Yearly Archives: 2015

10 October 2015: Realtime access to Clary WebCam video now available

I’ve set up the Clary WebCam video feed to be accessible for remote viewing in real time over the internet. I mean, why not? If it turns out bandwidth usage is prohibitive or other problems materialize, I’ll shut it off but I seriously doubt we’ll have a problem. I can’t imagine too many people will want to camp out at their computers watching video of Clary Lake on the off chance they’ll see a bird fly by, or a fish jump, but you never can tell. The current static image, updated ever 2 minutes, will still be available on the WebCam page if that’s all you’re interested in.

There are various ways to connect to the camera. Regardless of which method you use to connect, you’ll have to login to the camera with the username guest and the password 123abc. Two easy ways to connect are: Continue reading →

09 October 2015: Clary Webcam back in operation

[dropcap]Thanks[/dropcap] to a generous donation from someone who wishes to remain anonymous, we have a new Clary Cam! It’s a Foscam model F19803P Outdoor Wireless IP camera (with 720P video) and it arrived this afternoon by UPS. I’ve been messing around with it at my desk this evening, and getting it configured. It is considerably more robust and sophisticated than the old camera (which was also a Foscam) but its software is pretty much identical which made the back end installation on the server a breeze. It was essentially a drop-in replacement. The old camera was actually an indoor webcam but it was quite happy to live outdoors under a small glass terrarium to keep the elements off it… this wasn’t a perfect arrangement. This new camera needs no such amenities. I expect I’ll have to wipe snow off the lens once in a while but otherwise it should be pretty much trouble free. Like the old camera, this on houses a 1.3 megapixel CCD with a 70° field of view generating pretty good looking 1280 x 720 pixel images.

Tonight the camera is sitting on my desk upstairs looking out the window- the picture above was taken this afternoon. I’ll install it outdoors tomorrow. I may or may not put it in the same place as the old camera: this camera has a better wireless receiver so where it is located is really limited to how long a power cord I decide to run. For now it’s going to upload a picture to the website every 2 minutes, and I may extend the hours of operation since this camera has an infrared light source which the manufacturer claims allows nighttime visibility up to 65′ (we’ll see how well that works). It can also be setup to allow people to login to the camera over the internet and view live video but I don’t think I’ll allow that because of the bandwidth requirements. Would be fun though…

05 October 2015: Miscellaneous Site Updates

I’ve revised/updated a couple of pages on the site and want to bring the changes to your attention. First some time in the past 2 weeks the data table on the Clary Lake Water Monitoring Data page and needed to be rebuilt. I ended up replacing it with a really cool table system that allows you to do stuff like sort the data on any column. As it turns out, being able to sort the data can reveal some interesting trends.

The other change is to the Clary Lake Water Level Charts page. Though it doesn’t really look all that different, the changes to the back end system are significant. Updates are now mostly automated making it much easier for me to maintain and update the page. The most time consuming part is still walking down to the lake to make the measurement which is a ritual I have become so used to I don’t even think about it any more. Also, page updates (which happen almost daily) can be done without the site cache clearing itself which will improve overall site performance. The cache will still clear periodically, but it no longer does so daily simple because of a minor page update.

One of these days I’ll get a new camera for the Clary Lake webcam. There’s currently no money in the budget for it.

01 October 2015: End of September rain event impacts lake water quality

Over 4″ of rain fell in less than 24 hours on September 30, 2015 resulting in severe sedimentation of Clary Lake from shore erosion and stream scouring. This short video show the stream at the Jefferson/Whitefield town line on the south side of the lake. What isn’t really evident in the video is the plume of sediment washing out into the lake.

Needless to say, if the lake level were where it should be this time of year (between 1′ and 2′ below the top of the dam) this rain event would have had little impact on lake water quality.

