NORWAY — Prevention is key. That’s the mantra Sal Girifalco, president of the Lakes Association of Norway brings to his working helping the four ponds and lakes in Norway stay clean and healthy.

It’s a big responsibility. There are 274 properties on the perimeter of Norway Lake (Lake Pennesseewassee) alone, with 1,100 in the surrounding watershed.

But Girifalco has help from lead an all-volunteer team of lake stewards. Year-round, they complete watershed surveys, identify erosion sites, and constantly fight to keep invasive plants like milfoil out of Norway’s lakes.

Erosion is a blight on lakes; after a storm, running water carries sediment and dirt containing phosphorus. Algae thrives on phosphorus, and excessive algae growth leads to low oxygen levels that kill plants and fish.

At a Norway Selectmen’s Meeting on September 5, Girifalco said 42 erosion sites were identified along the shore and watershed area of North Pond during a watershed survey conducted in 2016. They identified 180 sites along the lake.

He said North Pond, though only a mile long and 10 feet deep, is significant because it feeds Pennesseewassee Lake. The water carries sediment and dirt containing phosphorus, which feeds algae and leads to low oxygen levels that kill plants and fish. Sites are separated into low, medium and high risk, classified by how much sediment they dump into the lake.

According to a report on the North Pond watershed, 21 erosion sites were rated low risk for polluting the pond, 18 sites were rated medium risk and three were rated high risk. Those 42 sites added 37 tons of sediment per year to the pond, with 25 tons of it from the high-risk sites.

“There’s no such thing as a standard, but it’s not a trivial number by any means,” said Girifalco.

During the course of the watershed survey on North Pond, Girifalco said the association worked with home-owners in the watershed to help stem the effects of erosion on their property.

“When we do a survey, we work with a homeowner,  if there happens to be a home-owner there,” said Girifalco.

According to Girifalco, 175 homes were identified on North Pond, and the Association worked with those home-owners to go over solutions to their erosion problems. But the first step to solving a problem is understanding it.

Here’s an erosion breakdown. It starts with rain.

Storm water runoff carries phosphorus that it picks up in the soil. Usually, flowing water is filtered by nature after a storm by hills, valleys, tree-stumps, and plants; the water collects, soaks into the ground, and phosphorus is filtered out before it gets into the watershed.

But sometimes landscaping and human impact lead to that natural filtration failing. Some warning signs; bare tree roots, dirt piles, steep hills, and driveways where the water flows straight into the lake before being naturally filtered.

“People put in driveways and rake pine-needles, which isn’t good to do. All those things take away natural filtering mechanisms, and more phosphorus gets into the lakes,” said Girifalco

Sometimes, addressing erosion is as simple as planting a buffer of plants near the shoreline that can soak up the water. Bearberry and low bush blueberry plants are excellent filtrators. Grass, however,  is not. While it soaks water, it doesn’t take care of phosphorus.

” Lakes like less lawn,” said Girifalco. “You want a four-foot buffer of plants in as big an area as possible.”

Another strategy is to slow the water down. For sloped driveways, ‘rubber razors’ are inexpensive tools that can divert water and send it into wooded or planted areas to be filtered.

According to Girifalco, preventing crises from occurring is much easier than intervening when they do. This summer, bacteria in Blue-Green algae made national news after dogs began to die after making contact with it.

While Girifalco said while Norway is a long way from that scenario, and that quality of the lakes in Norway are good, identifying problems before they escalate ultimately save money.

“If you find the erosion sites and fix them, you’re reducing the amount of phosphorus and preventing invasives. It costs a dollar vs the hundred dollars you would spend clearing (the algae and invasive plants),” said Girifalco.

The Lakes Association of Norway pays inspectors at the Pennesseewassee Lake boat launch to inspect for hitchhiking invasive plants.

“We do inspections at the boat launch. There are many avenues an invasive plant can get from one lake, to another lake to another lake;  anchors, fishing equipment, remnants or particles of plant can be introduced to the lake,” said Girifalco.

Many lakes surrounding Norway have invasive plants, one of the most common being milfoil. But none of the Norway lakes have invasives, thanks in part to the diligence of the Lakes Association.

Girifalco said that this summer, a number of states, including New Jersey, had to shut down lakes to swimming and boating. He said the Lakes Association, with help from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, wants to help keep the lakes in town health for years to come.

“Maine is so dependent on tourism and recreating, that it would be horrible if Maine’s lakes went that way.  Maine is trying to take a lead in trying to prevent from getting there. We’ve grown in the last several years to trying to prevent problems … our biggest focus is prevention, trying to prevent crises from happening.”

 

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