Cyanobacteria Warning West Side Bear Is.

[Bobby]

The lake isn't some swimming pool which you can chlorinate if you don't like the look of the water. It is a living, natural thing that has to be treated responsibly.

[mg2107]

What we need to do is build a couple dozen more mansions on the shore . That should finish the job.

[KTO]

Originally Posted by mg2107

What we need to do is build a couple dozen more mansions on the shore . That should finish the job.

Can they have ENORMOUS green lawns with them? That'd be nice...

[Jeanzb1]

These towns on the lake need to push a HUGE educational campaign for those that live on the lake about what you can do and what you cannot do.
Otherwise, the lake will suffer -- and so will all of us who love it so much.

[Bear Island South]

I agree, education is the key, I was enlightened by what I read on the DES website. We will do our part to help the lake. The problem is the people with the mansions don't seem to care, it is all about "show" to them, big mansion, green lawn, look at me mentality.
I would like to know why is this problem associated with Bear Island right now? My wife talked with BOH today it seems to be isolated on the northern section of Bear only.
Lets all do what we can to save this precious resource.

[jrc]

I didn't know there were so many mansions on the west side of Bear Island.

Although it's always tempting to blame the other guy for your troubles, you may want to look a little closer to home. Not all nutrients leaching into the lake come from the evil rich. Class warfare is never the answer.

A wealthy person with a large mansion is going to hire a professional landscaping service to maintain his lawn, they will have a licensed chemical guy. They will be very inclined to follow the shoreland rules.

Contrast that with the average homeowner who goes to Home Depot, buys the stuff on sale and applies it himself. Does he know the rules, does he follow them?

Now look in your backyard, is your septic system up to date? The mansion guy put in a new state certified system when he built the house five or ten years ago. What did Grandpa put in 40-50 years ago on his summer camp? Sure it's a 1/4 acre shorefront lot and the leach field is size of a postage stamp and only 50 feet from the water, but don't worry it's grandfathered in.

It's not always them, sometimes it's us.

[MDoug]

Originally Posted by jrc

I didn't know there were so many mansions on the west side of Bear Island.

Although it's always tempting to blame the other guy for your troubles, you may want to look a little closer to home. Not all nutrients leaching into the lake come from the evil rich. Class warfare is never the answer.

A wealthy person with a large mansion is going to hire a professional landscaping service to maintain his lawn, they will have a licensed chemical guy. They will be very inclined to follow the shoreland rules.

Contrast that with the average homeowner who goes to Home Depot, buys the stuff on sale and applies it himself. Does he know the rules, does he follow them?

Now look in your backyard, is your septic system up to date? The mansion guy put in a new state certified system when he built the house five or ten years ago. What did Grandpa put in 40-50 years ago on his summer camp? Sure it's a 1/4 acre shorefront lot and the leach field is size of a postage stamp and only 50 feet from the water, but don't worry it's grandfathered in.

It's not always them, sometimes it's us.

As Walt Kelly said in "Pogo," We has met the enemy, and they is us."

[Jeanzb1]

Every single family that owns waterfront property on this gorgeous lake needs education -- and they need it N-O-W ! Five years from now may be too late.

In response to Bear Island South: It is not just the west side of Bear Island.
The yellow pollen-looking substance that is suspended in the water is indeed the cyanobacteria. But it is more concentrated in some areas of the lake.

[SAMIAM]

JRC makes a very good point. As much as we all complain about the "McMansions", they are carefully scrutinized from start to finish and held to very high environmental standards. Many of the older cottages were not designed for dishwashers, clothes washers and multiple showers. As a result, many of these systems are failing.

[Lakegeezer]

There is a commercial service to measure the lake for cyanobacteria and the phosphorus levels that can cause it. This would show if the Bear Island occurrence is isolated or if there is a wide spread problem. Bluewater Satellite http://bluewatersatellite.com/Cyanobacteria.html uses data from the Landsat sensors for the analysis, and provides five readings per acre.

Moultonborough used the service last year to measure phosphorus in its waters and discovered new areas of elevated phosphorus. Based on that data, it added new monitoring points to the Lay Lakes water sampling program, done in cooperation with UNH.

There was a clear sky satellite pass on June 21’st that could be used for an analysis. Bluewater will analyze the phosphorus and cyanobacteria for the whole lake (about 46,000 acres) for $7900. This would allow DES to focus testing resources on areas of the lake where there is already cyanobacteria, and start looking at high phosphorus areas for potential causes. The problem, of course, is that DES does not have the budget for this, only for spot testing or where people report a problem. If any of the Winnipesaukee area organizations wants to peruse this, please send me a private message to discuss how to proceed.

[DC Pointer]

I am down in the Wolfeboro/Alton side of the Lake. I haven't seen any blooms, but I have to say I have seen an inordinate amount of dead wildlife floating around. Dead birds, ducks and fish. I saw a dead loon floating this morning on the east side of Barndoor Island. I can't remember the last time I saw a dead bird/fish floating around in the waters. I noticed the birds at the Wolfeboro docks yesterday and several dead fish in the Dellings Cove area two days ago. Does the bacteria have an adverse affect on the wildlife as well? I would assume so. Anyone else seen anything like this? This is scary. I got little kids swimming in the water all day.

