Category Archives: Water Quality

05 July 2019: Moderate Algae Bloom in Progress

Cyanobacteria coloring the water.

You may have noticed a green scum drifting on the lake surface recently or seen loads of green particles suspended in the water and thought it was pollen. Well, it does look a lot like the pine pollen that was blowing around last week, but that was yellow, and this stuff is green. Clary Lake is actually experiencing moderate blue-green algae growth resulting in an algal bloom. This early season algae bloom has no doubt been fueled by excessive runoff from all the rain this spring (15″ since the 1st of April!) which has introduced Phosphorus and other nutrients into the lake. Phosphorous is the primary food for plants and algae. Blue-green algae technically is a phylum of bacteria (cyanobacteria) that obtain their energy through photosynthesis. Another likely source of Phosphorus is rotting terrestrial vegetation. For years, better than 300 acres of drained wetlands have been growing grass, goldenrod, alders, and other terrestrial plants and that land is now under water, and the vegetation is rotting. This releases nutrients including Phosphorus in the water, helping to fuel aquatic plant and algae growth. Here are a few more photographs:

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All this rainfall has also resulted in significant flushing of Clary Lake, well in excess of normal. Since January 1st, the lake’s entire volume of water (7,224 acre-feet) has been replaced almost twice. The inverse of the flushing rate is retention time (how long water stays in the lake) and that figure has decreased to about 92 days. The published “flushing rate” for Clary Lake is 1.81 times per year. We’re going to exceed that value by a significant amount. This will help “wash out” the nutrients currently in the lake, but will also result in more nutrients being brought into the lake. This is why controlling non-point sources of soil erosion and sedimentation is So Important: it doesn’t help replacing nutrient-laden water with more nutrient-laden water.

I expect this current algal bloom to dissipate soon, and it remains to be seen if we’ll have additional algae growth this year. Under the circumstances, I wouldn’t be surprised. It is important to remember that even though the dam has been repaired and the lake level restored, the ecology of Clary Lake has been severely damaged as a result of the 8 years of low water and it going to take some time to recover. Clary is still at-risk from both natural and man-caused issues and deserves our ongoing attention.

26 April 2019: Water Monitoring Resumes for 2019

David measures the wind speed, direction, and temperature.

Kelsie French, David Hodsdon, and I headed out today to kick off the 2019 Clary Lake water quality monitoring season. David started monitoring on Clary Lake in 1975, making this his 44th year on the job! The average secchi disk reading was 3.75 meters (12.3 feet) which is about average for this time of year- spring rains and runoff carries silt into the lake which reduces transparency. It’ll clear up some as summer approaches. Dissolved Oxygen pretty uniform throughout the water column, also a normal condition for this time of year. We had planned on obtaining a water sample for Phosphorus testing but the weather today just wasn’t conducive to spending any more time on the water than we had to. After all, it’s not like we were fishing. At 9.8° C the water temperature was actually warmer than the air! All I can say is I look forward to more pleasant weather this year than what we had to put up with today!

You’ll find water quality data back to 2012 on our Clary Lake Water Monitoring Data page.

16 July 2018: CLA Welcomes Its Newest Water Quality Monitor

Please join me in welcoming our newest Water Quality Monitor, Kelsie French! Kelsie and her brother Jeffrey own a camp over on Duncan Road and have been long time supporters of the Clary Lake Association. Kelsie has been helping out from time to time and last Saturday successfully completed the Lake Stewards of Maine (formerly the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitor Program) training for, and has been certified qualified for taking, Secchi Disk Transparency readings and Total Phosphorus Surface Grabs. Next up is getting certified on the use of our YSI Dissolved Oxygen meter. Ever two weeks from (usually) late April until late October we venture out onto the lake to record water temperature, transparency, and dissolved oxygen data. This information is sent into the VLMP and also gets posted on our Clary Lake Water Monitoring Data page. Transparency data is also posted on the “Near Real-Time Lake Data.”

We now have 4 active water quality monitors on Clary: David Hodsdon (CA# HO-0042), Jack Holland (CA# HO-0551), George Fergusson (FE-2648), and Kelsie French (CA# FR-2497). The pictures on this post were taken back on July 7th.

Maine VLMP Fall 2017 Newsletter Now Available

The Fall 2017 Water Column, the newsletter the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitor Program, is now available on the VLMP website. The Clary Lake Association is a long-time member and active supporter of the Maine VLMP, and three of our members, (myself, Jack Holland, and David Hodsdon) are VLMP Certified Water Quality Monitors.

2017 Season Lake Water Quality Monitoring Resumes

Last Friday morning, May 12th, David Hodsdon and I resumed water quality monitoring on Clary Lake for the 2017 season. Jack Holland usually joins us but was unable to join us for this first data gathering session. Normally we venture out onto the lake every 2 weeks from May through September to the “deep hole” (30′ deep when the lake is full) where we anchor and collect data which we periodically send in to the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program. The data collected includes water depth, secchi disk (transparency) readings, water temperature and dissolved oxygen data at the surface at every meter down to the bottom, as well as air temperature, current weather conditions, wind speed, etc. You can view a subset of the collected data for recent years on our Clary Lake Water Monitoring Data page.

