The town committees charged with protecting the health of Bare Hill Pond and managing the town beach have agreed to pursue suction harvesting of the weeds that interfered with swimming and boating last summer and will hamper swimming and boating again this summer if left unchecked.
The past several drawdowns at the pond, meant to freeze out some invasive plants, have been unsuccessful due to various equipment malfunctions and nonfreezing weather, contributing to the overgrowth. The 2023 Bare Hill Pond In-Lake Water Quality and Plant Survey, available on the Bare Hill Pond Watershed Management Committee’s webpage, confirms that weeds were more plentiful than in past years.
The proposed weed removal, known as DASH for diver-
assisted suction harvesting, is done by a scuba diver. Using a suction tube and pumps mounted on a boat, the diver removes weeds by their roots. If all goes to plan, they will be vacuumed up in a 2½-acre area focusing on the public swimming area, which is enclosed by ropes, and around the boat mooring area.
“I think the safety of swimmers is our biggest concern,” Parks and Recreation Director Anne McWaters told the Press Tuesday. “This method [of weed removal] makes the most sense,” she said, adding that clearing weeds around the mooring area would allow lifeguard boats to be deployed without being halted by weeds caught in their propellers as had happened last season. Selecting the suction harvesting also avoids what some on the committees feared would be a divisive debate about herbicides, the use of which was put on a moratorium by a vote of a 1983 Town Meeting.
At its Jan. 22 meeting, members of the Bare Hill Pond Watershed Management Committee met with McWaters and Harbormaster Bob O’Shea to choose one of the solutions proposed in a December 2023 survey of weeds and proposed solutions prepared by SOLitude Lake Management of Shrewsbury. In addition to the suction harvesting, the report recommended several other options for clearing weeds in a 5-acre area, including Sonar pellet herbicide and a PVC mesh barrier to be placed on “target” areas on the pond’s floor. It recommended against using mechanical harvesting, which spreads milfoil and fanwort because those weeds can propogate through reseeding or through weed fragments that, after they sink, reestablish roots.
The report was commissioned and paid for by Parks and Rec at a cost of $1,750. The report estimated the cost of suction harvesting at $27,000 to $35,000 for a 5-acre area, though committee members decided that was too large an area for that method. McWaters said she would ask SOLitude about the feasibility of a 2½-acre project in the coming week, after which pond committee members will meet with Town Administrator Tim Bragan about budgeting and preparing a request for proposal for the DASH work. O’Shea said Parks and Rec would pay for the work this year but said he’d like to see the cost of yearly weed eradication built into some committee’s budget for ongoing maintenance. That, however, would be a topic for future discussion, members of the committees agreed.
Aside from noting the “abundant” growth of non-native aquatic plants, primarily fanwort but also milfoil, the report highlighted another problem at the pond, this one unrelated to the invasive aquatic plants. It noted damage to the lakebed at the boat ramp from power-loading and recommended that practice be “restricted.” Power-loading is using a boat’s motor to load and unload the boat onto and off a trailer. It can “erode sediments away from the toe of the ramp resulting in possible damage to the structure and impaired boat access.” Signs and enforcement should be used to limit the practice, the report said.
An update on pond drawdown, equipment repair
McWaters told the Press that timing for the suctioning could be tricky because it must be done while weeds are visible in late spring but cannot interfere with the beach season. Harbormaster Bob O’Shea spoke plainly to the pond committee at its Jan. 22 meeting: “We are asking you to take on this responsibility, and it needs to be done by spring.”
If the pond is to be drawn down this fall, reinstating the drawdown’s permit and fixing the failed pumping equipment must be dealt with expeditiously. The yearly drawdown, in which gravity and a pump reduce the pond’s depth by 6½ feet, is meant to reduce nuisance aquatic plants, ecologically harmful levels of phosphorus, and the chance of algae blooms. Last season, it was halted in October after pumping equipment failed and the state’s Department of Environmental Protection withdrew its permission for the drawdown as it sought to review the order of conditions for the process.
Last week, the pond committee’s chair, Bruce Leicher, said that negotiations with the DEP have been successful and the order of conditions will be slightly changed and permission to draw the pond down reinstated. The committee continues to seek bids to replace the pump’s irreparable electrical control drive so it can be working by Oct. 1, when the drawdown is scheduled to begin.
