Taking a Conservative Approach
Your thirteen volunteers on the Inter-Local Belgrade Area Dams Committee have been vigilant in keeping the ponds around three inches above full pond, i.e. the water going over the spillways/walkways is ankle deep, because we still don’t know if we are going to have some level of drought this summer. For the past 10 days we had 1.07″ of precipitation and Weather Underground is forecasting another 2.11″ for the next ten days, so all looks good and very normal so far. Normal for this region is 3.43″ for July, 3.25″ for August, 3.60″ for September, and so forth. With this past week’s heat, both Great and Long Ponds lost about 3⁄10″ per day and in doing some research, these are actually normal evaporation rates. An interesting article from September 1931 by C.E. Grunsky suggests that the evaporation rate with an ambient outside temperature of 85°F is approximately 3⁄10″ per day. And if that wasn’t enough, about 80% of our camps still use lake water and in addition to the slight seepage from our dams you can see why we are trying to keep the lakes at 3″ above full for a little wiggle room!
As of this writing, Great Pond’s Village dam is currently 3.24″ above full pond with both gates completely closed. Long Pond’s Wings Mill dam is right at 3.0″, also above full pond with both gates also closed. Salmon/McGrath is 2.28″ above full with its single gate also closed but with its calibrated valve set to the mandated 1 cfs flow. Our neighbors on Messalonskee are down 4.8″ below full due to Oakland’s electricity generation needs, which is understandable with the AC units set to maximum!
These afternoon showers are just what is needed for our farmers, gardens, and wells, as well as our lake levels, so I guess we really shouldn’t complain about a shower here or there! If you have a particular questions regarding our Dams and/or water levels, please email your inquiry to dickgreenan@outlook.com and we will try to answer your question either in this column or via email.
Dick Greenan is chairman of the Belgrade Lakes Watershed Dams Committee. He submitted this report on June 21, 2024.
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