PHILLIPS – With a legislative hearing scheduled next week on a bill to require the state to clean up Toothaker Pond, state Rep. Tom Saviello, D-Wilton, plans to teach bill supporters how to present their case to legislators.
Last summer, more than 500 people from the Phillips area signed a petition requesting the state take corrective action to solve the algae problem on Toothaker Pond, according to Adrienne Rollo of New Vineyard, a longtime advocate for the cleanup.
The roughly 30-acre pond has been plagued by algae blooms since the 1970s. From late June to September, the pond turns green each year. By September, the water is the color of pea soup, said Rollo, who has been working on the problem for about five years.
Saviello, the bill’s sponsor, is scheduled to conduct an informational meeting at 7 p.m. Sunday at the American Legion Hall on Depot Street.
About 40 people are expected to attend the session to learn how to testify before a legislative committee.
The Committee on Natural Resources will hold a legislative hearing at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, March 18, at the Cross Building in Augusta on the bill, L.D. 852. It would direct the Department of Environmental Protection to clean up the pond.
Rollo’s family owns one of 12 camps around the pond. One family lives on the pond year-round.
Rollo said she approached Saviello after he was re-elected in November, and he has been advocating for the pond cleanup ever since.
She and others conducted a barley straw experiment at the pond. In it, they wrapped straw bales in Christmas tree netting in 2001 and placed them so that the bales would prevent algae from reproducing. It failed at this pond, she said, but said it has worked in other ponds.
Saviello and Rollo said there are three documents that show the state caused the problem and is responsible for the algae blooms in this pond, but officials aren’t taking action to clean it up.
Fish effluent from an upstream Phillips Brook Hatchery drained into the pond for years before the stream was redirected to the Sandy River in 1972, where there was more of a water flow decades ago.
Toothaker Pond is spring-fed, Rollo said, but there is no way for the pond to flush itself out.
Saviello said his intent isn’t to put the fish hatchery out of business. He said there are several ways to address the algae problem.
Saviello, the manager of environment, safety and health at International Paper in Jay, said it is frustrating that the state requires industry to meet certain standards in a short period of time, yet gives municipalities longer to fix a problem.
And, when the state creates a problem such as at Toothaker Pond, Saviello said, it has the attitude they’ll get to it when they get to it.
Pull-out:
Anyone interested in showing support for a proposed bill to require the state to clean up Toothaker Pond in Phillips, can contact John or Adrienne Rollo at 652-6330 for ride information. A hearing is scheduled in August at 9:30 a.m. on March 18.
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