Starting Off at Full Pond
by Dick Greenan
Welcome back to another summertime in the Belgrades and the Dams Keeper Report. As of this writing, we are starting the summer off with the Great Pond's Village dam 0.6″ above full pond with both gates completely closed. At basically ½″ above full, the water is just flush with the top of the spillway. Long Pond's Wings Mill dam is 2.28″, also above full pond with both gates now also completely shut down as well. Salmon/McGrath is right at full pond with its single gate opened just the mandated 1 cfs flow.
All of our ponds are supposed to be at full pond to begin the summer, but with another beautiful but dry summer in the forecast, our Dams Committee has chosen once again to start our summer with an 3″ to spare, if we can get enough precipitation to get back up to the 3″ level, that is. A 3″ above level will not have an adverse effect on our feathered friends nor should it float anyone's dock!
(Editor's Note: Right now the lakes are even with the dams; the goal is to start the summer with a water level 3″ above the dams, which will happen only if we get a lot of rain. If the water is too high, i.e. a lot more than 3″ above full pond, people's docks will be lifted up and will float away.)
The long term forecast for the balance of 2020 is just about identical to that of the past 5 years — an average of 26% less precipitation than the norm. The good news is that we have another Chamber of Commerce summer in store, but for our farmers and those with shallow wells, we are looking at another drought.
We are scheduled to begin the two-year final fix of the Wings Mill Dam this coming July 15, which should not affect Long Pond's water levels. All of the other dams remain in good shape after another Maine winter!
Enjoy your summer! It should be beautiful.
Welcome Home!
Dick
Dick Greenan is secretary to the Belgrade Lakes Watershed Dams Committee. He submitted this report on 5/30/2020.
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