Tonight I decided to see what rain looked like on Clary_Cam1 with the built-in infrared illumination turned on. It turned out to be rather interesting. Need a good soundtrack.
Lost and Found: Are You Missing a Pie Plate?
[dropcap]There[/dropcap] has been a very nice 9″ glass Anchor Ovenware(tm) pie plate with a glass cover over at Sheepscot General, waiting for someone to come by and claim it, but nobody has. Today my wife brought it home for safe keeping. We believe it was left behind by someone who brought food to the Harvest Potluck Supper earlier this month. If it belongs to you or you know who it does belong to, give Margaret a call at 458-3143 or email her and make arrangements to pick it up.
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:
Happy Thanksgiving from the Clary Lake Association
On behalf of the Clary Lake Association Board I’d like to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy family and friends, don’t overeat, don’t drink and drive, and most important, DON’T TALK POLITICS.
18 November 2016 Central Maine Papers: Salmon Group to Remove Branch Pond Mill in China, Install Fish Passageway
There is an article in the November 01, 2016 Central Maine Papers (Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel) about the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) plans to play a role in the Branch Pond dam and mill site. Even after reading the article a couple of times I’m a little unclear exactly what the ASF intends to do at the site, but it appears they at the very least intend to build a fish ladder at the site and may be looking to purchase the dam and mill property outright or help with the removal and reconstruction of the mill building at another site. The dam and mill complex is currently owned by Stephen and Christine Coombs and is subject to a Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Water Level Order issued in June of 2014. According to the article, the DEP and the Maine Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) entered into a consent agreement with the Coombs’ last spring. The ASF got involved with Branch Pond this past summer as part of their Maine Headwaters Project.
Branch Pond is a beautiful little pond at the headwaters of the West Branch of the Sheepscot River. We host a few pages for the Branch Pond Association on this website. Here’s a link to the online article:
Here’s a link to a locally archived copy should the above link fail for any reason:
15 November 2016: Harvest Potluck Supper a Great Success!
The Harvest Potluck Supper held last Saturday was a great success and a lot of fun, thanks to all the people who donated food and all the people that showed up to eat it! We all owe a huge Thank You to the Momentum Committee Chair (Erin Grimshaw) and committee members (Margaret Fergusson, Mary Gingrow-Shaw) for the work they did preparing for this wonderful event.
We had over 50 people in attendance and we made over $319 dollars (after expenses)!
Sorry for not posting this update until now, but I’ve been a little busy. Here are a few pictures I took during the supper:
18 November 2016: Update on the Clary Lake Lawsuits
My wife and I spent the better part of last Wednesday the 16th at Lincoln County Superior Court attending 2 different hearings. I had already planned to attend the discovery hearing in the Clary Lake Water Level Order appeal proceeding (Docket No. AP-14-1 ) scheduled for 1:00 PM, then Tuesday afternoon I got a call from Bob Rubin informing me that the Judge had also scheduled a discovery hearing in the Rubin/Ayer lawsuit (Docket No. 2016 CV-002) for 9:00 AM that same day. The judge, Justice Daniel Billings, is the same for both cases. Wednesday was looking like Clary Lake day at Lincoln County Superior Court and my wife and I decided to make a day of it and attend both hearings, which we did, and we even found enough time between hearings for a nice lunch at Sarah’s.
A little background regarding Docket No. 2016 CV-002 is in order since I haven’t written about it on this website since it was first filed: Robert Rubin and Cheryl Ayer are husband and wife, Clary Lake shore owners, Clary Lake Association members, and they are both lawyers licensed to practice in the State of Maine. Their property is on the west shore of Clary Lake. Many of you will remember Bob Rubin from the role he played during the Clary Lake Water Level Petition process, representing the Clary Lake Association pro bono as an intervener in those proceedings. Shortly after issuance of the Final Clary Lake Water Level Order on January 27, 2014, Bob Rubin retired. On January 11, 2016 Bob and Cheryl filed suit in Lincoln County Superior Court (see: “31 January 2016: Clary Lake Shore Owners Rubin & Ayer File Suit in Superior Court“). At the time Cheryl Ayer was a Board member of the Association. She subsequently resigned her Board position in April 2016 so as to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. Their complaint named defendants Paul Kelley, Pleasant Pond Mill LLC (PPM), Richard Smith, and Aquafortis Associates LLC (AQF). Paul Kelley and Richard Smith are defending themselves in this proceeding, they are not represented by counsel. Continue reading
10 November 2016: WLO Appeal Update, Court Conference Scheduled
[dropcap]A[/dropcap] quick update to let everyone know what’s going on with the Clary Lake Water Level Order Appeal: back on October 4th counsel for DEP and Aquafortis Associates LLC (AQF) held a telephone conference with Justice Billings to discuss issues around the State’s requested discovery, Petitioners objections to it, and some other jurisdictional issues raised by AQF including their own requested discovery (see: 05 October 2016: Clary Lake Water Level Order Appeal Update). The Court’s conclusion at that time was that it needed “more time” to consider matters and the parties agreed to meet again towards the end of the month of October to continue their work to resolve the conflicts.
