Category Archives: Technical Lake Stuff

February 2017 Water Level Chart Archived

February 2017

I have archived the February 2017 Water Level Chart (at left). The most notable feature of the February chart is how relatively stable the lake level was for the month, considering we received 1.44″ of precipitation, well below the average precipitation for February of 2.44″ (for Augusta). The lake level started the month at -37″ below the Normal High Water Mark (NHWM) and dropped to a low of -44.6″ on February 21st before ending the month 1/2″ higher than it started, at -36.5″ below the NHWM. The dam’s gate remained half open for the entire month, though the dam owner felt compelled to open it all the way on the first day of March, an action consistent with his observed behavior of trying to keep the lake level below the hole in the dam which is somewhere around -34″ below the top of the dam. There was no water flowing through the hole when I drove by the dam yesterday.

15 February 2017: Temporarily Halting Water Level Measurements

We ended up with 24″ of snow by the time the February 2017 “Valentine’s Day Blizzard” was over.

What with the 3′ and 4′ snow drifts between my house and the lake, 18″ of ice ON the lake, and even more snow coming tonight, I’ve decided to take a break from my daily water level measurements. When spring springs I’ll resume my daily readings again. After this next storm it sounds like we’re in for a stretch of warm weather, and that may open things up enough for me to resume, so perhaps this hiatus may be short lived. We’ll see.

I’ll continue to record precipitation and will try to get at least an approximate water level reading once in a while.

January 2017 Water Level Chart Archived

January 2017

I have archived the January 2017 Water Level Chart (at left). The most notable feature of the January chart is nothing, really. Kind of a ho-hum chart if you ask me. The lake level was at -48″ below the normal high water mark (HWM) at the start of the month and ended the month at -36.5″ or about a foot higher. The lake level was severely low for the whole summer and fall so seeing the lake rise marginally higher has been comforting. That said, the gate on the dam has been open about half way for the entire month, considerably more than the opening called for in the Water Level Order. Anyway you want look at it, the dam owner is still in clear violation of the Clary Lake water level order.

We received 2.84″ of precipitation during the month, some in the form of snow and some as rain. Average precipitation for January is 2.6″ so we’re starting the month a little ahead for a change. We started this year in Severe drought (drought intensity D2) but we’re now in Moderate drought (drought intensity D1) however with the ground frozen, very little water is going to get into the water table until spring.

December 2016 Water Level Chart Archived

December 2016

And so we come to the end of another year (#5) of water level measurements. I have archived the December 2016 Water Level Chart (at left) and the Whole Year 2016 chart (see below). The most notable feature of the December chart is the the fact that lake only came up 8.76″ over the course of the month despite us having received 3.88″ of precipitation; this is a runoff multiplier of only 2.25X or about 1/2 of what it should be this time of year, even with a low water table. No doubt the reason for this is because the dam’s gate was mostly open for almost the entire month. Normally with the ground frozen and having received that much rain, the lake would have risen twice as much. Continue reading →

11 December 2016: Clary Lake Fully Iced Over [UPDATED AGAIN]

UPDATED AGAIN: David Hodson emailed me this afternoon to say that the final patch of open water has finally frozen over making the official Ice-In date this year December 12. Honest!

UPDATED: Clary Lake NOT fully iced over. David Hodsdon and I conferred this morning and he told me his end was fully frozen over, but he failed to notice about 1/2 an acre of open water in the cove by Jack Holland’s house. I guess there were some geese swimming in it this afternoon. Oh well. Retraction time. Stay tuned!

Thanks to overnight temperatures around 0° Clary Lake was completely frozen over this morning. It remains to be seen if the ice cover can survive the rain, snow and warmer temperatures forecast over the next couple of days.

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03 December 2016: Clary Lake Dam Gate Fully Opened Today

Clary Lake dam owner Paul Kelley, Jr. opening the dam’s gate today, December 3, 2016.

Today the Clary Lake dam owner was seen opening the dam’s gate (pictured at left) shortly after meeting on-site with a Lincoln County Deputy. I have no idea why Mr. Kelley summoned the police to his property or whether it had anything to do with his decision to open the gate today, but I was told by a passerby that he and the officer were seen standing on the road in front of the dam before he opened the gate and that Mr. Kelley looked “upset” and was “waving his arms” and pointing at the dam. I can’t imagine what Mr. Kelley’s problem might be.

