PHILLIPS – A grass-roots effort to restore water quality at Toothaker Pond, which is impaired by algae blooms each summer, is making headway.

But volunteers need more help.

Led by camp owner Adrienne Rollo of New Vineyard, the group that has been trying to restore the water for recreational use has become organized and recently formed the Toothaker Pond Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration and preservation of the pond.

The association is holding a membership drive to help the clean-up effort.

Rollo and her husband, John, have one of about a dozen camps on the 23-acre pond.

The spring-fed pond has no way to flush itself out and has been plagued by algae blooms since the 1960s, Adrienne Rollo said. The blooms were caused when fish effluent from an upstream Phillips Brook Hatchery drained into the pond for years before the state redirected the stream to the Sandy River in 1972, she said.

Rollo has been gathering data as a volunteer pond monitor for five years. She takes readings for clarity, dissolved oxygen, tests the temperature and takes water samples to assist the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Rollo said.

The DEP reviewed the data and listed the pond on a list of severely impaired water bodies, Rollo said, that makes the pond eligible for federal funding.

But with no federal and state funding available, camp owners approached representatives of the Opportunity Center of North Franklin County in Avon and asked for their help in becoming a fiscal sponsor to help the group apply for grant funding.

Center representatives asked the group to become formally organized and they did.

The center has now agreed to become the association’s fiscal sponsor for grant writing so the association may apply for grants.

The group also found an environmental engineer, Nancy O’Toole of Avon, who has been donating her time and services to help with the restoration project.

“She has been very excited about the prospect of restoring the lake,” Rollo said.

DEP is overseeing the project, which is being done under the guidance of O’Toole, Rollo said.

At least 95 percent of the $10 membership fees will go directly to the project with the remainder taking care of any operational costs.

O’Toole is writing a grant for the group to do core sediment testing, Rollo said.

Once they know what is in the sediment, they’ll be able to determine the next step, she said.

Anyone interested in becoming an association member may contact Rollo at 652-6330 for information. Or they can send $10 in dues via checks made out to the Toothaker Pond Association. People are also asked to send their name, address, phone and e-mail address to Adrienne Rollo, P.O. Box 123, New Vineyard, ME 04956.