That delay stretched into 5 weeks: a conference has finally been scheduled for next Wednesday November 16th at 1PM. Presumably the issues surrounding DEP’s requested discovery and the other matters hanging fire will finally be addressed by the Court so the case can move forward. The State originally filed their request for discovery over 3 months ago, back on August 2nd. I sure hope the court can pick up the pace.
I will post a report as soon as I know something.
10 November 2016: Yet Another Miscellaneous Site Update
Some of you may have noticed the “I’m not a robot” check box like you see below when you go to login to the site, leave a comment, or use one of our contact forms. The purpose of this is to prevent scripts (bots, or robots) from posting moronic comments or sending bogus contact emails, which are both annoying, and waste my time.
The authentication scheme is called reCaptcha and was developed by Google. You’re probably already familiar with it, in fact I’ve implemented it before on the site but it’s always been a little flakey. This is a new and improved version of reCaptcha that is supposedly easier to deal with. Using it is pretty straightforward. Just check the box that says you’re not a robot. Most of the time that’s all you have to do. If the backend authentication system believes you, you’re done. If it doesn’t believe you, it will pop up some pictures and ask you to click on the pictures that contain a storefront, or pictures that contain road signs or something like that. If you want to try a different challenge, click the reload button. I guess you can also use an audio challenge but to be honest I’ve never tried that. Try it out:
If you try to login, or submit a form or a comment without getting authenticated you’ll experience an error rather than a satisfying submission experience. A couple of people have left comments recently so I guess it’s working!
On another note, I’ve disabled caching on the site due to problems some people were having getting fresh content off the site. Other elements of site optimization are still in place and working.
09 November 2016: Reminder, Harvest Potluck Supper this Saturday
A quick reminder, the Association’s Harvest Potluck Supper/fundraiser is this Saturday, November 12th, from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the Sheepscot General on Townhouse Road in Whitefield. This event is open to the general public and we hope members and non-members alike will take this opportunity to get together and share good food and good company. The cost is $7.00 for adults and $3.00 for children under 12. There will also be a raffle with details to be announced. My wife informs me that we’ve had a fantastic response to our outreach and we expect lots of food of all sorts, and a good turn out as well. Also, it is not too late to contribute to the fare, that we are still in need of a few side dishes such as salads, of whatever sort. Please contact Margaret Fergusson @ 207-458-3143; Mary Gingrow-Shaw @ 207-622-3308 with any questions or suggestions.
I’m going to send out a reminder email to all current Clary Lake Association members this evening. I realize that a number of you are no longer in Maine and will be unable to attend the Supper, but you’ll get an email just the same! Consider it a test of our Emergency Broadcast System. Please keep an eye out for it and if you don’t see it in your inbox in the next 24 hours, please check your spam folder. We’ve done extensive testing of our mail system and most mail hosts recognize our emails as Not Spam (Gmail seems to get confused on occasion). IF it ends up as spam, tell your mail program it is NOT spam!
Thanks and hope to see you at the Supper!
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
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
Harvest Potluck Supper Flier
These flyers will be going up around town this coming week. Download one!
Harvest Potluck Supper
a benefit for the
Clary Lake Association
Saturday November 12 at Sheepscot General
from 4:00 to 7:00 PM
$7.00 adults, $3.00 children
Mark your calendars! The Clary Lake Association invites you to join us, the community coming together, lakeshore owners, neighbors, friends, and family alike, for a Harvest Potluck Supper to enjoy each other’s company, good home cookin’ and to celebrate our Lake.