The gate has been effectively closed since mid-summer, and I have been wondering if or when Mr. Kelley was going to open the gate this fall to provide the Minimum Flows required in the Clary Lake Water Level Order . Flows vary throughout the year: between November 16th and December 31st the Order says the gate should be opened 0.9 feet to provide 15.5 cfs (cubic feet per second) of outflows. Mr. Kelley has in fact opened the gate all the way, approximately 2.5 feet, letting out way more water than the recommended volume. Clearly, Mr. Kelley had more on his mind today than just meeting the minimum flows requirement, and he isn’t particularly interested in garnering anything like goodwill either. It seems to me Mr. Kelley could use a little of that about now.

By early afternoon the water level in the mill pond behind the dam had fallen noticeably. I’ve revised the Water Level Charts to reflect the change in gate status.

November 2016 Water Level Chart Archived

November 2016

I have archived the November 2016 Water Level Chart (at left). The most notable feature of the November chart, like most of the other charts this past summer and fall, is how slow the lake level has been responding to rainfall. I am dismayed at the abysmal rate Clary Lake is filling up this fall and I’m sure a lot of you share that sentiment. Despite having received what seems like a “reasonable” amount of rain over the past two months, the lake level stubbornly refuses to rise as expected. The lake dropped to 60″ below the high water mark back on July 27th and continued from there to drop to a record low of -67.25″ on October 8th. Since then we’ve received 7.31″ of rain which has brought the lake up only a hair over 7″ to -60.17″ below the high water mark on the last day of the month. In a “normal” year that much rain would have brought the lake up the better part of 30 inches or more. Continue reading →

29 November 2016: Maine VLMP Fall 2016 Newsletter now available

The Maine Volunteer Lake Monitor Program (VLMP) has issued their Fall 2016 newsletter “the Water Column” and it’s available online from their website at the following link:

Fall 2016 Water Column Newsletter

The VLMP has always done a great job with their newsletters, and this one is no exception: with 28 pages of informative articles, reports, and pictures, it is well worth taking the time to look it over. I found the article “The 2016 Drought and it’s Effect on Maine Lakes” particularly interesting.

The Clary Lake Association is long-time supporting member of the VLMP and has been contributing water quality monitoring data to the VLMP program since 1975. You’ll find the last 5 years worth of water quality data on our Clary Lake Water Monitoring Data page.

The newsletter includes a report and pictures from this summer’s 2016 Lake Monitoring Conference which David Hodsdon and I attended. Below is the group photograph taken at the conclusion of that event:

05 November 2016: Water Level Charts Updated

When I announced that the DEP had finally established the elevation of the normal high water line of Clary Lake, I said I would be changing my water level measurement regimen to match and would post an update about those changes when they happened. Well, they happened. Nothing earth shaking to report, but there are a few things to make note of. Since I’ve been using NAVD88 elevations all along the only thing needing to change was the index value to which water levels are referenced. Telling people the water level is 148.76′ today really doesn’t impart any useful information, which is why I’ve always stated water levels in inches with respect to the top of the dam. From now on I will reference them in inches, to the normal high water line, which is very close to the top of the dam. Data collection and basic data manipulation remains the same. The Water Level Charts themselves received a few obvious edits- the left hand axis on the charts is now “Inches Below Normal High Water” instead of “Inches Below Top of Dam” and the legend has been updated to reflect this change. The difference between the two (0.22′ or 2.59″) is so small as to not be visible on the actual water level charts. Zero on the left-hand scale used to be Top of the Dam. It is now the Normal High Water Line. Continue reading →

04 November 2016: DEP Establishes Clary Lake High Water Elevation

For the past 5 years I’ve been referencing Clary Lake water levels to the “top of the dam” for the simple reason that the actual elevation of the Normal High Water Line of Clary Lake has never been established. I knew from my own observations (picture at left) that the historical normal high water line has always been at or very near the top of the dam so it made sense to use the top of the dam both as a reference for my measurements, and as a proxy for the high water line. The picture at left shows a boulder with a distinct black stain showing the prolonged effect of the action water that corresponds to the approximate high water line of Clary Lake.

