Town of Groton
Meeting Notice
Town Clerk
173 Main Street
Groton, MA 01450
(978) 448-1100
Great Pond Advisory Committee Meeting
Thursday, December 22 2022 at 7:00 PM
Other: See Agenda, Specified in Agenda ,
This meeting was posted Monday, December 19 2022 at 7:59 AM
Agenda
Date: Dec 22, 2022 at 7:00 PM
Location:
Topic: Great Pond Advisory
Time: Dec 22, 2022 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 893 3119 1336
Passcode: 544173
7:00 Call to order
7:00 Meeting minutes – Review, any updates and vote to the approval of previous minutes
7:05 Financial Summary
Proposed projects
Harvester trailer tires
Annual evaluation of phosphorous and nitrogen levels in in Lost Lake/Knopps Pond ($4,000)
Potential vote on Treasurer
7:15 Duck Pond
Vote of support for Duck Pond Maintenance budget being added to GPAC budget*
7:25 Lost Lake / Knops Pond
7:35 Baddacook Pond
Vote – Coverage Harvester funding short fall
Invoice $17,016
Harvester Remaining Budget $16,911.20
Short fall $ 104.80
7:45 Whitney Pond
7:55 New business
8:00 Adjourn
* Vote may be taken
The listing of topics that the Chair reasonably anticipates will be discussed at the meeting is not intended as a guarantee of the topics that will have been discussed. Not all topics listed may in fact be discussed, and other topics not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law.
Info for Duck Pond budget vote
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As most of you know, I have been concerned about maintaining the aeration of Duck Pond over the long-term for the financial reasons described below. I am pleased to report that after receiving the email below, Town Manager Mark Haddad has agreed to budget $3K as a line item in the GPAC budget for the long-term electricity (& minor maintenance) for the Compressor system starting in FY25. Thank you, Jim Luening and the GPAC, for your long-term support (of all the lakes/ponds), and of course the CPA for these two project approvals. The following provides a summary of the Duck Pond CPA projects to date, and the background of this request to Mark. For efficiency, I’m copying the GLA President, CPC liaison, and my neighbors (bcc:). [I will prioritize the remaining CPA funds on providing sufficient electricity through June 2024].
.
Next year is the last year of the second 3-year CPA project to improve the health and slow the eutrophication of Duck Pond.
The first project installed the air compressor and ten diffusers around the pond, operated it for three years, tested water quality three times per year, and attempted to measure any changes in sediment (“muck”) depth. It also included applying additional aerobic bacteria over a wide area. The second project continued the operation and water quality measurements, made some repairs, and tried other measurements of the muck.
We’ve learned that the aeration helps the pond health by providing dissolved oxygen at all depths to benefit fish and mammals, and by keeping more of the pond surface free of weeds to benefit recreation use (fishing, kayaking, canoeing, paddle-boarding, and even just the view for the many hikers on the conservation trail along the east side).
The water quality results also have been consistently good. However, any annual changes in muck are too small to measure by any techniques we’ve tried or of which we are aware. I conclude that we should continue the aeration, don’t need to keep testing water quality, and should cease trying to measure the muck changes.
The CPC funds new one-time projects but has a policy against long-term “maintenance” expenses. Some members put the monthly GELD bills in this category so are unlikely to approve additional grant requests to fund only electricity for the Compressor. By cutting out the other expenses mentioned above, and by switching to GELD’s time-of-use rates when the new meters are available (and turning off the Compressor for the peak hours), I think we can reduce the electricity cost to $2K per year in addition to some infrequent Compressor/Hose/Diffuser maintenance costs.
My question now is how to provide that $2K-$3K per year. GPAC is supportive of the project but doesn’t have the budget for that. Groton Lakes Assoc. collects dues and could consider it but remains challenged to raise enough to fund the Lost Lake/Knops Pond annual spot treatments and occasional whole-lake treatments for invasives. I raised $13K and $3.5K respectively in neighbor donations to the Town for the two CPC projects. But I don’t want to become an annual solicitor of donations long-term.
I discussed with Kevin Kelly at GELD the concept of installing additional solar panels (somewhere there is sun; all Duck Pond shoreline is forested) as an offset to the 5KW of electricity needed for the Compressor. I thought that such an installation ($10K-$15K?) might get CPC approval. But he didn’t think GELD would benefit given their cost of electricity and their billing rates. We discussed the time-of-use rates. He suggested adding a battery to be charged during low-rate hours and used during peak hours. I said we can simply turn it off during peak rate hours as running the aeration ~20 hours a day vs. 24 should not make a noticeable difference. He said that could cut our expenses by almost half.