[Jeanzb1]

We're in West Alton, behind the William Tell Restaurant. Netted two dead fish the same day this past week. And sometimes the water is GREEN and other times it looks okay. Frightening, though. People down here are talking about the "pollen" in the water, and when I tell them what it really is, they are shocked.

[bilproject]

Two summers ago the DES sampled water all over the lake along the shoreline measuring e-coli levels. This same area came up with a high level of e-coli. Many of the old camps have just holding tanks or a small leach system dug into the solid clay that makes up Bear Island. To the good I know of about 9 new spetics and several more upgrades over the past 3 years from the northern tip of Bear to the carry. In fact one is being built right now in the area of the bloom. Leaves that float on the water in the fall tend to get trapped in coves and protected areas where they sink and add high amounts of nutrients. I believe there was also a Cyno bloom behind Lago last summer.

[VtSteve]

We have these massive blooms up in the northern part of Champlain. Primarily, caused by Farmers. It's been polluting the lake and injuring people and animals for many years, decades. Once that was known, not much was done. More than 50% of the phosphorous pollution, much more this year, is caused by farming runoff. Weeds, bacteria, ecoli. Most of our bay pollution here where I am is caused by waterfoul.

[MDoug]

We got a call from the Concord office a few minutes ago and learned that today's test results for cyanobacteria were within healthy parameters. The office said it would prepare a statement soon.

We'll see you in the water!

[MDoug]

Originally Posted by bilproject

Two summers ago the DES sampled water all over the lake along the shoreline measuring e-coli levels. This same area came up with a high level of e-coli. Many of the old camps have just holding tanks or a small leach system dug into the solid clay that makes up Bear Island. To the good I know of about 9 new spetics and several more upgrades over the past 3 years from the northern tip of Bear to the carry. In fact one is being built right now in the area of the bloom. Leaves that float on the water in the fall tend to get trapped in coves and protected areas where they sink and add high amounts of nutrients. I believe there was also a Cyno bloom behind Lago last summer.

Most of us on Bear from Rock Island south to Dolly have upgraded our septic systems to comply with today's standards within the past few years.

[ApS]

Originally Posted by jrc

I didn't know there were so many mansions on the west side of Bear Island. A wealthy person with a large mansion is going to hire a professional landscaping service to maintain his lawn, they will have a licensed chemical guy. They will be very inclined to follow the shoreland rules.

"Inclined" apparently isn't good enough. Why lawns in the first place?

Originally Posted by KTO

Can they have ENORMOUS green lawns with them? That'd be nice...

At Millstone Point, a McMansion which has just been converted to a Mansion had many truckloads loads of new loam dropped just 20 feet from the lake. The pile would have covered school buses! Now fertilize that loam, and see what happens.

The most pristine lakes have a preponderance of White Pine trees surrounding them. Near where this Mansion was put in, scores of White Pines were removed just recently.

[mg2107]

In view of the massive property taxes these mansions generate for the towns and state . Perhaps they could get together and say once a week have several giant truck loads of chlorine dumped in the lake at each end and turn it into a gaint swimming pool for shore side dwellers. That would take care of the pollution and everything else besides.

[tis]

Originally Posted by Acres per Second

"Inclined" apparently isn't good enough. Why lawns in the first place?


At Millstone Point, a McMansion which has just been converted to a Mansion had many truckloads loads of new loam dropped just 20 feet from the lake. The pile would have covered three school buses! Now fertilize that loam, and see what happens.

The most pristine lakes have a preponderance of White Pine trees surrounding them. Near where this Mansion was put in, scores of White Pines were removed just recently.

But they just replaced the loam at the new McMansion/Mansion, it is not like it is new lawn. BTW, I love that house, I think it is very pretty.
Why lawns? Because they are pretty and in my opinion, there is nothing like looking at a long sweep of lawn from the shore. Besides, they were put in before we all knew how "bad" they are for the lake. Now you can't make a big lawn unless it is already there.

[ApS]

Originally Posted by tis

But they just replaced the loam at the new McMansion/Mansion, it is not like it is new lawn. BTW, I love that house, I think it is very pretty.
Why lawns? Because they are pretty and in my opinion, there is nothing like looking at a long sweep of lawn from the shore. Besides, they were put in before we all knew how "bad" they are for the lake. Now you can't make a big lawn unless it is already there.

Since last week, that loam got spread out and that huge sweep has been re-sodded with grass.

The new second story—while nicely done, was absolutely necessary, as their new boathouse blocked their view!

The construction took three years, and many square yards of copper flashing was used; however, I question copper's use adjacent to the lake, as copper is poisonous to crayfish, and has been discovered to be questionable around fish.

The longer I view DES regulations around the lake, the more I appreciate their long-term goal to return Lake Winnipesaukee waters to the way they were—before Winnipesaukee "got discovered".

BTW:

Millstone Point looks nice from Ayers Point, but the view back—from their neighbor's dock—points to a problem with Tuftonboro's zoning regulations.

IMHO .

[spider22]

Originally Posted by Bobby

The lake isn't some swimming pool which you can chlorinate if you don't like the look of the water. It is a living, natural thing that has to be treated responsibly.

the stuff I was talking about isn't chlorine, it is designed for ponds and lakes. Like I said it might not work in this large an area but it might be worth checking out.