and find it clogged with plastic bags full of poop, Roncarati said. City workers who have the dirty duty of cleaning debris out of those basins are mostly coming up with leaves these days, although there are still plenty of doggie bags and other trash mixed in.

Pet poop isn't the only pollutant getting dumped or flushed into the storm drains and streams. But it may be the easiest to keep out, experts say, especially because so much of it is already getting cleaned up once.

"We got people to pick it up, which is the first step." Now, Roncarati said, they just have to hold it until they get home.

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