Yearly Archives: 2013

09 April 2013: Thoughts on the new Minimum Flows Recommendation

The new Minimum Flows Recommendation (see Clary Lake Assessment 3-Apr-13) gives me pause for thought.

First, I’m not quite sure how they came up with this- it appears to be based in large part upon section 6 of Chapter 587, the Standard Allowable Alteration method of determining required water levels in Class GPA (Great Pond Act) waters which however discriminates between a 1′ draw down from April 1st through July 31st and another 1′ draw down (for a total of 2′) between August 1st and March 31st as opposed to a total maximum draw down of 2′.

Second, the document quotes some numbers from the bathymetric survey (the figures 17% of the total lake volume and 14% of the total lake surface area come directly from the data table) but does not arrive at a draw down corresponding to the 25% volume reduction or the 25% area reduction. I’m not complaining, but why? Are they perhaps aware of problems with the modeling of the wetland area?

Third, and I’ve already mentioned this in response to David Hodsdon’s comment on another post, they suggest that the figures they’ve come up with are ONLY intended to protect the main basin of the lake:

Recommended within basin water levels are protective for the maintenance of suitable Water quality, resident fish and Wildlife habitat, and prevention of shoreline erosion. However, it is quite apparent that significant dewatering of valuable Wetland habitat will result in the vicinity of the outlet stream, above the dam.

What’s up with that? One can’t lower the water level in the basin without also lowering the water level in the marsh. How can a 2′ draw down be protective of water quality, resident fish and Wildlife habitat, etc., and yet contribute to “significant dewatering of valuable wetland habitat”?

This sentence is a new addition to the minimum flows recommendation they prepared a year ago.

Fourth and finally, they list minimum outflows which must be met unless inflows are less. How are we supposed to measure inflows? I assume if you’re letting water out and the lake is not falling, then inflows equal outflows. If you’re letting water out and the lake is falling, then outflows are greater than inflows. Finally, if you’re letting water out and the lake is rising, you’re not letting out enough water. This hit-or-miss approach seems amateurish and error prone. Surely there is a better way!

There is: We install a top weir in the dam with stop logs at some level such as 12″ below the top of the dam and walk away and let mother nature take care of it. I wonder what they’ll think of such a plan.

It is also interesting to note that the minimum flow figures are identical to those published a year ago.

Filed under Petition News and Technical Lake Stuff with a hint of Editorial.

09 April 2013: DEP Procedural Order #5 Bathymetric Data – ADDENDUM

Just received this email from Beth Callahan:

Per the directive of the Presiding Officer, the attached documents are being sent to you for your review and comment. Parties may submit written questions or comments on the documents no later than May 9, 2013. Questions and comments must be copied to all parties on the Service List. If additional time is needed to review the documentation, please send your request for additional review time along with a reasonable alternative submittal date to me no later than May 6, 2013, and copy all parties on the Service List. Subsequently, the attached documents and all comments received will be added to the administrative record of the Clary Lake Water Level Petition, #L-22585-36-B-N.

The first document contains comments from the Maine Emergency Management Agency regarding the Clary Lake Dam’s current hazard classification. The second document is a revised minimum flow recommendation submitted by the Department’s Division of Environmental Assessment. This recommendation is based upon the regulations outlined in the Department’s Chapter 587 for Instream Flow and Lake and Pond Water Levels and also the data gathered from the Department’s September 2012 bathymetric survey of Clary Lake.

The Attached documents:

I’ll comment as soon as I’ve had a chance to review the material.

08 April 2013: Yet Another KJ Article: “Clary Lake dam’s owner wants out, forcing towns’ hands in dispute”

Paul Koenig of the Kennebec Journal has written another article about the Clary Lake dam:

Clary Lake dam’s owner wants out, forcing towns’ hands in dispute

Paul Koenig called me last week to talk about the latest petition. “He wants to get rid of it, and we want it,” Fergusson said. “What can go wrong?”

