Rain resulted in an auspicious start to the day but even as I type this I can see out my window that the sky is getting brighter and the rain is letting up. The forecast this morning was for showers this morning, clearing later in the day with a chance of a passing shower this afternoon. The forecast isn’t any better for tomorrow either so we’re taking our chances. Hope to see you there!
Finally got around to posting the proposed agenda for the Annual Meeting scheduled for this coming Saturday, August 3rd. I had intended to make them available sooner but I’ve been a little busy this week. We’ll have printed copies available at the meeting. I don’t think in the history of the Association we’ve ever had an agenda that was 2 pages long, as this one is. I blame this on several things. First, legitimately, we’ve got a lot of stuff to discuss and second, I wrote it 🙂
2013 Proposed Annual Meeting Agenda
Also here are the 2012 Annual Meeting minutes… I wasn’t aware that they weren’t on line yet and nobody was clamoring for them anyways. So better late than never and, in keeping with my move towards using Google Docs as a document distribution system, here is a link to the Membership Meeting Minutes folder- I hope others besides Paul Kelley will enjoy perusing these files:
Clary Lake Association Membership Meeting Minutes
David Hodsdon has recently given me a CD with all the Association records from 1997 through 2004. I won’t be posting everything but I will go through the files in my copious spare time and choose some to post. There are also some pictures which I will definitely post.
David Hodsdon and Jack Holland completed their routine water quality monitoring task yesterday. I have updated the Clary Lake Water Monitoring Data page. David reports that the secchi disk reading he obtained yesterday (4.92′ or 1.5 meters) without question indicates that Clary Lake is experiencing an algae bloom, a fact that should not come as a surprise if you’ve been out on the lake lately. A lake is considered to be experiencing an algae bloom when the secchi disk reading is at or below 2 meters (6.56′). We’re well into bloom territory.
David has been in touch with Scott Williams of the VLMP about this issue and they may be sending someone out to independently assess the situation. The picture at upper left is from last summer’s bloom. It hasn’t gotten that bad yet.
I’ve written recently about algae blooms (here and here) and why we’re more at risk now because of the extreme low water conditions we’re experiencing. I’m going to get on the phone and rattle some cages.
[UPDATE]: I took a ride around the lake this afternoon- with bright sun shining down, I could just barely make out the bottom in 3.5′ of water off the end of my dock. I took a water sample just a bit ago and examined it under a microscope: it is loaded with Anabena cyanobacteria, the blue-green algae pictured at left that is largely responsible for freshwater algae blooms. The transparency of the lake water has deteriorated seriously over the last month: On the 1st of June the secchi disk reading was 10.1 feet; by the 19th it had dropped 2 feet and in the last 10 days dropped another 3 feet. Transparency is now less than 1/2 of what it was a month ago. They’re multiplying. Fast.
Many of you were subjected the other day to the first mailing of the Association’s E-NEWS Newsletter which I liken to an Emergency Broadcast System but that’s just my flare for the dramatic. In reality it’s just another way to disseminate information in a timely, cost effective way to a targeted audience and one which we have no intention of over-using: the ability to drop emails into your inbox is a privilege we don’t want to abuse or lose. We’re happy most of the time to let you drop in and peruse the website at your leisure but there will be times when we want to get your attention sooner rather than later. And of course there is an E-NEWS archive where we’ll keep copies of the mailings available for reference. The newsletter system also includes options to unsubscribe and edit your profile. So far nobody has unsubscribed 🙂
There has been a little confusion over subscribing to NEWS versus subscribing to E-NEWS. NEWS are the posts that appear on this news page and you can sign up to get email notices of new posts and even new comments on individual posts. On most other pages you’ll find a “Subscribe to Clary Lake Association News via Email” text box on the side bar where you can enter your email address. On the other hand you can sign up for E-NEWS newsletters on the Join our E-NEWS Mailing List page and in a few other places on the site (like on the home page). You’ll only get E-NEWS emails or newsletters on those rare occasions that the Association decides to send them out.
Paul Kelley has fought this water level petition tooth and nail ever since it was filed over a year and a half ago. All his efforts have been futile while costing him a lot of money. Stalling is a fine tactic I guess when it leads to a tactical advantage; when it simply delays the inevitable, then it is just a waste of one’s time and money. He has lost the battle and he knows it. He is now on record saying that he just “wants out” and he’s looking for an exit strategy. What he’s come up with defies understanding: he sees his petition for release from dam ownership or water level maintenance resulting in a breach order from the Department. Once he has that in hand, he hires a backhoe to come in and dismantle the Clary Lake dam and then he just disappears. His development plans thwarted through his own incompetent efforts to ram them through the town planning process, he lashes out leaving destruction and devastation behind him as he departs for greener pastures. What a guy. Well, that scenario will only happen in his dreams. Reality I’m certain has a less pleasant outcome in store for him. Continue reading
This is the complete video of the WGME Channel 13 news interview. The original one I posted was missing the first 50 seconds which in a 2 minute 22 second segment is a lot. Worth watching if I do say so myself. Thanks to David Hodsdon for sending this to me.
