Cyanobacteria Alert Issued for Blackey Cove (Moultonborough)

[Descant]

Originally Posted by tis

Except the Franklin plant was at full capacity and couldn't take any more.

I'm curious about the source of that information.
Locally, when our wastewater treatment facility reaches 80% of capacity there is a requirement to increase capacity. The WWTF is supported by user fees, so this is not a tax issue. I would expect the same from the EPA and DES oversight of the Franklin facility. In the old days, if there was overflow of untreated sewage into the river, there were fines and other repercussions.

[John Mercier]

I remember Jeanne discussing it on our PublicTV channel. She sits on the WRBP advisory board for Belmont.

Something about the need for more money to cover delayed maintenance and the system seeing development pressure needing a future expansion.

Even when they pump my septic, I think the waste gets transported to Franklin to be processed.

The State could mandate a pumping threshold... it is usually a three to five year period depending on the condition found each time it is pumped.

But I find it hard to believe that they have large amounts of septic leaching without E.coli being detected. Fecal contamination is usually one of the primary signs of a septic system failure.

I think the amount of, and rather heavy, rainfall events are transporting nutrients into the lake bodies, and a mixture of natural and man-made factors are stirring the sediment releasing it.

In the winter, even natural upwelling would be a factor.

I doubt the State Legislature will take any action... or at least any significant action. But spending more on education is also doubtful to make any significant inroad to the situation.

[Biggd]

I'm not a big fan of government intervention but these things require lots of money. Most private individuals won't give up their $$$$$$ freely to help the masses, only when it helps them directly.
Most of the people that own these McMansions will spend tons of money to beautify their property but won't cough up a buck to help the overall health of the lake without being forced to.

[The Real BigGuy]

Originally Posted by Biggd

I'm not a big fan of government intervention but these things require lots of money. Most private individuals won't give up their $$$$$$ freely to help the masses, only when it helps them directly.

Most of the people that own these McMansions will spend tons of money to beautify their property but won't cough up a buck to help the overall health of the lake without being forced to.

I think you will find the issue isn’t the McMansions. They are mostly new(er) construction with newer, state approved systems. The issue is the older camps w/cesspools & Gerry rigged systems. (I heard of one that was a 55 gal drum w/effluent pumped to a real small sand bed.). I think the idea previously presented of starting to police all systems that are not state approved and don’t just limit it to waterfront is a good one.


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[Biggd]

Originally Posted by The Real BigGuy

I think you will find the issue isn’t the McMansions. They are mostly new(er) construction with newer, state approved systems. The issue is the older camps w/cesspools & Gerry rigged systems. (I heard of one that was a 55 gal drum w/effluent pumped to a real small sand bed.). I think the idea previously presented of starting to police all systems that are not state approved and don’t just limit it to waterfront is a good one.


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Natural run off is one of the biggest destroyers of water quality and those big green lawns with lots of pesticides is a bigger issue than the old small camp septic systems. With all the heavy rain we had this season it increased the problem.

[ApS]

Originally Posted by ishoot308

APS;

This is definitely Blackey Cove. If you do a Google Earth search you can clearly see the similarities...

Dan

Thanks. I used a "Google Lens" search to find similarly-affected lakes.

What appeared were distressed lakes in the northern tier of US states. (Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, NH, Maine). States south of us didn't appear overly affected. I haven't searched Canadian lakes yet.

Which brings me to my Florida county's approach: Because of tourism decline due to disappointing fishing catches, my County's Board got a grant to replace ALL septic systems with "E-1 pumps". Local ocean waters were to be cleansed of poor--or absent--methods. Costs were added to our water bill--effectively doubling them!

Anchored visitors in this County are already required to maintain a log of pump-outs for weekly Marine Patrol inspections or pay fines.

Five years later, now that 99% of waste facilities are "fixed", I asked an activist neighbor (a fishing guide to Gulf- and Atlantic-ocean waters) how things had "progressed".

Disappointed, he said the problem was not our local waters, but the Mississippi River watershed!

(Whose source is the northern tier of US states)...

[SAB1]

If only the water fleas ate it....

[Chimi]

Another possible cause to consider are wake boats:

https://www.sierraclub.org/minnesota...nd-10000-lakes

[TiltonBB]

Originally Posted by Chimi

Another possible cause to consider are wake boats:

https://www.sierraclub.org/minnesota...nd-10000-lakes

Wake boats are a huge problem. The study cited above briefly mentions New Hampshire. After reading the article, it seems like we are behind on increasing wake boat regulation to help protect the lake.

[ApS]

Originally Posted by John Mercier

"Nutrient loading can be the result of nutrients that are trapped in the bottom soils and released during an upwelling (which is why it can happen below the ice), or any time that water is ''stirred'' by either weather or other activities."

"Nutrient loading" is another term for "sequestration": which means that compounds of primarily nitrogen and phosphorus "lie in wait" to be stored, distributed or disturbed at a later time. (E.g., "carbon sequestration").

Originally Posted by Chimi

Another possible cause to consider are wake boats:

https://www.sierraclub.org/minnesota...nd-10000-lakes

Excerpts from the above article regarding Wake Boats:

1) "The downward angle of the propwash from wake boats causes algae blooms by stirring up sediment and reintroducing sequestered phosphorus and nitrates into the water column. Lake water is warmed by this increased turbidity, making aquatic ecosystems less hospitable for native flora and fauna. Often native plants are uprooted and fish nests destroyed".

2) "Some shorelines are naturally hardened and able to withstand wake boats operating nearby..."

A suggestion for the ultimate boating use for The Broads?

[tis]

I haven't seen anybody mention the geese. I never saw so much ---- in my life and their population is growing by leaps and bounds.

[John Mercier]

Originally Posted by tis

I haven't seen anybody mention the geese. I never saw so much ---- in my life and their population is growing by leaps and bounds.

Lawns. They love the lawn at Middleton Meredith. And it is right in the flyway between the bay and Waukewan.

Luckily, run-off is captured in our holding pond toward the front.
You can see how well the vegetation grows there.

[SAB1]

We can run around the block a hundred times and find a lot of culprits. I went to water quality meeting a couple years ago and was shocked to find there are still town drainage basins that dump into into the lake. Impervious barriers are a problem. Look at center harbor for example. Basically it’s uphill from the dock to the grocery store and everything is tar from the water up. So all the nutrients wash right over the tar to the lake. Anyone fertilizing up there is contributing. What they need is a ban on fertilizer within x miles of the lake. Shut it down. You get caught big time fines. That includes landscaping companies.

[John Mercier]

The problem you would be creating is X-miles from.
It would be easier just to ban chemical fertilizer. The State has banned other items for environmental reasons. No body really cares that MbTe is no longer causing a water quality issue... we didn't hear an outcry when it was removed.

Laundry detergents would be a bit harder from a purely political sense.

That would lower the additional loading, but the sequestration limits may have already been hit. So I am not sure how to handle stirring the bottom up releasing the nutrients back into the system could be resolved cost effectively.

[tis]

Originally Posted by Descant

I'm curious about the source of that information.
Locally, when our wastewater treatment facility reaches 80% of capacity there is a requirement to increase capacity. The WWTF is supported by user fees, so this is not a tax issue. I would expect the same from the EPA and DES oversight of the Franklin facility. In the old days, if there was overflow of untreated sewage into the river, there were fines and other repercussions.

When Wolfeboro was shut down by the state they had to find a solution as to what to do with the effluent. One of the possible options was Franklin, however, that didn't work out because it didn't have the capacity.