When the Clary Lake Water Level Order was issued back in late January 2014, the water level regime specified therein only referred to the “historical normal high water line” of Clary Lake without stating what the actual elevation of that line on the earth was. Special Condition #4 of the WLO required the dam owner to hire a Professional Land Surveyor to conduct an elevation survey whose job would be to establish the actual elevation of the Normal High Water Line of Clary Lake, which is defined as follows:

Normal High Water Line. “Normal high water line” means that line along the shore of a great pond, river, stream, brook or other non-tidal body of water which is apparent from visible markings, changes in the character of soils due to prolonged action of the water or from changes in vegetation and which distinguishes between predominantly aquatic and predominantly terrestrial land, 38 M. R.S. S.480-B (6)

The problem is, the dam owner didn’t comply with Special Condition #4 and in June 2014 the Department sent him a Letter of Warning for failing to provide a satisfactory survey. Continue reading →

October 2016 Water Level Chart Archived

October 2016

I’ve archived the October 2016 Water Level Chart (at left). The most notable feature of the October chart, like most of the other charts this past summer and fall, is how little the water level varied over the course of the month. Despite having received 3.45″ of rain in October, the total fluctuation from high to low for the month was only 1.68″ which is to say the lake pretty much stayed down around -69″ below the top of the dam for the entire month. It ended the month at -68.28″ below the top of the dam. This is all neatly explained by a deeply depressed water table and the ongoing drought conditions, but still, it defies common sense.

You’ve also never seen the lake this low. On October 20th I recorded the lowest water level reached to date, a mind-boggling -70.0″ below the top of the dam. I took the picture at left a few days earlier when the lake almost that low and as you can see, the outlet channel is high and dry, almost dry enough to walk across. At -70″ below the top of the dam, the volume of Clary Lake is only 54.85% of full and its area, at 425.3 acres, is down to 45.6% of it’s size when full. These are mind boggling numbers. For what it’s worth, the lake didn’t stay that low for long, 0.91″ of rain the following day brought the lake up a whopping 1/4″.

As mentioned, we received 3.45″ of rain in October which sounds like a lot but the average for the month is 4.37″. At a total of 28.82″ so far this year, we’re still 5.48″ short of rainfall for the year so far.

26 October 2016: Updated Transparency & Phosphorus Charts Posted

Every fall after the water quality monitoring activities end for the year (see “2016 Water Quality Monitoring Season Concludes“) I make a point of updating the Transparency and Total Phosphorus charts for Clary Lake, posting them on the website, and writing about them. I also share them with the Maine VLMP and the Maine DEP. These graphs now depict 41 years worth of data collected by certified water quality monitors from 1975 through the end of the just-ended 2016 season. Both graphs continue to show alarming trends, toward higher phosphorus levels and lower secchi disk readings. These trends are familiar to us, and go hand in hand: phosphorus feeds algae whose rapid growth reduces transparency. When transparency drops below 2 meters, you’ve got a bloom. As phosphorus levels trend up, transparency trends down. The trend lines of both graphs are clearly influenced by data from the last 10 years, and in particular, from the last 5. And we all know what’s been happening to Clary Lake over the last 5 years.

As mentioned, secchi disk readings below 2 meters (6.6′) signify an algae bloom in progress. As you can see from the above chart, prior to 2009 we didn’t record any secchi disk readings below 2 meters. In 2009 we experienced a severe algae bloom- Clary’s first- with secchi disk readings of 1.60m on 8/28/09 and 1.25m on 9/11/09. I don’t have any record of lake levels for that summer, but it was an exceedingly wet summer season with 22.9″ of rain recorded in Augusta for the 4 month period May, June, July, and August. That’s over half the average yearly rainfall, received in just 4 months. This would have resulted in significant runoff and undoubtedly played a major role in the algae bloom that summer. Continue reading →

September 2016 Water Level Chart Archived

September 2016

I’ve archived the September 2016 Water Level Chart (at left). The most notable feature of the September chart, like last month was the slow but steady fall of the water level as the result of the ongoing drought. Last month the lake fell 3.6″ for the month at an average rate of 0.12″ per day, due entirely to evaporation. With the weather having cooled a bit, the lake fell only 2.88″ in September at an average rate of not quite 0.10″ per day, again due entirely to evaporation. Any slight rise in the water level resulting from the limited rainfall we received was quickly wicked away into the surrounding shoreline. At nearly -70″ below the top of the dam, you have never seen the lake this low. Continue reading →

August 2016 Water Level Chart Archived

August 2016

I’ve archived the August 2016 Water Level Chart (at left). The most notable feature of the August chart is that it looks identical to the July 2016 chart except the water level is lower. The month started with the lake level at 63.24″ below the top of the dam and after a slow but steady decline of about 0.12″ per day, ended the month at a historic low level of -66.84″.