Plans are well underway for the Association’s Annual meeting to be held Saturday August 3rd at 2 PM at the home of Robert Antognoni. Robert lives on the south side of Clary Lake at the end of Robert E. Dow Road in Jefferson. For those of you who don’t know where it is, here’s a Google Map showing the location. For those of you who are Google Map challenged, Robert E. Dow Road is located off Route 126 0.16 miles east from the Jefferson town line, 0.92 miles west from the intersection of Route 215 and 126 at the head of Clary Lake, and 1.83 miles east on Route 126 from the Whitefield Superette in North Whitefield Village. If you still manage to get lost, call Robert Antognoni at 549-7694 and we’ll guide you in for a smooth landing. Continue reading
Kelley did not get a “permit” from DEP to “lower the lake level” to “fix the dam” despite what he keeps saying to the contrary. He’s made that statement at the public hearing, he’s made it in official documents of record since then, he said it at a Whitefield Selectmen’s meeting last spring, and he said it again in his 23 July 2013 interview with Channel 13’s reporter Marissa Bodnar. Kelley would like you think he’s has an official Department of Environmental Protection sanction for his negligent dewatering of Clary Lake, but he doesn’t. He’d also like you to think that he was going to fix the dam until we filed the water level petition. Does anyone really believe any of this tripe?He had the fall of 2011 to fix the dam but he did nothing- I didn’t file the petition until January of 2012. What was stopping him?
The video that was at this link was missing the first 50 seconds of the segment and has been superceded by a better, complete video provided by David Hodsdon which is in the process of being uploaded to YouTube now.
Here’s the new video:
Channel 13 News is doing a segment on the Clary Lake water level petition that is supposed to air tonight at 6 PM. I got a call this morning from Marissa Bodnar, news reporter for Channel 13. She and her camera man Mike came by around 1PM and interviewed me, took a look at the lake, then headed over to the dam to meet up with Paul Kelley and get his side of the story.
A fair number of people check the Clary Lake Webcam from time to time and sadly, 90% of the time they find it isn’t running. The reason is that the software generates a fair amount of load on my desktop computer, slowing things down and making it hard for me to get work done so I tend not to run the webcam when I’m working at my computer which lately seems like all the time. Then I often forget to start it up when I leave to do something else. Anyways, I’ve made a few changes to the webcam system configuration in the hopes that it will use less resources and not slow things down quite so much, and I will try to keep it running more regularly for those people who want to have a look at what I’m looking at out my window.
Ultimately I’d like to get an outdoor waterproof wireless webcam and mount it on a tree down by the shoreline to get a better view of the lake and whatever happens to be floating or swimming by. Maybe someday..
Today my son and I paddled our kayaks across the lake and then 2/3 of the way down the channel towards the dam, almost reaching the abandoned beaver lodge before finally giving up. The channel itself is quite narrow, often only 8′ to 10′ wide and it is largely grown in with reeds. Occasionally it widens out to 15′ or 20′ or more, but even then the navigable portion is still quite narrow. In some places it is almost impossible to tell where it goes; only my familiarity with it and the shallow draft of our kayaks allowed us to get through. The wild rice is just now beginning to flower and it doesn’t look like there is as much as there was last year, but that might change in a few weeks. I took a few pictures which I’ve posted to the Summer 2013 album. The one at upper left was taken right as we entered the channel. Continue reading
A few days ago I posted about the alarming decline in Clary Lake’s water quality and promised an update. Here it is. Last Friday July 19th, David Hodsdon and Jack Holland hit the lake to conduct their regular water quality data collection exercise. The results have been posted on the Clary Lake Water Quality Data page. The bottom line is that the secchi disk reading (a measure of water clarity or transparency) was 8.04′ (2.45 meters), down from 10.01′ (3.05 meters) on June 30th. For comparison, the average secchi disk reading (based on the average of 88 secchi disk readings taken in the month of July from 1975 to 2011) is 12.28′ (3.74 meters) or 4.24′ (1.29 meters) more than the current reading. In statistical terms, that is a HUGE change- in the wrong direction.
I made a sojourn up into the Great Meadow at the northwest end of the lake today, my first since last February and I took a bunch of pictures which have I combined into the panorama at left. It is composite of 7 photographs and it’s been scaled to 50% and at that it’s still 4904 x 713 pixels. I defy you to detect the seams! There’s a link in the caption so you can view or download the full sized image. For those of you who can’t make it out there, hopefully this picture will give you some sense of the impact the draw down of the lake is having.
Mary and Ernie Shaw completed the 2013 Audubon Loon Count this morning. While they headed east from their place along the south shore, my wife Margaret and I headed up the west side and the along the north shore. We met up not far from Ed Grant’s place and stopped to compare notes. The loon count takes place all over the State between 7 am and 7:30 am on the 3rd Saturday of July and includes more than just the number of loons counted. Mary will be giving a report on the count at the Annual meeting.
We counted only 2 loons this morning though as many as 6 have been seen in recent weeks. When they’re nesting, one pair is about normal for a lake the size of Clary but they’re not nesting this year and it appears they’re rather more sociable when that is the case. I have no idea where the other loons were this morning, likely off visiting another lake. They do fly around a fair bit more than I ever knew- I was told when I was growing up that loons landed in the 
spring and never flew again till they took off in the fall. I now know this is not the case. There are a few more pictures from the loon count in the Summer 2013 Album.