Hehehe… great quote 🙂

I’ve posted a copy on the web site:

08-April-2013-Kennebec_Journal_article

08 April 2013: Photo Gallery Bugs, Uploads

The software that creates and manages the photo galleries has included a bug that usually, but not always, incorrectly handles photo meta information- picture date, camera model, exposure, etc. As a result, the image date is often set to 01 January 1970 regardless of when the actual picture was taken. This makes it a little hard to sort galleries by date, the preferred method. I’ve implemented a fix of sorts that now gives newly added pictures the correct date but it didn’t fix the dates of the existing images. I could just upload all the pictures again but that’s a lot like work. I think I’ll just wait for a real bug fix from the developers that also retroactively fixes existing image dates. Should be soon. In the mean time, you’ll have to put up with oddly-organized photo galleries.

The floating bog, picture by Steve Viti.

Steve Viti incidentally uploaded a lovely picture taken over by the floating bog.

The “Recent Pictures” box over on the side bar should show you the most recently added pictures.

07 April 2013: Preparing Petitioner’s Response to DEP’s Bathymetric Survey

I’ve finished my assessment of the bathymetric survey and have begun preparing my comments. I wish I could tell you that that survey is fantastic and I love it. I cannot. I feel that it is deeply flawed. As a (retired) Maine Professional Land Surveyor I am perhaps uniquely qualified to evaluate the survey, having made (and checked) numerous contour maps over the years both directly from data collection to finish drafting and indirectly by establishing horizontal and vertical control for large mapping projects involving aerial photography. I know what to look for and I know what I’m talking about.

I’ll leave it there for now. I’d like the Department to read about my allegations directly before I post anything publicly. Theoretically I have until the 17th of April to submit comments on the survey but I’d really like to get them in the mail tomorrow. I’ll upload it here as soon as I’ve sent it out.

On another note, David Hodsdon combined the Clary Lake depth points document with the bathymetric survey in one convenient and easy-to-view jpeg image which I’ve uploaded to Google Drive. Thanks David. I’ll post it to the Maps Charts & Graphs page later.

04 April 2013: Bathymetric Survey Data update

It turns out the Clary Lake Sensor Data spreadsheet that we received yesterday wasn’t corrupt, I just couldn’t open an Excel 2007 (.xlsx) file. David Hodsdon was kind enough to convert it to an older more generic Excel file (.xls) and send it to me, and I can open it fine. Before you click on the link, keep in mind that the spreadsheet consists of 3265 rows of data consisting of 21 columns each. Not what you call exciting reading. This is the actual data collected- depth, latitude, longitude, etc.

Clary Lake Sensor Data from bathymetric survey converted to Google Docs format

I’ve posted this document on Google Docs. I’m trying it out as a way of providing fast document access. Let me know what you think. All 3 documents are posted on the Maps Charts & Graphs page, under the Charts and Data main menu heading.

03 April 2013: FOA Request, Preliminary Survey Reaction, odds and ends and end of the day wrap up.

Well it’s been quite a day- a couple of days actually, a lot of activity all of a sudden. Of course, it’s not quite 3pm so it’s entirely likely that something else will land in my lap before dark. Anyways, there are a few things I want to pass on before I forget. First, I received an email from DEP this morning about a FOA request:

The Department of Environmental Protection has received a Freedom of Access Request regarding communications between Department staff and individuals associated with the Clary Lake Level Petition. The records responsive to this request will be available by the end of this week. If you are interested in reviewing the documents, you may make an appointment with the Department’s File Room by calling 207-287-7843.

One has to wonder why, if Pleasant Pond Mill LLC is committed to being relieved of dam ownership, why are they bothering with an FOA request? Perhaps they are just hedging their bets, looking for ways to shoot down our petition. This doesn’t mean they’re not seriously pursuing their own petition for release from dam ownership, does it?

Bathymetric Survey

I have not really had the time to go over the bathymetric survey in detail but my initial reaction is that it is somewhat flawed. More about this when I’ve had a chance to go over the survey and data in detail and have been able to discuss it with some other people.

Ice Out?