Rainfall for the month at 2.64″ was about 2/3 of an inch below normal. For the year to date we’re about 2.3″ below normal, not as bad as other parts of the state but still drought conditions.

Not much else to say about the August water level chart. You’ve only seen Clary Lake this low once before, 11 months ago on September 29, 2015.

July 2016 Water Level Chart Archived

July 2016

I’ve archived the July 2016 Water Level Chart (at left). The most notable feature of the July chart is that despite the dam’s gate being effectively closed for the whole month, the water level still fell slowly but steadily for pretty much the whole month, starting out at -58.92″ below the top of the dam and ending at -63.00″ for a total loss of 4.08″ most of which was due to evaporation: the small amount of water that can be seen flowing through the gate in the dam is just ground water seeping out of the marsh; there has been no flow of water out of Clary Lake for most of the month. If you’re thinking this is sounding familiar, it is because it is: July 2016 is almost a day-for-day repeat of July 2015.

We received a total of 3.05″ of rain during the month, about 1/2″ less than normal. The only benefit I can see of the lack of rain and the resulting lack of runoff this year is that it has helped maintain lake transparency.

18 July 2016: Alarming Growth of Elodea Observed in Clary Lake

Elodea nuttallii in Clary Lake growing to the surface in 7′ of water. Photograph by George Fergusson 15 July 2016

Just when you thought conditions around Clary Lake couldn’t get any worse, well conditions got worse: anyone who has spent any time on Clary Lake this summer is all too aware of the explosive growth of Elodea in shallow areas around the lake. Rapid growth of this pond weed was a noticeable problem last summer and it has only gotten worse, not better. Elodea nuttallii is not a recognized invasive plant species in Maine but it is considered invasive in some jurisdictions including in Europe where it is a real problem. It’s an opportunistic plan in any case, and under the right conditions it can be very prolific. Clearly the conditions existing in Clary Lake now are about perfect to promote exuberant growth of this plant: lots of shallow water with a muddy bottom, plenty of nutrients, and lots of sun. Elodea growth has gotten so bad in some places that there are large mats of the weed on or just under the surface of the water, even near the middle of the lake. I took the above picture about 1400′ off the south shore of the lake- almost 1/3 of the way across to the other side- in 7′ of water. Normally the water would be 12 feet deep here, too deep to support the growth of Elodea. Now, with the lake level down 5 feet below the top of the dam, conditions are perfect. Everywhere you go it seems you’re seeing Elodea at or just below the surface. You’ll find more pictures in the Spring/Summer 2016 photo gallery. Continue reading →

06 July 2016: Quick Update on the Dam’s Gate Status

[dropcap]Back[/dropcap] on June 30th when I posted the June 2016 Water Level Chart to the website I speculated that the dam operator would likely lower the gate further within the next day or two so as to maintain at least the appearance of complying with the Water Level Order‘s (WLO) requirement for maintaining minimum outlet flows. What with the long Fourth of July weekend, the parties, the cookouts and what have you, I didn’t get a chance to swing by the dam until yesterday. Sure enough, measurements of a photo I took of the gate mechanism shows that sometime in the last 5 days the gate has been lowered approximately 5″ and is now open just a little more than 2″ as suggested in the WLO to maintain minimum outlet flows this time of year. For my records I’m back dating the gate change to July 1st, and today’s water level chart update reflects this. In theory anyways we can look forward to it remaining at this level for about the next two and a half months, until September 15th.

On a more unpleasant note, the lake level reached 5′ below the top of the dam this morning. It hasn’t been this low since the end of last September.

June 2016 Water Level Chart Archived

June 2016

I’ve archived the June 2016 Water Level Chart (at left). The most notable feature of the June chart is how little the lake level fluctuated over the course of the month. This is due primarily to two factors. First, the dam’s gate has been closed to within about 7″ of being fully closed for the entire month and this has limited the daily lake level fall to around 1/10th inch (0.01′) per day. Second, the lack of rainfall over the past few months has resulted in almost no runoff from what little rain we have received. For example, on the 28th & 29th we just received 0.87″ of rain which so far has only brought the lake up 0.36″ which almost doesn’t even make sense: you would think the lake would at least rise as much as the rain we received. I suspect what is actually happening is that the water table around the lake (which is a lot like a damp sponge) is being replenished by water from the lake. We received a total of 3.20″ of rain for the month which is only a little less than the average 3.54″ for June. For the year we’re still only 1.23″ below normal but we were short of rain in April and May. Continue reading →

46th Annual Maine Lakes Conference Coming Up June 25th

The Maine Lakes Society (formerly the Congress of Lake Associations or COLA) is holding their Annual Maine Lakes Conference on the 25th of this month. The itinerary, as usual, looks excellent. The Clary Lake Association is a long-time member of the Maine Lakes Society. For years the annual COLA conference was attended by Association Member Ed Grant. I’ve made a point of going in recent years and I always learn something new. I’ll be going to this one. The cost is $35 which includes lunch.