In addition to periodically submitting water quality data to the VLMP, secchi disk readings are also added to the Near Real-Time Lake Data site. Clary Lake has been participating in the VLMP since 1975.

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:

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 →

2016 Water Quality Monitoring Season Concludes

David Hodsdon (with DO meter) & Jack Holland, June 3, 2016

David Hodsdon and I concluded our water quality monitoring on Clary Lake for 2016 with our last data collection session this past Sunday morning. It was cold and windy. Roughly every 2 weeks since we started on May 20th, rain or shine, David and I (and Jack Holland when he could make it) have ventured out to the “deep hole” in my boat to collect water quality data including water transparency (secchi disk readings) and dissolved oxygen/temperature measurements. Three to four times a year we take a core sample of water for Phosphorus analysis. This information is periodically submitted to the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitor Program (VLMP) for review and analysis. We usually start collecting data in mid to late April, and my boat was ready to go this spring but our YSI Pro 20 Dissolved Oxygen Meter was in the shop for repairs and we didn’t get it back until mid May. Maine Volunteer Lake Monitor Program of which the Clary Lake Association is a longtime member wants water monitoring data collected during the boating season which is generally understood to extend from May through September. This year we collected data on 13 separate occasions. Continue reading →

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 →

21 May 2016: Clary Lake Water Quality Monitoring Resumes for 2016

On Friday May 20th David Hodsdon and I (Jack Holland was not able to join us) were finally able to resume Clary Lake Water quality monitoring for 2016 albeit a month later than we had planned, but still within the allowable time frame. Better late than never as the saying goes. We had originally planned on starting a month ago, but our YSI Pro 20 digital dissolved oxygen meter which the Association purchased through donations a few years ago failed to pass routine calibration which is performed each spring by Maine VLMP technicians. They first thought the problem was a bad probe but swapping it out for a known-good probe didn’t solve the problem. YSI Technical Support suggested it might be water in the cable connector housing so they let the unit sit around disassembled for a few days to dry out. After that it started working intermittently. They ran some more tests on it over the next week finally certified it for use with the instructions to “keep an eye on it.” We got it back midweek last week.

This first time out, the DO meter worked flawlessly (and we hope it continues). With a secchi disk reading of 4.1 meters (13.25′) the water clarity is excellent, and about normal for this time of year. But be warned: it’s early in the season yet, and the water quality can and will deteriorate. The lake has yet to “stratify” meaning that it is pretty homogenous (well mixed) and there is no thermocline yet: the temperature from the surface to the bottom only varied 2.5° Celsius. This means that if you were to go swimming now you’d think the whole lake was cold, not just 6′ down like during the summer. Likewise, the dissolved oxygen reading only varied 2.6 mg/l from surface down to 7 meters. Continue reading →

09 April 2016 BDN: What an early spring means for Maine’s lakes

Clary Ice Out

You’ll recall that the ice went out on Clary Lake on March 13th this year, the earliest since we started keeping records in 2001. Well there’s a great article in today’s Bangor Daily News about the potential impact of an early spring on lake water quality. Basically, warmer than usual weather coupled with an early ice-out result in water temperatures rising higher, sooner, and lake stratification taking place sooner as a result. Stratification is the process whereby the water in the lake separates into a warm, generally oxygen-rich upper layer and a colder, generally oxygen-deprived lower layer. You’ve all experienced lake water stratification when you jumped into nice warm water only to discover that 4′-5′ down the water is a whole lot colder. One impact of oxygen deficiency in a lake is the release phosphorus from bottom sediments which leads to algae growth. The article is short and informative and worth a read:

BDN: What an early spring means for Maine’s lakes

The excessively low water conditions we’ve been experiencing on Clary Lake for the last 5 years or so have also had a severe impact on water quality, compounding the effect of the normal seasonal lake water cycles, resulting in more, and more severe, algae blooms. This is in part due to severely diminished lake volume, loss of wetland habitat, and erosion and sedimentation of bottom sediments around the edges of the lake that normally would be covered by a protective 4′-5′ of water.

The CLA will be starting it’s water quality monitoring activities next week. There is water quality data for Clary Lake going back to 1975 (available by request). You can view the water quality data back to April 2012 online on our Clary Lake Water Monitoring data page.

10 December 2015: Maine VLMP Fall 2015 Newsletter now available

The Maine Volunteer Lake Monitor Program’s Fall 2015 newsletter “The Water Column” is now available for download or viewing online. It’s a good read.

The Clary Lake Association is a contributing member of the Maine VLMP and has been actively supporting the VLMP and collecting water quality data on Clary Lake since 1975.

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.