On a lighter note, the ice shelf hugging my shoreline this afternoon finally succumbed to wind and wave action, breaking up and floating away a little over an hour ago. And then just a bit ago a long thin slab of ice drifted in from some place and settled in against my shoreline. It has already broken up and floated away as I type. The only ice left is a bunch of slush that has washed up down at the far east end of the lake. From other reports I’ve gotten from others around the lake and what I’m seeing out side my window now, David Hodsdon will be hard pressed not to call ice out today, 03 April, 2013.

User Picture Submissions

Finally to wrap up this post, Trudi Hodgkins sent along a couple of recent pictures which I have posted in the User Uploads- Clary Images gallery. They should be showing up auto-magically in the “Recent Pictures” box in the side bar as the gallery default sort is by date, descending i.e., newest pictures at the front (or top?) of the gallery. And here, to the left and the right, are the thumbnails. So you don’t have to hunt around for them. Thanks Trudi!

I’m done.

03 April 2013: DEP Releases Bathymetric Survey Results

True to their word, DEP, in accordance with Procedural Order #5 of Department File #L-22585-36-B-N, Clary Lake Water Level Petition, have released the data and results from a bathymetric survey conducted by the Department in September 2012. I’ve barely had a chance to look at this myself. Of the files sent, the main document you’re going to want to download the depth/contour map:

Bathymetric Survey Contour Map

I’ve barely had a chance to look at it myself. They also sent along 2 other files including a spread sheet which appears to be corrupt (I’ve been unable to open it) and another aerial photo of the lake showing the point coverage of their data collection; it’s a very large (4+ megabytes) file so I won’t try to display it. I suggest you right click on the link and select “Save as”:

Clary-Lake-Depth-Points.pdf

I’ll post the spreadsheet for download when they send me a viable copy. They also sent along a revised Service List which you’re welcome to download if you wish. I wouldn’t bother, unless you’re on it 🙂

Pursuant to Procedural Order #5, parties may submit written questions or comments on the data no later than April 17, 2013. Questions or comments must be copied to all parties on the Service List.

03 April 2013: Update on the Petition for release from dam ownership

I spoke with Kathy Howatt this morning, she’s the DEP staff person in charge of the Pleasant Pond Mill LLC Petition for release from dam ownership. She said the petition was filed yesterday. This appears to conflict with state law which states that public notice of the intent to file a petition must be published in a paper (and provided to various people including lake shore owners) not more than 30 days before filing the petition. Such notice of intent has not be provided. So much for procedure.

Ms. Howatt said the Department has 15 days to determine if the petition is complete. She also said that the petition for release from dam ownership is completely separate and distinct from the water level petition and that at least for the time being both petitions would both be processed concurrently. However, she said the Department may at some point stay the water level petition proceedings for some specific period of time to provide the Department time to address the petition for release from dam ownership, and for the dam owner to find potential new owners of the dam. She did stress the fact that ultimately the outcome of the water level petition is independent of the outcome of the petition for release from dam ownership. For example, if Pleasant Pond Mill LLC were to find a new owner and transfer the dam to them, they would be off the hook but the new owner would be facing a pending water level order.

02 April 2013: Pleasant Pond Mill LLC Notifies DEP of their Intent to Petition for Release from Dam Ownership

On behalf of Pleasant Pond Mill LLC, Paul Kelley has filed a notice with the DEP stating his intent to file a Petition for Release from Dam Ownership or Water Level Maintenance. This is a statutory process described in MRSA 38 Chapter 5, Sub-Chapter 1, Article 6, §§ 901-908. Earlier this evening I attended the Whitefield Selectmen’s regular meeting and listened to them discuss the situation. Paul Kelley was there representing Pleasant Pond Mill LLC. Discussion mostly centered around the role the town would be playing in the petition process regarding public hearings, public notices, and notifying affected parties. Aaron Miller, town clerk had spoken with someone at the DEP about this petition and was led to believe that for the time being anyways, processing of the Clary Lake Water Level Petition would continue while this new petition is addressed. I will be making inquiries of my own later this week to confirm what to expect.