01 October 2015: September 2015 water level chart archived

I’ve archived the September 2015 water level chart (at left) which clearly shows the impact of the recent drought conditions. The lake level averaged -65.86″ below the top of the dam and never varying more than ±1″ from that level until the last day of the month when we received over 4″ of rain in less than 24 hours. By 7:30 PM on the 30th the rain had stopped but it was still way too windy to get an accurate measurement of the lake level though it appears it had come up about 12″. No doubt today will see an additional rise in lake level but I wouldn’t expect it to come up too much more because a lot of what would normally have run off into the lake ended up soaking into the very dry ground.

And just like that, we went from 1.52″ of rain to 5.52″ for the month. The extreme runoff has resulted in considerable lake sedimentation resulting from shore erosion and stream bed scouring. If the lake level were where it should be this time of year (between 1′ and 2′ below the top of the dam) this rain event would have had little impact on lake water quality. I shot a short video yesterday afternoon showing a flooded stream entering the lake, which I’ll post later.

29 September 2015: Clary Lake Association sends letter of appreciation to Whitefield Select Board

CLA President and meeting moderator Malcolm Burson sits between State Representative Deb Sanderson and State Senator Christopher Johnson near the end of the August 26th meeting of Clary Lake shore owners and town of Whitefield representatives. Photograph by George Fergusson 26 August 2015

Clary Lake Association President Malcolm Burson, on behalf of the entire Association membership, has sent a short but sweet letter to the Whitefield Select Board thanking them for their recent letter to the Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection. The Select Board’s letter did more than just voice support for the letter jointly written by Representative Deb Sanderson and Senator Christopher Johnson, they went on to describe in no uncertain terms the reasons for their concerns over the Clary Lake water level crisis, their dissatisfaction with the State’s failure to take enforcement action, and their hope that the State do everything they can to speed the process along. The Town of Whitefield Select Board which has always been supportive of the Clary Lake Association has now added their voice to the growing chorus of voices calling for a rapid resolution to this crisis:

CLA President’s Letter to Whitefield Board 09-28-2015

The Town of Jefferson has every bit as much at stake as Whitefield, and more, and we’re sincerely hoping their Select Board will take similar action soon.

A few Super Moon Total Lunar Eclipse Photos

The September 27, 2015 Super Moon total lunar eclipse about 15 minutes before totality. Notice the 3 stars below the moon! Photographed by George Fergusson using a Nikon D3300 DSLR at the prime focus of a 6″ f/5 newtonian reflector at the Brower Observatory in Whitefield.

About 20 people including half a dozen children showed up at the Brower Observatory the last Sunday night to observe the Super Moon total lunar eclipse. There were a number of telescopes set up to observe the moon. The main function of a telescope is to collect light and usually bigger is better but since the moon is so bright, you don’t really need a big telescope to get good views of it. I set up my 6″ f/5 Newtonian reflector that I built back in 1975 and attached my Nikon D3300 DSLR camera at the prime focus and took a whole bunch of photographs, a few of which I’ve uploaded to the User Uploads gallery. The moon can be a challenging object to photograph because it’s very bright and usually lacks contrast. These came out nicely I thought:

David Hodsdon also uploaded a lovely picture he took of the moon as it rose across the lake from his home.

The Central Maine Astronomical Society (CMAS) holds star parties at the Brower Observatory every couple of months. Star parties are open to the general public and you need not own a telescope, all you really need to bring is your interest and imagination. CMAS also periodically hosts star parties at the Galaxy Quest Observatory in Lincolnville and at the Damariscotta River Association‘s headquarters at 110 Belvedere Road in Damariscotta. I‘ll post CMAS events at the Brower Observatory on our Events Calendar.

Brower Observatory to host Super Moon Total Eclipse Party

eclipse_montage-espenak Most of you have probably heard about the upcoming total lunar eclipse. The Central Maine Astronomical Society will be hosting a Total Lunar Eclipse party which is open to club members and the public at the Brower Observatory in Whitefield this coming Sunday evening, September 27th starting at about 8:00 PM. The eclipse proper starts at 9:07 PM EST and will last for a couple of hours. There will be telescopes set up to observe the eclipse. Some people will be trying to photograph the event, but mostly, people will be standing around, socializing, and gawking at the moon. Bring binoculars and dress warmly.