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 →

01 September 2015: August 2015 water level chart archived

I’ve archived the August 2015 water level chart (at left), and what a chart it is. One glance and you can see that the water level hardly moved. For the entire month the lake level never rose above -63″ below the top of the dam and on August 7th it reached -65.16″ below the top of the dam, the lowest level I’ve ever recorded. The lake is so low in fact that water is no longer flowing out of the lake into the outlet channel and hasn’t been since early July; there’s a trickle of water flowing through the open gate in the dam but it is coming from ground water and springs in the meadow area. It’s actually been at or below -60″ below the top of the dam since July 10th. This makes it the longest stretch of the lowest water levels we’ve experienced in the last 4 years. It’s gotten almost this low before, but it has never stayed this low for this long.

The low water condition has been exacerbated by the near-drought conditions we’ve experienced so far this year. As of the end of August we had received only 18.88″ of precipitation for the year compared to 32.83″ on this date a year ago. As a result, because the ground is so dry, there has been no absolutely no runoff as the result of what little rain we have received. To make matters worse, because of the topography of the shoreline around lake, when it does rain the lake doesn’t so much get deeper as it does bigger. This then explains how last August 11th and 12th when we received 2.29″ of rain, the lake only came up 1.92″ total. This defies logic, but as those of you who have stuck sticks in the mud on your water front to mark where the water line is can attest, it ain’t moved.

This extended period of excessively low water levels has severely restricted everyone’s use and enjoyment of Clary Lake even more than usual, not to mention the ongoing impact on wildlife habitat, and water quality. There will be consequences.

28 August 2015: Wednesday night meeting to air grievances about Clary Lake well attended

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 officials. Photograph by George Fergusson 26 August 2015

Judging from the turnout (at least 61 people, maybe more) and the feedback (more than 31 people spoke, some of them more than once) I’d say last night’s standing-room-only meeting was a great success. The meeting, which came about as a result of discussions earlier in the month between Clary Lake Association (CLA) representatives and State Representative Deb Sanderson, was well-moderated by CLA President Malcolm Burson. In an outstanding show of solidarity, both State Representative Deb Sanderson (a Republican) and State Senator Christopher Johnson (a Democrat) ran the meeting together in a refreshing show of non-partisan cooperation. While the Clary Lake water level crisis is not a partisan issue, it was still refreshing and encouraging to see our two elected representatives completely aligned and working together towards a common goal. They will be working together to draft a letter to, and bring this matter to the attention of, the Department of Environmental Protection.

One of the main goals of the meeting had been to arrange for Clary Lake shore owners and other community members share their grievances with officials from both towns in the hopes of spurring them to take a more active role in support of the State’s defense of the water level order. To that end, Representative Sanderson had extended an invitation to both Jefferson and Whitefield officials to attend the meeting. While all 5 of Whitefield’s Select Board members were at the meeting, to everyone’s surprise, none of Jefferson’s 3 Select Board members decided to attend. This was an insult to the Jefferson residents that represented over 1/2 of the people that showed up and spoke at the meeting. Continue reading →

29 July 2015: North Shore Clary Lake Video

Published: 29 July 2015

The north shore of Clary Lake in the vicinity of Duncan Road has been severely impacted by the ongoing water level crisis. Now, with the lake level 63″ below the top of the dam, the water has receded over 100′ from where it would normally be this time of year. How long will this be allowed to continue?

10 July 2015: Declining water quality, by the numbers [UPDATED]

Get ready for an algae bloom. Jack Holland and I went out and conducted our regularly scheduled water quality monitoring today and the secchi disk reading was only 2.50 meters (8.20′), down from 3.16 meters (10.36′) just two weeks ago. A lake is considered to be experiencing an algae bloom when the secchi disk reading is 2.0 meters or lower. We’re within only 1/2 a meter (1.6′) of that threshold now, and it’s only July 10th. Last year on the 18th of July the secchi disk reading was 3.25 meters (10.66′) and we didn’t approach the 2.0 meter threshold until almost the end of July. We’re good two to three weeks ahead of last year.

I’ve noticed over the past 4-5 days the lake color has gotten decidedly murky and brownish/green but I was still surprised the secchi disk reading so low. I probably shouldn’t have been given how dry it’s been and how low the lake is as these factors contribute to conditions conducive to the growth of filimentous cyanobacteria (aka blue green algae) which are responsible for algae blooms. Once the conditions are right for cyanobacteria to start multiplying, their growth can be explosive.

We’ll take a water sample for phosphorus testing during our next water quality monitoring session in 2 weeks. Phosphorus tests cost $25 a pop to get them analyzed by the State so we usually only do 3 tests per year.

[UPDATE: 7/14/2015] Based on the latest secchi disk reading taken about 1/2 hour ago, Clary Lake is officially having an algae bloom. The reading was 1.95 meters (6.40′). As mentioned above, a reading at or below 2 meters is considered to be an algae bloom.