Here are copies of the certified letters that Pleasant Pond Mill has sent to the Selectmen, and the Town Clerk:

After the meeting Paul and I talked briefly and have agreed to maintain open lines of communication as we move forward in the hopes that a mutually agreeable solution to the problem can be found. I am cautiously optimistic.

About the Law

There are many privately owned dams in the State of Maine that belong to people who for various reasons don’t want to continue owning them. Usually the dams are in poor repair making them an expensive liability to own, and they may have water level orders on them (or pending water level orders) making the dams particularly unsavory to own and difficult if not impossible to sell, let alone give away. State law prevents dam owners from simply removing the dams, or abandoning them. Additional provisions in the law provide this petition process to help these unwilling dam owners find new owners for their unwanted property or, if no new owner can be found, allows them to be relieved of the burden of ownership. If a new owner for a dam cannot be found, the dam is removed.

Now clearly, the existence of this law with all it’s provisions suggests that dam owners are more often than not alienated from the various parties that might reasonably be expected to want to own the dam and that furthermore, guidance, rules, and rigid structure are often necessary to find the interested parties, get everyone together, and help them work out a mutually agreeable solution. Pleasant Pond Mill LLC clearly feels they are alienated and sees this petition process as the only way forward for them. They are certainly within their rights to take advantage of the provisions of the law to address the Clary lake dam problem.

Here’s a copy of the Petition application which lists the general information and procedures involved in the petition, the required information in the petition, and a copy of the notice of intent to file the petition:

Petition for Release from Dam Ownership or Water Level Maintenance

02 April 2013: Ice Almost Out

The ice is going out faster than I anticipated, which OK with me! The main basin is now ice-free with only a couple of hundred feet of ice left right along the southwest shore; my shoreline, as usual, is the last to open up. I don’t know what the east end of the lake looks like but I suspect there’s still ice down that end by the boat launch; it still looked pretty white yesterday afternoon when I drove by but there were signs it was breaking up.

David Hodsdon keeps track of the “official” ice-out date. Last year the lake became completely ice-free on 21 March which is on the early side. More normal is between the 2nd and 3rd week of April. Here are Ice-Out Records going back to 2001.

31March 2013: End of Month Summary

I’ve posted the final March 2013 water level chart. For the month, we got a paltry 1.22″ of precipitation which nonetheless brought the lake up a total of 17.78″ (runoff multiplier of 14x!) from where it started the month at -55.68″ below the top of the dam to -38.76″ below the top of the dam on March 18th. It has fallen only 2.5″ since then. The reason the lake rose so much from so little rain is because lake is so much smaller due to the low water level: when it rains, the water level really has nowhere to go but up. For comparison, when the lake is around 40″ below the top of the dam (where it is now), rising water tends to spread out over the drained wetlands, increasing the surface area but the water level, not so much.

30 March 2013: A lot like spring out there today, and other thoughts

Gorgeous day out there today, I’d say most of the north side of the lake is ice-free, perhaps about 1/4 of the lake total- enough so that open water is now easily visible on the web cam from over here on the south shore.

David Hodson and I stopped over yesterday afternoon take a look around and bumped into Doug Kinney. He said there’d been a pair of loons hanging around. Sure enough, we soon spotted one loon but it was too far off for me to get a picture. It is the earliest I’ve ever seen loons back on the lake. There were also plenty of other water fowl out swimming or wheeling overhead. At the rate ice is disappearing, I expect the lake will be ice-free within a week. Lousy weather could complicate that.

I’d like to thank those of you who corresponded with me about the recent article in the Lincoln County News. No, I don’t think Butch’s plan to have the dam removed stands a chance of happening; it’s just silly, as is his idea of “farming” the meadow. In the old days folks likely pastured some cows out there part of the year when it wasn’t flooded, and we know they cut meadow hay during a short window of opportunity in the early summer, but that’s about the extent of the “farming” that took place in Clark’s Meadow. We all know why Butch would like the water level kept low- his reasons are purely selfish. I will be sending a letter to the editor next week.

