TURNER – Residents of Bear Mountain Road, along with volunteers from the Bear Pond Improvement Association, worked in the pouring rain on Aug. 21 to put into place culverts as a first step to curtail erosion problems that are impacting Bear Pond.

The Bear Pond Watershed, which includes Big and Little Bear ponds, is located in the towns of Hartford and Turner. Its shores have been developed with more than 225 seasonal and year-round homes and a network of roads.

Twenty years of water testing by the association has shown a decrease in water clarity, indicating that polluted runoff, primarily in the form of eroding soil, has compromised the pond’s water quality.

In a survey conducted by Oxford County Soil and Water Conservation District, the association and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection in 2002, Bear Mountain Road, which at one time was a town road but is now privately owned, was identified as a high priority site due to its contribution of sediment to a small brook that feeds into Little Bear Pond.

Soil began eroding from the road starting in 1987 after the removal of a culvert. The erosion is the main contributor to a sediment delta that has been created in Little Bear Pond.

The new owners and volunteers are assisting in the replacement of the three culverts. Further work will consist of reshaping and seeding the ditches and grading and crowning the surface of the road.

The project was funded in part by a grant from the Maine DEP, with oversight provided by the conservation district and technical assistance provided by DEP and the Natural Resource Conservation Service.