The Brower Observatory is located off Route 126 on the Fergusson property in Whitefield. The driveway is on the south side of the road next to 3 mailboxes directly across the road from the Fergusson farmhouse and about 300′ west of the Jefferson Town Line. Hard to miss. There will be a sign. The link at left includes directions.

Here’s a great link for information about the eclipse:

http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2015-september-28

24 September 2015: Whitefield selectmen urge DEP to enforce Clary Lake water level order

Last week I attended the Whitefield Select Board meeting on behalf of the Clary Lake Association to ask the Selectmen to write a letter voicing their support of the letter recently written by Representative Sanderson and Senator Johnson. They said they would. At their regularly scheduled meeting earlier this week the Whitefield Select Board members reviewed the letter and all 5 signed it. The letter is to be sent to parties at DEP and the Office of the Attorney General, and to the Lincoln County Commissioners. Copies of the letter will also be widely distributed by email perhaps as early as today. It’s a great letter that does more than just voice the Select Board’s support of the Sanderson/Johnson letter. The letter details their special concerns including lack of access to water for fire fighting purposes, the impact of the low water conditions of the town’s residents use and enjoyment of Clary Lake, and the loss of valuable wetland and wildlife habitat:

Whitefield Select Board Letter to DEP/AG 09-22-2015

This is not the first time the Whitefield Select Board has written letters regarding the Clary Lake water level crisis. In late April 2013 shortly after Pleasant Pond Mill LLC filed a petition for release from dam ownership or water level maintenance, they wrote a letter to DEP and later, in August 2014, they wrote a letter to AAG Thomas Harnett. I am grateful that the Whitefield Select Board has been so supportive. I will be meeting with the Jefferson Select Board in the near future to ask them to write a letter in support of the

Lincoln County News staff writer Abigail Adams was at the last Whitefield Select Board meeting and has written an excellent article in this week’s Lincoln County News about the letter. The article includes some good background material:

Whitefield selectmen urge DEP to enforce Clary Lake water level order

24 September 2015: Grand Army Weather Station coming back online

Tim Chase’s Grand Army Weather Station website has been down for a few years. I’ve been helping him get it back up and running. Today we swapped in a new camera and got the Webcam working again. The picture at left shows Tim this morning up on the roof of his house at the top of Grand Army Hill. This new camera is much better than the original one. The view out over the Sheepscot River valley from up there is outstanding. I’ve added a Grand Army Weather Cam page on this site, because I can. You’ll find the link to it under the Pictures main menu heading (under the Clary Lake Webcam). Later this fall I’ll be helping Tim get his new weather station up and running online. Stay tuned!

22 September 2015 Site Update: New Caching Engine installed to speed up page loads

Websites are a lot like cars and webmasters are a lot like gear heads. We’re always trying to make our websites look better, do more, and go faster. Once upon a time, websites mostly consisted of a bunch of static text files linked together with the relatively simple HTML markup language to format the text, insert pictures, and make links to other pages and sites. Now days, most web pages are actually dynamically generated by program code usually executing on the server side and sometimes both on the server and in your web browser, and it’s done each time, when a visitor requests the page. This can add considerably load to the web server and slow down the generation of pages. I’m sure you’ll agree, there’s nothing worse than a slow website.

One easy way to speed up a website is to implement page caching so that frequently requested pages are dynamically generated once by a caching engine and then served up many times, rather than being dynamically generated by the server each time the page is requested. This reduces server load and increases page delivery times. Some caching engines can also cache web pages as compressed files which can be delivered as-is if the visitor’s browser knows how to handle compressed files. There are other tricks to improve performance, and you can get some impressive speed improvements using these techniques. I’ve been using a rudimentary caching engine on this site for some time now but I decided to look at other options and after some research I settled on a new higher performance engine which promises noticeable speed improvement. Best of all, it’s free.