Here’s the email notice I received about this event:

We invite you to join us at the 46th Annual Maine Lakes Conference on Saturday, June 25th, at the Unity College Center for the Performing Arts!


	Keynote Speaker Holly Ewing of Bates College

This year we look to the future of Maine lakes monitoring and protection, and the myriad ways citizens can get involved in lake protection. Our Keynote Speaker, Holly Ewing of Bates College, will introduce us to the latest research on Gloeotrichia echinulata blooms and GLEON, the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network, which is helping scientists and citizens alike better understand and communicate the way lakes are responding to our changing climate. Afternoon workshops on citizen science, lake and fisheries restoration, the latest on LakeSmart, new partnerships with Maine Audubon’s Stream Smart and LoonSmart programs, translating science in your outreach products, and hands on workshops offer diverse learning experiences at a great new venue in Unity, Maine.

REGISTER TODAY!

Additional Workshops include:

Cyanotoxins and Maine’s developing Public Alert System for Harmful Algal Blooms
What’s that stuff in the water? The appearance of metaphyton and other algae in our lakes and ponds
Long term, statewide collaborative lake monitoring efforts
Special guest Friends of Lake Winnecook
The latest “Get Smart” tips from LakeSmart and Stream Smart
Hands on instruction with lake monitoring technology
Our new partnership with Maine Audubon’s LoonSmart Program
Creative tools for translating water quality data into meaningful communications
Lake and fisheries restoration efforts
Nature Journaling ~ Fish Identification ~ Art Exhibit
Lunchtime breakouts: Council of Lake Associations Annual Roundtable, Camp Care, and Invasive Plant Monitoring FAQ’s

The annual conference will be at the fabulous Unity College Center for the Performing Arts nearLake Winnecook in Unity, Maine. Keep an eye on our Facebook page and website for more information on presentations and speakers. We are also still welcoming conference sponsors!

We hope to see you there!

*Cheryl Daigle*	&	*Maggie Shannon*
Executive Director		Program Director, LakeSmart & Policy

Maine Lakes Society
P O Box 447

Belgrade Lakes, Maine 04918

www.mainelakessociety.org

207-495-2301

04 June 2016: Early Summer Clary Lake Water Quality Update

Clary Lake Total Phosphorus

And it’s not good news. We’ve received the results back on our first Total Phosphorus (TP) sample for 2016, taken last month on May 20th. At 22 μg/L (micrograms per liter), TP is up at levels typically not seen until mid to late summer. The chart at left has been updated to include this latest data point, you can see where it plots up: it’s the first (only) dot in 2016, furthest to the right. We usually take 3 [the_tooltip text=”core” tooltip=”a sample of the whole water column from the surface down to 7 meters” url=”” background=”” color=””] samples of lake water each season for Phosphorus testing, and send them off to the State Lab for analysis. In the early spring, TP values on the order of 14 to 18 μg/L are more “normal” (for some value of the term “normal”) though in recent years they have been trending higher. Last spring on April 30th TP was 14 μg/L and 17 μg/L on April 25th the year before that. TP values above 18 μg/L typically mean an algae bloom is on the way. This does not bode well for water quality this coming summer.

Phosphorus is the primary nutrient responsible for algae growth in lakes. It comes from various sources including runoff containing eroded soil and sediments. Under conditions of low dissolved oxygen it can be released from bottom sediments in the lake. Wave action on exposed bottom sediments can also result in Phosphorus being released into the lake. Low water conditions resulting in exposed bottom sediments and reduced lake volume certainly contribute to higher Phosphorus concentrations.

David Hodsdon, Jack Holland and I went out yesterday morning for our regular biweekly water quality monitoring session. The transparency of the lake water has already dropped from 4.1 meters to 3.65 meters since May 20th . Data collected back through 2012 is available on the Clary Lake Water Quality Data page. Data back to 1975 is available upon request.