We are still looking for volunteers willing to contribute food: crockpot items, casseroles, salads, desserts, & beverages. People interested in contributing to this event, please contact Margaret Fergusson @ 207-458-3143, Mary Gingrow-Shaw @ 207-622-3308, or Erin Grimshaw @ 207-346-4640.
Hope to see you there! Check for updates on the Clary Lake Association website as the event draws near: https://clarylake.org/
17 October 2016: New Caching Engine installed, Misc. Site Changes
Back on October 12th I posted Yet Another Site Update Notice about how I planned to go in search of a new caching engine. Well, I found one and over the past week I have been getting it setup and tested, a process that has not been without challenges. This new caching engine has a lot more buttons and dials than the one we have been using (which pretty much just had an on/off switch). From where I’m sitting, this new engine is doing a MUCH BETTER job of caching and as a result, speeding up the site. I’d be very interested in YOUR user experience! Continue reading
13 October 2016: Looking For Volunteers
I’m looking for volunteers to help with testing our email and digital newsletter distribution system. Recent events have made it painfully clear that we need to make some improvements if we’re going to be able to reliably email our Membership.
Sending emails is pretty much routine these days and generally a reliable means of communicating as long as humans are doing it, but as soon as you put a program in control of the process and try sending an email, announcement, or newsletter to even as few as 80 or 100 addresses, remote mail hosts get twitchy, some more twitchy than others. If they sense spam, they’re either going mark it as spam so it ends up in the recipient’s spam folder, or they are just as likely to reject the message outright. Spammers are getting more sophisticated and spam has become a serious problem. Mail hosts are increasingly taking a “shoot first, ask questions later” approach in dealing with it. This may minimize the spam that ends up in your mailbox, but it also can prevent legitimate non-spam emails from being delivered. There are ways to minimize the chances that a bulk email will be marked as spam, but there are no guarantees.
The Clary Lake Association has sent several emails to its membership in the past few months. The first one was about the Boat Launch Cleanup Initiative back in August, and more recently, an email about the upcoming Harvest Potluck Supper was sent to our Membership just a few days ago. Both emails failed to successfully get sent to all addresses on the first try, with each requiring additional shenanigans on my part to finally get the emails sent. It was a tedious process and not wholly satisfying, to say the least. And for all that, I still have no idea how many of those emails ended up in spam folders or weren’t delivered at all. I do know that for the most recent email, for whatever reason, only about 1/3 of the emails that I know were actually sent have been opened. We can do better than that. Continue reading
12 October 2016: Yet Another Site Update Notice
[dropcap]For[/dropcap] something over year now we’ve been using a page/file caching system on this site to speed up page delivery. It’s been working flawlessly and I’ve been quite happy with it. The caching engine is part of a multi-feature site security package called WordFence we use and it has helped speed things up tremendously. Yesterday I received notice from WordFence that they intend to remove the caching engine from their program in a few weeks. This has sent me on a quest to find a new caching engine to replace it.
I’ll be trying out some different caching engines over the next week or so, so be prepared for things to variously work fast, work slow, depending one what I’m up to. It will likely take some time to get a new cache working and tweaked. I installed one earlier today only to discover that it broke the lightbox effect for pictures in the News feed. Not acceptable.
07 October 2016: Remote Access to All 3 ClaryCams Finally Working
Real-time remote access to all 3 Clary webcams is finally working. My tendency is to explain in excruciating detail WHY it wasn’t working and WHAT I had to do to get it working. Instead I’ll just say there was a port conflict and a few other issues which prevented operating 2 cameras on the same internal network at the same time, and leave it at that.
Remote access to firewalled equipment requires Dynamic DNS service, and that is notoriously flakey. When access to a camera is NOT working, it is almost always due to the DDNS being out of date. DDNS is a mechanism whereby a dynamic IP address (which most of us have) is mapped to a static host name (which most of us want). Foscam, the camera manufacturer, runs a free DDNS service for their customers but it seems like it often doesn’t update the static host name with the right IP address in a timely manner. I’ve setup an account with a 3rd party DDNS server for my two cameras (Clarycam1 and Clarycam2) which seems to be working well. If it continues to work well I’ll see if I can get David Hodsdon to signup with the same service. For now his camera which is using the Myfoscam.org DDNS service is working fine…
Bottom line: If you try to connect to a camera and it fails, try again in half an hour. Continue reading