The downside to caching and the reason I’m posting about this at all is that you run the risk of delivering old content if the caching engine doesn’t pick up on the fact that a page has been changed. I don’t expect this to be a problem but wanted everyone to be aware of what’s going on here, server-side. Browsers also cache files so the problem can be compounded. Usually, hitting the reload button on your browser will result in getting the most up-to-date file. This new caching engine is pretty good about deciding when it should deliver a cached page and when it should generate a new page. This new caching engine is highly configurable: certain pages (such as our funky Webcam page) can be designated “Don’t Cache.”

POST UPDATED: 14 September 2015 Attorneys for PPM & AQF file reply in support of their motion to amend

I’ve updated the 14 September 2015 post entitled: Attorneys for PPM & AQF file reply in support of their motion to amend to correct a bad link to the September 11th document filed by the lawyers for Pleasant Pond Mill LLC and Aquafortis Associates LLC.

In the future, if you encounter a bad or broken link on this site PLEASE bring it to my attention. Email me or leave comment. Thank you.

17 September 2015: Legislators Urge DEP to Enforce Clary Lake Water Level Order

There’s an article in this week’s Lincoln County News by staff writer Abigail Adams about the letter that Representative Sanderson and Senator Johnson wrote last week. Judging from the article, it appears Sanderson and Johnson did end up meeting with Paul Kelley. Johnson is quoted as saying “We have a much better understanding of his perspective, but we didn’t reach any agreement on actions that would get us closer to a resolution without the courts.” Butch Duncan was also quoted as saying “The depleted water level has given me my land back. Now I have a meadow instead of a swamp.” To each his own I guess. Anyways, here’s the article:

Legislators Urge DEP to Enforce Clary Lake Water Level Order

17 September 2015: Webcam on the blink

Sometime in the past few days the webcam electronics went haywire and stopped providing full color output. I’ve adjusted the camera for black and white images which will have to do because I’m not buying a new camera anytime soon. The webcam is actually a popular site feature with people who can’t just look out the window to observe what’s going on out on the lake. Eventually I’d like to setup a camera that people can login to and operate remotely, but that’s a ways off. In the meantime, enjoy Clary Lake in Black & White 🙂

15 September 2015: Two Maine lawmakers say DEP has failed to protect Clary Lake

Paul Kelley standing in front of the Clary Lake dam. Photograph by George Fergusson, 8 August 2007

There is an article in today’s Central Maine Papers (Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel) by staff writer Paul Koenig about the letter written by Representative Sanderson and Senator Johnson last week (see: Representative Sanderson, Senator Johnson send letter to DEP). The article suggests the DEP has failed to protect Clary Lake by not taking enforcement action on the water level order issued by the Department over a year and a half ago, in late January 2014. The article acknowledges why DEP has not taken enforcement action, but that their failure to do anything nonetheless is “clearly in violation” of their legislative mandate to protect and prevent diminution of the state’s natural environment. Because the Water Level Order (WLO) is under appeal in Superior Court, if the DEP were to attempt traditional enforcement action, lawyers for the dam owner would likely request a stay of the Order from the court, and they would probably get one, because that’s how these things roll. However, the article points out that in light of the severe ongoing impact low water is having on Clary Lake shore owners and the sensitive lake environment, they are entitled to equitable relief in the form of a high water level while the court case plays out. Equitable relief as I understand it is a judgment that the Court would issue in lieu of the Department taking actual enforcement action. Actions by the DEP such as entering the property to physically implement the terms of the order are provided for in the statute.