Tim Chase told me today that after much thought he has put in an offer on the Clary Lake dam! As many of you know, Tim’s father Chester Chase owned the dam for years and as a teen Tim worked at the mill and help operate the dam making him a perfect choice to take it over. In fact I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have own it. Tim owns the property adjoining the Clary Mill property on the north. Of course, there is no guarantee that Kelley will accept Tim’s offer, but if he really wants out from under the dam, here’s his chance. Tim sent me a copy of his offer:
It sure looks legitimate to me. I’ve asked Tim to keep me posted on developments.
I assume others have noticed how murky the lake water has become. Over the past couple of weeks the water clarity has decreased significantly. No doubt this is due to the hot weather we’ve been getting coupled with a lack of rain and drastically low water levels. With the lake now down 50″ below the top of the dam, more than 875 million gallons of water or nearly 1/2 of all the water in the lake has been drained off. This has allowed the water to warm up significantly and has exposed soft bottom sediments to the effects of wave action, stirring them up and releasing phosphorous (think plant food) that has been until now safely bound up in the mud. Paul Kelley’s thoughtless water level management is poisoning the lake.
I put a sample of lake water under my microscope this morning to see if I could see what might be causing the cloudy appearance. I found a good number cyanobacteria of the genus Anabena which is the blue-green algae responsible for algal blooms. At left is a photograph I took last August of Anabena blue-green algae from the lake. There’s always a little Anabena in the lake, but I think to see this much this early in the season is not a good sign. Given sufficient nutrients, growth of this bacteria can explode. It bears watching.
I met with our resident water quality expert David Hodsdon this morning to discuss this and other things and he agreed that the water clarity has deteriorated. He and Jack Holland will be going out tomorrow morning to perform their regular water quality monitoring which includes secchi disk (clarity/transparency), dissolved oxygen, and temperature measurements. This data gets posted on the Clary Lake Water Monitoring Data page. Look for an update to this post sometime tomorrow.
I received an email today from a fellow with the Natural Resources Council of Maine. He was looking to update the listing for Clary Lake on the Land for Maine’s Future Projects page and wanted us to review the current listing:
Clary Lake is a popular destination for boaters and anglers. With funds from the Land for Maine’s Future program and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Sport Fish Restoration Program, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (IF&W) secured funds to acquire a site that provides permanent and safe access for motor boats and hand-carry craft, as well as bank fishing and swimming.
Clary Lake is a popular destination for fishing year-round, offering bass and perch as well as occasional brood stocks introduced by IF&W. The State purchased this parcel and built the access site to replace one across the lake that had a dangerous configuration (being located on a curve at the base of a long hill). The access site is owned and managed by IF&W.
Return to Land for Maine’s Future projects list.
Sounds idyllic doesn’t it. I emailed him and let him know that the State boat launch highlighted in the narrative is currently unusable due to low water conditions and that the future of Clary Lake is facing a serious challenge from a dam owner who just doesn’t give a dam. I don’t expect them to update the listing. Got to put a good face on it, know what I mean?
Anyways, I’ve added a link to the Natural Resources Council of Maine on the Links & Resources page. FYI, I was unable to actually find the Programs page without using the link provided.
Well almost in the mail. Our application to reinstate our 501 c(3) exemption is going in the mail in about an hour, just as soon as the post office window opens up again at 1 PM today. Again, we are grateful for Paul Kelley bringing this matter to our attention. Of course, I sincerely doubt he thought he was doing us any favors, but clearly he did. Who knows how long it would have been before we came to the realization that our 501 c(3) status had been revoked? What is totally ironic is that he filed an objection with the Attorney General’s office because he objected to our soliciting contributions without 501 c(3) status. And what were we soliciting contributions for? A dam repair fund which could well end up benefiting him. Go figure.
Incidentally, the approved form 1023 application with attachments in all their glory must by law be made available to the general public. The operative word there is “approved.” When our application is approved, I will post a link to it. Until then, try not to let the anticipation get to you.
Paul Koenig has written another article which has appeared in today’s Kennebec Journal. Paul and I spoke several times over the past few days about the closing arguments that Kelley and I submitted last Monday. I hadn’t expected the article to be published until tomorrow. Many thanks to Brandon K. for bringing it to my attention.
Here’s a link to the online version:
It’s a good article; I have been pleasantly surprised in recent months with the coverage we’re getting from the local papers. Kelley is striking out at every turn, you’d think he’d read the handwriting on the wall and start taking a different, more conciliatory stance; his endless strident objections are falling on deaf ears. The Department is going to slap an order on his breached dam and it’s not going to specify a water level that is 2.7′ below the hole in his dam. Why he thinks the condition of the dam is relevant to the determination of a suitable water level for Clary Lake, I have no idea. He’s making that part up, along with a whole lot of other stuff. There is a way out of this mess he’s in but he’s just too damned stubborn, spiteful, and vindictive to consider it.