Some of you may have noticed that I went ahead and converted all the old legacy photo albums to new WordPress NextGen albums. I hadn’t planned on doing that but it turned out to be pretty easy. They offer more utility and convenience and do a better job of displaying pictures. Sadly, they don’t handle documents like PDF files of which there are a boatload on the site. I’ll have to look for another solution to manage and maintain those.

Finally, I stopped by the dam this afternoon to measure the outflow from the lake; came up with a figure of 35 cubic feet per second which is about what is expected with the lake level 40″± below the top of the dam. Have been wondering if there’s a way to estimate Clary outflows with any degree of accuracy using flow data from the USGS Sheepscot river gauging station located at the bottom of Grand Army Hill. More on this when I find some spare time.

Reminder: This coming Wednesday the 3rd DEP is supposed to distribute the results of the bathymetric survey they performed last September. Stay tuned 🙂

28 March 2013: Fergusson Response to recent Lincoln County News Article

I don’t have a lot to say about Frederick Duncan and his position on the Clary lake water level but I did want to respond to the article, before I move on. I like Butch and I respect his right to his opinion. As long as I’ve known him he’s been an advocate for lower water levels because of the impact that high water levels have on his use and enjoyment of his land. I understand. The 250′ shoreland zone infringes on his wood lot and limits what he can cut. Also, with parts of his property being in a resource protection district and adjoining mapped emergent wetlands and significant water fowl and wading bird habitat, he is further limited in what he can do with his property. I understand that too, and I acknowledge the fundamental unfairness of it while at the same time I welcome the protections afforded by these laws- laws intended to protect and safeguard valuable natural resources held in trust for all the people of the State of Maine.

Perhaps it is just too bad for him that he owns some of the most beautiful, sensitive, and vulnerable wildlife and wetland habitat on Clary Lake. As a fellow Clary lake shore owner with quite a bit of shore front property of my own, I am sympathetic to his plight: all of us who own land on or directly adjoining Clary lake have found that over the years our property rights have been increasingly limited by newer and more restrictive environmental and shoreland zoning regulations. We can’t cut the trees we might like to cut, we can’t build on our property where we’d necessarily like to build. But these regulations are intended to safeguard Clary lake and it’s associated wetland and wildlife habitat, and I have come to terms with their impact on my property rights. I am but a steward of my property which I hold in trust for future generations. I think the sooner Butch comes to terms with the reality of the situation and stops fighting a losing battle, the better off he’s going to be, because the Clary lake dam isn’t going away and the State isn’t going to let him drain wading bird habitat so he can plow up Clark’s Meadow.

28 March 2013: User Uploads, Galleries, Site Mods

After what is probably insufficient testing I have setup a Picture Upload Page. This allows you to upload your pictures directly to the site rather than having to email them to me as many of you have done in the past. Your uploads will remain sequestered until I’ve had a chance to check them out. When approved, they’ll appear in the User Uploads gallery. I do get an email when a picture has been uploaded but it might get overlooked. If you’ve uploaded a picture an it hasn’t shown up in 24 hours, email me.

The only real restriction on uploads is that you have to be a subscriber to the site, and be logged in to be able to use the uploader. That said, without doing extremely tedious sleuthing through log files (which I won’t bother with) I have no idea who uploaded a given picture unless you actually tell me you’ve done so. So. If you want your upload to be attributed to you, you better let me know who you are. A convenient way to do this is to use the contact/feedback form or type your name into the description field. Other instructions are included on the Picture Upload Page. Enjoy.

I’ve begun switching this years old-style Picassa web photo albums over to the new-style NextGen/Wordpress galleries. The existing albums from 2012 and before will remain available in the Picture Archives. I may convert the existing Clary Images album of picture submissions from the old site to the new format. Prepare to be surprised.

27 March 2013: Landowner opposes raising Clary Lake level

Butch Duncan has gotten himself in the paper. This article appeared in today’s Lincoln County News on page 16. Thanks to Jack Holland for bringing it to my attention.

26 March 2013: Playing With Photo Galleries

WordPress offers some pretty cool ways of managing and displaying photographs but I haven’t had much time to delve into the existing gallery features that are built into the system. I finally got around to doing just that over the last couple of days. I also added a 3rd party set of gallery functions which further extend the functionality of the built in galleries. The results are pretty impressive!