Two Maine lawmakers say DEP has failed to protect Clary Lake

The article quotes Paul Kelley, owner of the company that owns the Clary Lake dam as saying that one of the reasons why he can’t raise the water level of Clary Lake is because doing so “would expose Pleasant Pond Mill LLC to potential lawsuits from upstream and the owner of the mill property below the dam.” I’ve always dismissed Kelley’s concerns over being sued by Aquafortis Associates LLC because, really, who believe his partner, Richard Smith, is going to sue him for high water damage? Continue reading →

14 September 2015: Attorneys for PPM & AQF file reply in support of their motion to amend [UPDATED]

Late last Friday afternoon attorneys for Pleasant Pond Mill LLC (PPM) and Aquafortis Associates LLC (AQF) filed their final brief in support of their motion to amend their petition for review of final agency action (the water level order appeal), and a sur-reply to the State’s motion to dismiss. The reply was expected; the sur-reply was not, at least not by me. For anyone trying to follow what is going on in these proceedings, things sure have gotten confusing. Among other provocative claims, this latest filing challenges the State’s position that PPM no longer exists, instead claiming that PPM is an “existing legal entity in Good Standing.” The filing ended with a request for a hearing at the Court’s discretion to respond to any questions that the Court may have regarding the pending motions:

9-11-2015 Petitioners’ Reply in support of their motion to amend and sur-reply to DEP motion to dismiss [UPDATED LINK]

Don’t know what a sur-reply is? Neither did I. From the USLegal.com website:

Sur-reply is an additional reply to a motion filed after the motion has already been fully briefed. For example, a legal document such as a motion is filed by one party (filing party) requesting the court to enter an order. The other party (responding party) responds to the motion. The filing party then replies to the responding party’s response. Some courts allow the responding party to file a sur-reply to the filing party’s reply to the responding party’s response.

I was under the impression that once a motion has been fully briefed, that respondents have to ask a judge for permission to make an additional filing. I guess it remains to be seen if Lincoln County Superior Court is one of those courts that allow responding parties to file a sur-reply.

11 September 2015: Representative Sanderson, Senator Johnson send letter to DEP

State Representative Deb Sanderson contemplating the Clary Lake dam during a site visit on August 10th. Photograph by George Fergusson 10 August 2015

As they promised at the town hall meeting held back on August 27th, Representative Deb Sanderson (R) and Senator Christopher Johnson (D), in an outstanding show of bi-partisan cooperation, have jointly drafted a letter which was sent earlier this week to the Department of Environmental Protection’s current Acting Commissioner, Avery Day. The letter, which included an 11 page attachment of captioned photographs and water level charts illustrating the low water conditions around Clary Lake, was also sent to Deputy DEP Commissioner Heather Parent, Attorney General Janet T. Mills, Assistant Attorney General Scott Boak, IF&W Commissioner Chandler Woodcock, and the Lincoln County Commissioners.

Representative Sanderson asked that the letter and attachments be embargoed and not be released to the general public until today. Later this morning I’ll be emailing digital copies of the letter and attachments to the towns of Whitefield and Jefferson, the Lincoln County News, the Kennebec Journal, and a number of other interested parties. They’re also being posted here.

I think the letter is outstanding and I have no doubt that being jointly written and signed by a Republican Representative and a Democratic Senator, this letter will raise eyebrows in Augusta and will be taken very seriously. Such bi-partisan cooperation by two legislators who normally don’t see eye to eye on much of anything is truly heartening, and I applaud them both for their willingness to put aside their ideological differences and come together on this most pressing matter. On behalf of the Clary Lake Association and the People of the State of Maine, I wish to sincerely thank Representative Sanderson and Senator Johnson for their help, regardless of the outcome of this effort.

The letter concludes with a request for “equitable relief” as opposed to enforcement action. Equitable relief is a legal term referring to a court-granted remedy and is not the same thing as enforcement.

At the town hall meeting, Sanderson and Johnson also offered to meet with Paul Kelley to discuss a possible resolution of the Clary Lake water level crisis. I understand that they planned to meet earlier this week, but I don’t know what, if anything, came of that meeting.

