Attending: Bart Barker, Lance Bushey, Madeleine Follett, Sue Nilsen, Linda Knorr (host in abstentia)
No association business was conducted at this meeting as Alberto Mimo from the Connecticut Department of Environment Protection gave us a presentation on lake health. Below are not so much minutes as notes on the presentation.
Manitook Lake is unusual because its watershed is not surrounded entirely by another watershed. We lay between two watersheds. Our watershed includes all of Tilcon's gravel operations and the town landfill.
The weeds may be impossible to reduce due to the size of the watershed, especially with the farms north of the quarry. When we pull up weeds, just leaving them on the beach isn't going to help eliminate them. We need to remove them from the watershed completely! While we don't know what could happen, we may not want to remove the native weeds as they seem to be holding their own against the invasive species. The danger in removing the natives is that the invasive species might gain a foothold in their absence.
Warmer water means less dissolved oxygen and aquatic life needs at least 5 part per million to survive.
There's not much difference between a dirt road and asphalt in terms of how it affects the health of the lake.
Manitook Lake is considered a shallow lake and thus has a more complex ecosystem than a deep lake.
The problems associated with the health and safety of the lake are rooted in the lack of education and the lack of involvement by those who work and live in our watershed. To solve both aspects of the problem we should initiate a group effort to monitor the lake.
To start tracking lake health we can collect our own samples but Mr. Mimo suggested sending the samples to a lab for analysis.
First factors to measure in the lake would be to produce a detailed map and take depth readings. Lance believes the fish & game department has depth maps for the lake. He's seen them in the past. The DEP does not have any depth data.
Later do a dissolved oxygen and temperature map and then some bacterial measurements. We should also sample the weeds for identification and monitoring.
We should probably include the feeder brooks in our measurements.
Mr. Mimo has a dissolved oxygen measuring device that he lends people. He will to train us for the repetitive measurements and he's willing to come out on a Sunday with equipment to do more complex measurements.
He suggested we check out the DEP store for more information/literature which we could use to educate association members and, hopefully, stir up interest. The DEP store is in the DEP building, across the street from the Bushnell in downtown Hartford. There is also stuff available online at: http://www.depstore.ct.gov/index.htm.