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Pollution a Concern on Pattee Pond

October 03, 2007 - WINSLOW - Brad Whitaker has learned a lot about water pollution in the last year. He knows, for instance, that dirt is a tasty treat for a hungry lake. "Dirt is like fast food for algae," he said. "They love it and they multiply rapidly." Whitaker is worried about the impact of a fast-food diet on Pattee Pond, the lake that he and about 100 others have property on - most of them summer camps.

Given that concern, Whitaker, the president of the Pattee Pond Association, will be one of two dozen or so volunteers and environmental professionals surveying the pond today to locate what he calls non-point source pollution. By non-point source, he said, he means the less visible sources of pollution. Not failing septic tanks. Not commercial factories dumping chemicals. The less visible sources, he said, are the runoff from dirt roads and lawns that provide those nutrients that algae can't pass up.

Given that concern, Whitaker, the president ofthe Pattee Pond Association, will be one of two dozen or so volunteers and environmental professionals surveying the pond today to locate what he calls non-point source pollution. "We are trying to head this off," he said, "because we know we have a problem." But a manageable problem.

Whitaker said Pattee Pond has yet to experience an algae bloom. On the other hand, he said, anybody who takes a slow kayak tour of the pond will find clumps of algae. After a big rainstorm, he said, the pond's visibility is significantly diminished for a day or two, and although that dirt eventually settles to the bottom, the net effect is the lake is stocked with a greater supply of the phosphorous that algae find especially delectable.

Whitaker said the Pattee Pond Association was inactive for about 10 years before meeting last October. This summer members came together and named officers and made plans for today's survey. The Department of Environmental Protection will have seven professionals on hand to train Pattee Pond volunteers - about 15 are expected - on how to identify non-point source polhition, Whitaker said. A member of the Kennebec Soil and Water Conservation District also will be on hand.

Whitaker said the hope is that the information collected will aid the association in winning grant money from the DEP that can be used to help reduce the amount of runoff into the pond.

SOURCE: MORNING SENTINEL

DATE: 09-24-2007

Lakes: Pattee Pond
Regions: Belgrade


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