07 September 2015: Is Metaphyton growth in Clary Lake a cause for concern?

If you’ve spent any time on Clary Lake this summer you’ve seen those green “cotton candy” clouds of algae floating around near the shore. These blooms of algae are most commonly found in shallow (littoral) areas of lakes and are comprised of free-floating masses of filamentous green algae (primarily Spirogyra, Gonium, and Zygnema) and is referred to collectively as Metaphyton. Because they’re unattached (free-floating) they tend to move around with wind and water currents so one day you might not see any on your shore line and the next the bottom could be covered with it. Metaphyton masses will often get entangled with sticks, rocks, mooring lines, and other pond plants and then they don’t move around but remain in one place. Scientists are still learning about what influences the growth of metahphyton and its significance and potential impact on water quality besides the obvious “yuck” factor. Metaphyton can form dense mats that trap gasses given off by plant decomposition, causing them float to the surface where wind and waves cause them to break up and dissipate. Continue reading →

03 September 2015: DEP files their response to petitioner’s opposition to dismiss and motion to amend

On August 21st attorneys for Pleasant Pond Mill LLC and Aquafortis Associates LLC (“Petitioners”) filed their opposition to the State’s July 6th motion to dismiss, and another motion to amend the original 80C petition (see PPM/AQF file opposition to State’s motion, amend original petition). The DEP had 2 weeks to respond. Today, one day early, lawyers with the Attorney General’s Office fired back, filing their reply to Petitioner’s objections to their motion to dismiss and in a separate filing, their opposition to Petitioner’s motion to amend the original appeal. The State’s filing includes considerable supporting documentation including documents obtained from the Secretary of State’s Interactive Corporate Services website, a letter dated January 16, 2015 from Assistant Attorney General Thom Harnett to Paul Kelley accompanying a DRAFT Notice of Violation (NOV) prepared by DEP, another letter dated March 3, 2015 from AAG Harnett to Paul Kelley regarding his Petition for release from dam ownership or water level maintenance, and some relevant case law.

The State maintains that PPM must be dismissed from the 80C action, that PPM was cancelled on March 26, 2015 and has never been (nor can be) revived for purposes of maintaining this action. According to state law, once an LLC is in dissolution it cannot file suit or maintain an action in court, and once an LLC is canceled, it cannot be revived except under certain special circumstances and then only for a specific purpose, and for a specific period of time. The State maintains that the steps Paul Kelley took to revive his company are not allowed by law and were therefore ineffective. The State also opposes Petitioner’s motion to amend the original 80C action for the same reasons: PPM doesn’t exist can’t engage in litigation.

If the judge in the case agrees with the DEP that PPM no longer exists and cannot maintain an action in court (and the evidence that this is so appears overwhelming), then PPM will be removed from the proceedings and the case will continue with only Aquafortis Associates LLC pursuing the appeal. This would be interesting since Aquafortis does not own the dam, which is the subject of the Clary Lake water level order.

02 September 2015: Legislators Enter Clary Lake Water Level Order Fray

There is an article in this week’s Lincoln County News by staff writer Abigail Adams about the town hall meeting of lake shore owners, Whitefield town officials, and community members that was held last week, on Wednesday, the 26th of August. The meeting, originally conceived and organized by the Clary Lake Association, was held at the Whitefield Fire & Rescue building and was attended by over 60 people. The Kennebec Journal published an article in anticipation of the meeting (see: “Legislator to hear Clary Lake water level concerns at Whitefield meeting“) and I wrote about the meeting the next day (see: “Wednesday night meeting to air grievances about Clary Lake well attended“).

Legislators Enter Clary Lake Water Level Order Fray

The primary purpose of the meeting was to provide Representative Sanderson and Senator Johnson with an opportunity to hear Clary Lake shore owner concerns and grievances. They will then jointly draft a letter to the DEP requesting equitable relief for Clary Lake shore owners (I’ll post a copy of that letter here when it becomes available). According to the article, Sanderson and Johnson also plan to meet with the dam owner to “hear Kelley’s concerns and hopefully negotiate a resolution.“

Representatives of the Clary Lake Association will be separately meeting with Jefferson and Whitefield Select Board members in the next few weeks to encourage them to play a more active role in supporting the State in their defense of the Clary Lake water level order.