Back around the beginning of April I posted about how the Damariscotta Lake Watershed Association (DLWA) is gearing up to conduct a Watershed Survey. To kick it off they scheduled a workshop to train volunteers how to identify, describe, and characterize typical non-point sources of pollution. When I learned about the training I contacted Garrison Beck, Senior Program Manager at DLWA to see about sitting in on the training. He thought it was a fine idea. The workshop was scheduled for April 26th at the DLWA headquarters over on Damariscotta Lake.

Yesterday Colin Caissie and I attended the training session. There were a couple of dozen people there including a number of technical folks from DEP and some other DLWA members who had been previously trained. It started at 9AM and we spent the first 2.5 hours being lectured to about types of erosion and typical mitigation techniques, and then we broke out into groups of 3-4 volunteers and a technical lead person and then headed out for 3+ hours of field work. We headed for home a little after 3 PM having.

A non-point-source (NPS) watershed survey is all about locating and categorizing soil erosion- type, size, severity, etc., and making recommendations for how to go about mitigating it. It was a totally worthwhile experience and I’m glad I went. I told Garrison that when/if I got a chance in the next month I’d come down and spend a few hours working on the survey. They need all the help they can get given the size of their task: Damariscotta Lake watershed is about 29,700 acres (46.5 square miles) compared to Clary Lake’s 6,272 acres (9.8 square miles) and they have THOUSANDS of lakefront properties to evaluate whereas we have 108. A daunting task. Their goal is to get the entire watershed surveyed by the end of May and they’re going to need a lot of help to meet that goal. I’ll let folks know if/when I decide to go down and help out in case anyone wants to go along for the ride and learn something about identifying, categorizing, and mitigating non-point source pollution sites.

I had hoped to learn more about phosphorus transport mechanisms. I guess I’m going to have to do some more research on my own. The Clary Lake Association conducted a watershed survey and we’re gearing up to conduct an update later this year. So far there are about 10 Association members signed up to work on the survey. If anyone wants to get involved in this initiative, send me an email or use our Contact Form.

David Hodsdon and Jack Holland have resumed lake water quality monitoring as of last Friday, the 25th of April. This is about average- they like to get some data in April if at all possible. In addition to the regular secchi disk and dissolved oxygen data they also took a water sample for phosphorus testing. Jack didn’t have his boat in the water yet so I took them out in my boat. I took a few pictures; the wind was blowing about 10 miles an hour and it was pretty chilly! Official test results will be posted to the Clary Lake Water Monitoring Data page in a few days.

The phosphorus data is particularly important to collect but getting a water sample analyzed by the State costs $25 a pop. Because of the cost, David and Jack have taken only about 3 samples a year. We’re experimenting with a much cheaper do-it-yourself phosphorus test kit but the jury is still out on whether it will be sufficiently accurate to be useful. Monitoring phosphorus levels is important because it is a direct indicator of the likelihood of the lake experiencing an algae bloom. Most of you are aware that we’ve been having late summer/early fall algae blooms for the past 3 years in large part due to lower water levels. The picture at left shows dead blue-green algae floating on the surface last fall. You’ll find more pictures in the Fall 2013 album.

I’ll be filling in for David Hodsdon for a few months this summer while he’s on vacation and I’ve decided to get my Volunteer Water Monitor Certification as well.

I was pleased to see the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, Patricia Aho, recognize the Maine Volunteer Lakes Monitoring Program on her official blog. Jack Holland brought this to my attention the other day with the comment “I would agree with the “trained” statement, but question the “provided with equipment” statement. The Clary Lake Association has been a participating member of the VLMP since the very start of the program back in 1975. See our Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program page for more information.

December 30, 2013
Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program

I was excited to meet with Scott Williams and Roberta Hill of the Maine Volunteer Lakes Monitoring Program (VLMP) earlier this month. Often noted nationally as the gold-standard of citizen lakes monitoring, VLMP is a network of over 1,000 volunteers located across the state that have been trained and provided with equipment to collect data from Maine lakes. Their scientific data on water quality indicators is critical assistance for DEP. We cannot do our work without VLMP and rely on their quality science, passion and training to ensure thousands of volunteers (some of whom count their service in decades!) are engaged and eager to assist each year. With a very small budget, the work of VLMP is an outstanding service to Maine by being at the forefront of keeping our lakes healthy and safe. DEP is proud to support VLMP’s work to protect Maine’s lakes and look forward to continuing this successful partnership.

via Commissioner’s Corner, Office of the Commissioner, Maine DEP.