The Boothbay Region Water District (BRWD), local organizations and volunteers, under the direction of Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Knox Lincoln Soil and Water Conservation District, surveyed Adams Pond and Knickerbocker Lake watersheds this summer.

“Adams Pond and Knickerbocker Lake are the public drinking water sources for Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor and Southport Island,” BRWD Manager Jon Ziegra said. “Protecting their water quality isn’t just important to watershed property owners and rate payers, it’s vital to the region’s economy.”

The survey’s purpose was to identify erosion sites within the watersheds that are contributing polluted runoff to the water bodies, to prioritize them based on their impact, and to develop recommendations to remedy these sites.

Non-point source pollution, also called runoff, from developed areas is considered to be the highest threat to Adams Pond and Knickerbocker Lake water quality. Because of the serious threat runoff poses, identifying runoff sites and developing plans to correct them is essential to maintaining water quality.

During June and July, survey teams identified 46 runoff sites within the Adams Pond and Knickerbocker Lake watersheds that are directly linked to either water-body through ditches, streams or the shoreline.

A total of 21 erosion sites were identified within the Adams Pond watershed and 25 sites within Knickerbocker Lake watershed. Although the number of medium and low impact sites was similar between the two watersheds, Knickerbocker Lake had substantially more high impact sites (eight), versus the two in Adams Pond watershed. Almost half of all sites were associated with town, state and private roads and one quarter were associated with private residences.

The survey also pointed out a clear need to better educate property owners about buffer zones, low impact development options, and sedimentation control practices for construction.

“The survey showed we need to do a better job educating property owners on simple measures that will control erosion,” Ziegra said. “We also found that we have erosion sites on water district property that we need to address.”

BRWD will be working with the town of Boothbay, local organizations and private property owners to develop plans to fix the most significant runoff sites and will also seek federal/state grant opportunities next year.

“We were able to obtain grant dollars in 2004 to fix erosion sites identified in the first watershed survey done in 2002,”  Ziegra said. “We hope we can build a sufficient case to access that same grant program next year.”

The watershed survey report is now available and can be viewed online at www.bbrwd.org.

For more information, contact Sue Mello at 207-633-4723, ext. 111 or suembbrwd@gmail.com.