by Don Williams

It’s becoming evident that there may not be one single, obvious solution to the cyanobacteria blooms that we have been experiencing. According to our Water Quality Plan, the problem is phosphorus and its single largest source is septic tanks around Little Herring Pond. We tried capturing the phosphorus using Permeable Reactive Barriers in Carters River with no success. We can remove phosphorus by sewering more watershed homes but this can be expensive and cannot be done quickly unless we are able to partner with an existing sewage treatment plant.

Vice President Michelle Christensen and I are on the Citizen Advisory Committee for the Comprehensive Wastewater Treatment Plan; hopefully Plymouth might consider partnering with Red Brook development to use their package sewage treatment plan to service the some of the homes in our watershed. We plan to make a presentation on this CWMT at our General Meeting on August 20 at 7 PM at the Little Red Schoolhouse. Another approach is to partner with Plymouth to buy up land in our watershed and preserve it as open space. Fewer houses means fewer septic tanks.

You can help by buying tickets to our September 27 Dinner Dance Gala at Camp Bournedale on September 27. Proceeds will go to the Land Acquisition Fund.

We continue to emphasize that clearcutting encourages phosphorus transport into our ponds and tossing yard waste into those ponds promotes release of phosphorus with their decomposition. You can find more tips for helping reduce phosphorus in our water in the article in the May newsletter.

Thanks to Trish O’Brien and Lynn Oertel, the Herring Ponds Watershed Association has been working hard to build community within our watershed. There were 20 boats in this year’s 4^th of July Boat Parade. Eight free boat tours have been scheduled to show everyone what a special pond we live on. And yes, by popular demand, we will have another owl nesting box building workshop, led by Tom O’Brien and Chris Lewis. Geri Williams continues to provide interesting and educational presentations (again free) that will broaden your appreciation of your watershed. Consult our website or Facebook and watch our Constant Contact announcements.

Call me at 508 833-4355 to see where you might fit into our results-oriented organization.