If there was previous agenda for this meeting it is below
Date: Dec 22, 2022 at 7:00 PM
Location:
Zoom: TBD
Meeting ID: TBD
Passcode: TBD
7:00 Call to order
7:00 Meeting minutes – Review, any updates and vote to the approval of previous minutes
7:05 Financial Summary
Proposed projects
Harvester trailer tires
Annual evaluation of phosphorous and nitrogen levels in in Lost Lake/Knopps Pond ($4,000)
Potential vote on Treasurer
7:15 Duck Pond
Vote of support for Duck Pond Maintenance budget being added to GPAC budget*
7:25 Lost Lake / Knops Pond
7:35 Baddacook Pond
Vote – Coverage Harvester funding short fall
Invoice $17,016
Harvester Remaining Budget $16,911.20
Short fall $ 104.80
7:45 Whitney Pond
7:55 New business
8:00 Adjourn
* Vote may be taken
The listing of topics that the Chair reasonably anticipates will be discussed at the meeting is not intended as a guarantee of the topics that will have been discussed. Not all topics listed may in fact be discussed, and other topics not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law.
Info for Duck Pond budget vote
|
|
As most of you know, I have been concerned about maintaining the aeration of Duck Pond over the long-term for the financial reasons described below. I am pleased to report that after receiving the email below, Town Manager Mark Haddad has agreed to budget $3K as a line item in the GPAC budget for the long-term electricity (& minor maintenance) for the Compressor system starting in FY25. Thank you, Jim Luening and the GPAC, for your long-term support (of all the lakes/ponds), and of course the CPA for these two project approvals. The following provides a summary of the Duck Pond CPA projects to date, and the background of this request to Mark. For efficiency, I’m copying the GLA President, CPC liaison, and my neighbors (bcc:). [I will prioritize the remaining CPA funds on providing sufficient electricity through June 2024].
.
Next year is the last year of the second 3-year CPA project to improve the health and slow the eutrophication of Duck Pond.
The first project installed the air compressor and ten diffusers around the pond, operated it for three years, tested water quality three times per year, and attempted to measure any changes in sediment (“muck”) depth. It also included applying additional aerobic bacteria over a wide area. The second project continued the operation and water quality measurements, made some repairs, and tried other measurements of the muck.
We’ve learned that the aeration helps the pond health by providing dissolved oxygen at all depths to benefit fish and mammals, and by keeping more of the pond surface free of weeds to benefit recreation use (fishing, kayaking, canoeing, paddle-boarding, and even just the view for the many hikers on the conservation trail along the east side).
The water quality results also have been consistently good. However, any annual changes in muck are too small to measure by any techniques we’ve tried or of which we are aware. I conclude that we should continue the aeration, don’t need to keep testing water quality, and should cease trying to measure the muck changes.
The CPC funds new one-time projects but has a policy against long-term “maintenance” expenses. Some members put the monthly GELD bills in this category so are unlikely to approve additional grant requests to fund only electricity for the Compressor. By cutting out the other expenses mentioned above, and by switching to GELD’s time-of-use rates when the new meters are available (and turning off the Compressor for the peak hours), I think we can reduce the electricity cost to $2K per year in addition to some infrequent Compressor/Hose/Diffuser maintenance costs.
My question now is how to provide that $2K-$3K per year. GPAC is supportive of the project but doesn’t have the budget for that. Groton Lakes Assoc. collects dues and could consider it but remains challenged to raise enough to fund the Lost Lake/Knops Pond annual spot treatments and occasional whole-lake treatments for invasives. I raised $13K and $3.5K respectively in neighbor donations to the Town for the two CPC projects. But I don’t want to become an annual solicitor of donations long-term.
I discussed with Kevin Kelly at GELD the concept of installing additional solar panels (somewhere there is sun; all Duck Pond shoreline is forested) as an offset to the 5KW of electricity needed for the Compressor. I thought that such an installation ($10K-$15K?) might get CPC approval. But he didn’t think GELD would benefit given their cost of electricity and their billing rates. We discussed the time-of-use rates. He suggested adding a battery to be charged during low-rate hours and used during peak hours. I said we can simply turn it off during peak rate hours as running the aeration ~20 hours a day vs. 24 should not make a noticeable difference. He said that could cut our expenses by almost half.
The listing of topics that the Chair reasonably anticipates will be discussed at the meeting is not intended as a guarantee of the topics that will have been discussed. Not all topics listed may in fact be discussed, and other topics not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law.