I’ve put together a Test Gallery just to see how it looks, and I’ve inserted one of the pictures from that gallery in this post:

Let me know how you like them. I doubt I’ll get around to converting all the old 2012 Photo Albums the WordPress Galleries but I think from here on I’ll be using them. Eventually I’ll have it set up so users of the site can upload their pictures too. All in due time.

23 March 2013: Branch Pond Petition, Odds and Ends

I got an email today from Brandon Kulik, the petition contact person for the Branch Pond water level petition. He said that DEP has scheduled a Public Hearing on their petition for Friday June 28th, time and place to be determined. Thought I’d pass that along for those of you who might want to go- I plan to attend to lend my support to their effort.

I’ve added that event and those that are now scheduled on our petition to the Association’s Event Calendar so that you can follow along. In a little over a week, things start up again and the next couple of months promise to be busy. Starting on April 3rd we receive the results of the bathymetric survey DEP performed the field work on last September 21st, and the new data resulting from that survey: a revised contour report, minimum flows recommendation, and maximum annual fluctuation. I have to believe that this new data and lake model based upon it is more accurate and better reflects the environmental impact of water level fluctuations on Clary Lake.

18 March 2013: Miscellaneous Site Updates and Changes

One of the nice features of running a site using WordPress is that there are a whole host of options, features, and other bells and whistles readily available and easily added to the site without a lot of work. Yesterday I added a feature-laden package to the site and have begun implementing some of the new functions. Many of these are back-end functions and only serve to simplify my life. Others affect how you interact with the site and what’s available. In no particular order:

You can now receive news posts by email. To be notified of new posts or comments, there are check boxes at the bottom of the Comment form. On the bottom right hand side bar is a form where you can enter your email address. Clicking submit engages a 2-step opt-in process which is quite simple. Opting out is equally simple. You can also easily manage your “subscription” on the WordPress.com web site. It works. You do not need to be registered on the Clary Lake Association web site to use this feature. Try it out!
If you only want to be notified of news posts and/or comments on a post, you’ll find check boxes at the bottom of the “post a comment” screen that you can check to be notified by email. This feature requires that you be logged into the site.
I’ve added a Feedback/Comment form under the About menu. It has fields for Name and Email Address but they’re not required so you can, if you wish, send a private, anonymous message to the webmaster (me).
I’ve cleaned up and simplified the side bar menu and moved the Site Login links to the top of the page, right under the weather graphic.
You’ll also notice at the bottom of the side bar menu are a couple of small images which you can click on to see a larger image. One will be a feature an image which I change from time to time. The other… well eventually I’m thinking of setting up a web cam on the lake. To that end I’ve setup up a rudimentary, non-automated mechanism just for fun, taking a picture out my office window with the camera I use for Skype and uploading it to the server. I’ll manually update it periodically when I get a chance- perhaps when I do my water level chart updates. Maybe some day we can even have a “Dam Cam” with real-time updates.
Beginning to implement Post Categories which allow you to sort posts into various bins for more convenient reading. These are accessible on the sidebar in a drop-down list which also shows post counts. Current categories are Site News, News, Petition News, and Uncategorized. I still have to go through existing posts and categorize or re-categorize them. Posts can be in multiple categories.
There is now a dynamic “To Top” button that magically appears on the bottom right-hand side of the page to give you a way to quickly and conveniently get back to the top of the page.

There are other features that I haven’t even investigated yet. Enough for now. I’ll update this post with comments as more stuff becomes available.

HOW MANY SPRINGS ARE THERE AROUND CLARY LAKE?

This is a large spring hole out in front of my property. with the lake level as low as it is, there is more opportunity to observe springs in the lake. I also have observed 4 or 5 more along the immediate shore. It has prompted me to wonder how many more there are around the lake. So, how about looking out in front of your property and report on any that you see. It will help in George’s and my efforts to understand more fully the dynamics of lake level variations. David