Taylor Pond Association continues to work for you using an all–volunteer board. The Board has been busy this last year, working with City and State officials to ensure the continued quality of our precious resource. Here’s what’s been happening since our Annual Meeting in July of 2017:
Flooding Issues: Over the years we have been able to create a budget surplus that we drew down this year in contracting two major engineering studies that we felt were in your best interests. Both studies were done by Joseph McLean of Wright-Pierce engineering and provided us with the level of expertise to make well–informed recommendations.
We contracted for the first study to help us reduce the chance of flooding on the pond. Mr. McLean surprised us when he determined that beaver dams control the usual water level. He found that the Hotel Road culvert and a public road accessing the Kendall property both obstruct water flow during flooding events. His findings will help us to reduce flooding and possibly eliminate many homes need for flood insurance. Please read the full article for more details.–
Potential construction at Lost Valley:
The City of Auburn contacted me last summer about a commercial development at Lost Valley by Kassbohrer, the manufacturer of snow-grooming equipment. Ultimately, the manufacturer decided against the site at Lost Valley and instead chose what most would consider a more appropriate site in the industrial park off Merrow Road. In contacting us, the City wished to know if we had projects that needed funding for phosphorus reduction. The planned project for Lost Valley was expected to generate additional phosphorus runoff into the pond and the City was looking to offset this by funding improvements in other known phosphorous–generating areas. The TPA board met and had three concerns about the project: (1) Noise generation from running heavy equipment at the site; (2) Large trucks negotiating access along Youngs Corner Road; and (3) The magnitude of phosphorus runoff. An increase in the pond’s phosphorus could trigger serious algal overgrowth. We turned again to Wright-Pierce Engineering, who provided us with a comprehensive analysis of the projected impact of this project. The most important conclusion was: The information provided regarding the Phosphorus Standard does not appear to be in compliance with State regulations and the development appears to be dramatically increasing phosphorus export from the developed parcel. We believe the impact of this report helped to steer Kassbohrer to a safer site in the interests of the health of the pond.
Taylor Pond’s water quality continues to be excellent and is monitored throughout the summer by Woody Trask. Woody uses his expertise in chemistry to provide us with timely and accurate data to protect water quality. In the past we paid over $4,000 yearly for similar services that now are provided free by Woody. Please see his annual summary of water quality later in this newsletter.
Taylor Pond provides a rich habitat for wildlife, including fish and birds. Annually the Maine Department of Marine Resources catches over 3000 adult alewives at the Brunswick dam and places them in our pond. These fish spawn and the young develop over the summer in our rich waters before returning to the ocean. All summer people enjoy catching bass and during the winter large pike retrieved through holes drilled in the ice.
Wildlife abounds on the water, surrounding wetlands and woods of Taylor Pond. This area serves as the breeding ground and a resting spot for migratory birds. Please read my article on “Year of the Bird” to understand the variety that can be observed.