CAMDEN, Maine — State environmental staff members were at Hosmer Pond on Thursday to tackle an algae outbreak that threatens the body of water, but strong winds forced them to postpone their efforts.
Lee Schneller Sligh, who lives on the pond and monitors its water quality, blames the town’s poor oversight of construction at the Camden Snow Bowl on Ragged Mountain for 11 significant incidents of erosion into Hosmer. Sligh and others blame that erosion and accumulating sediment at the bottom of the pond for the outbreak of algae.
An algae bloom covering about 2 acres of the 53-acre pond was discovered over the weekend, leading the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to send staff to examine Hosmer.
“It was so disgusting,” said Sligh, who distributed photos over the weekend to media, town and state officials, calling the situation an “emergency.”
“I could not go swimming off my float — nice reward on a three-day weekend, to be unable to use my waterfront property,” she said. “It is truly disgusting. And yesterday I saw that chunks of these blobs are breaking off and floating off in various directions in the pond.”
On Thursday, Bill Buchholz, president of the Hosmer Pond Association, said he was hopeful that, with the erosion no longer occurring from work at the Camden Snow Bowl and with efforts to remove the algae, permanent degradation of the body of water can be avoided.
Four staff members from the DEP arrived shortly before noon Thursday to inspect the algae bloom. Jeremy Deeds of the DEP said that because of the large size of the bloom he would be trying something new.
The DEP workers were planning to take two boats out onto the pond and drag a mesh between the vessels to collect the algae. Then the algae would be dragged to a cove, pumped into tanker trucks and hauled away. He advised the pond association members who were present at the public landing that this method has not been tried before by the department.
Deeds brought several different sized meshes to determine which would be best at netting the algae.
But gusty winds and clouds that overtook the sky early Thursday afternoon postponed that plan. Sligh said the algae had dropped to the pond bottom because of the weather. She said when there is no wind and plenty of sun, the algae should rise again and the effort to remove it will be tried again.
Deeds also was concerned that the high winds might spread pieces of algae throughout the pond during the cleanup process.
Sligh agreed Thursday that the situation on the mountain has been stabilized and that no further erosion from the Camden Snow Bowl expansion is occurring. The Camden resident said, however, she still has concerns about oversight of proposed construction of a new lodge at the town-owned recreation area.
There is no timetable for when the lodge will be built, as supporters are trying to raise money. Cost overruns in the earlier phases of projects at the Snow Bowl consumed money that would have constructed the lodge. The estimated cost of the lodge in early 2015 was $2.4 million.
The cost overruns began when a forester came in and cut more trees than had been planned, leading to mud running off the mountain and into Hosmer Pond. That forestry work directly led to $500,000 in unplanned expenses, including for additional landscaping to cover open areas on the mountain and other steps to prevent further erosion.
Town Manager Pat Finnigan did not respond Thursday to a request to comment on the current situation at Hosmer Pond.
Sligh said she was concerned the amount of sediment that settled on the bottom of the pond would release nutrients into the pond for years to come. And this was completely unnecessary, she maintained.
The first concerns were raised in June 2014, after 9 acres of the mountain was cleared and a June 13 rainstorm resulted in the first significant erosion episode. Town officials said steps would be taken to stem the erosion but another rainstorm two weeks later again temporarily turned the pond brown.
At a June 30 meeting of the Hosmer Pond Association, Finnigan and Snow Bowl General Manager Landon Fake attended and assured residents that the erosion problem was under control and no additional project manager was needed for the expansion of the ski resort.