By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
LACONIA – Advocates for improved lake water quality were on Lake Winnipesaukee with U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, Thursday who came to learn about threats, challenges and what federal dollars she secured are doing to keep the water clear.
Over the past two funding years, Shaheen has secured $650,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending to help address water quality concerns, like harmful algal blooms and invasive species in Lake Winnipesaukee and Lake Kanasatka.
“As Granite Staters and visitors head to the lakes this summer, it’s critical we keep our pristine lakes clean and free from harmful algal blooms,” Shaheen said. “I was excited to see firsthand the Lake Winnipesaukee Association’s work to address this issue using Congressionally Directed Spending I secured—ensuring the water is safe for outdoor recreation at beloved places like Lake Winnipesaukee and Lake Kanasatka.”
Shaheen helped get $500,000 for a study on the remaining four subregions on the Big Lake and heard from volunteers, state officials and tourism officials about more ways her influence in Washington could serve to better the state’s lake water quality.
She was told that there is a framework for more funding under the Clean Water Act which if she could tap into could yield more planning support to help communities deal.
New Hampshire has 950 water bodies of 10 acres in size or more which provide important habitat and recreation as well as are increasingly being developed for year-round homes.
The water itself is impacted by stormwater runoff, a warming climate and impacts from recreation and aging septic systems.
Shaheen boarded a pontoon boat at Weirs Beach captained by a volunteer, Bill Irwin, to take a ride around the waters there to see all the new development which has been going on around the Big Lake and discuss impacts with advocates for clear lakes.
“I want to thank you for coming and certainly thank you for your support in securing the funds for the work,” said Pat Tarpey, president of the Lake Winnipesaukee Association. “We have been doing this work for 12 years I think and have been breaking this lake into smaller, sub-watersheds,” she said. “Really the watershed management planning is key to getting the communities to understand how land use impacts water quality.”
Tarpey said 40 years ago, and certainly during a building boom in the 1980s “we developed the land in a certain way that didn’t take into consideration the consequences. Now we are seeing the consequences.”
Those consequences include the introduction of invasive species, more cyanobacteria and e coli outbreaks at beaches and other impacts which degrade water quality and reduce property values and interest in tourism.
Also on board the boat were Larry Greeley, a member of the Board of the Lake Winnipesaukee Association, Amy Smagula, freshwater biologist for the state Department of Environmental Services, Amanda McQuaid of the UNH Water Quality Program which organizes citizens volunteers to study water quality and Amy Landers, executive director of the Lakes Regional Tourism Association.
The focus of discussion was on the quality of the water below the hull.
Irwin said the boat was in about 66 feet of water, pretty deep for a New Hampshire lake.
It is the smaller, shallower lakes in the state that seem to be being increasingly impacted by the lack of freezing conditions which Smagula said gives the water a “break” and stops algae growth.
“There’s no reset anymore,” she said of the lack of frozen water.
Some lakes, she said, particularly in southern New Hampshire are not even freezing over anymore, giving the invasives a head start at growth.
So far this year, the state has already seen early signs that this could be another rough year for cyanobacteria, which can be toxic to animals and humans.
“When we do a management plan we really evaluate various land uses – roads, residential, commercial development – and estimate of the nutrient load coming into the lake and from what we know already 300 percent over natural background,” as if the land had never been development and as it was likely 300 years ago and before European settlement.
“When we measure phosphorus, we are measuring in parts per billion so it is really minute amounts but it has a huge impact and right now, I think we estimate the lake, naturally would be like 2 parts per billion in lake concentration,” as if there were no settlement by humans around the lakes and right now Lake Winnipesaukee is at 6.5 parts per billion on average, though it varies.
And yet, it is considered a “high quality” of water, she said, and the state has set a threshold of 8 parts per billion for “high quality” water.
“We are already seeing a lot of cyanobacteria blooms, algal growth, and other changes of invasive species,” she said, this year.
The management plans being paid for by the federal funds end up providing communities with road maps of what they can do better to protect the lakes, Tarpey said. Moultonborough and Wolfeboro in particular “are realizing how valuable this lake is and they are like ‘okay this is what we have to change.'”
Shaheen agreed, noting “the economy is really based on it.”
Tarpey said some towns are really still “pro development” while others are starting to say…”let’s do it in the right way.”
Part of the management plans study is to not only look at current levels of building but also what buildout would look like based on the existing zoning.
Tarpey said and when municipal officials see that they often say “whoa.”
As the boat moved at headway speed through the water with views to Meredith Neck, Governor’s Island and the Weirs, some pointed up at the hillsides to recent developments in Laconia and Meredith which were not there when Shaheen was governor in the 1990s.
Tarpey noted that there has been a significant impact since COVID-19 on more lake pressure “as the place to escape.”
She noted that Paugus Bay under the bridge on Route 3 from where the boat was is the drinking water source for the city of Laconia and there are more condos being built there.
“As a kid, we had a camp and we drank water right from the lake,” said Irwin, whose family has owned a marina in the area for years. He said, “the water is very special.”
The grant, Shaheen said, will complete the remaining four of 10 subwatershed analysis for Lake Winnipesaukee including the bays of Wolfeboro, Center Harbor, the Broads and Alton Bay.
“Once they are done we will have a whole lakewide look at what is going on,” Tarpey said.
The towns all vary in their resources with some having a professional planning staff and others don’t. Some have a lot more money.
The work will include a shoreline survey where every parcel on the shore will be evaluated for slope, distance from the lake, signs of erosion, lack of vegetation and use that information to then reach out to homeowners to walk their property and show them how they can improve their property and also do a septic risk analysis.
Many are simple do-it-yourself fixes like planting a buffer of blueberry bushes, Tarpey said. It will help slow down the stormwater and let it infiltrate and trap sediment.
She suggested meandering paths down to the lake.
McQuaid noted that the state is seeing more extreme weather events and more of a need to trap that stormwater before it rolls out into the lakes, bringing with it all the nutrients which degrade it.
She said all the nation’s big beautiful lakes are also imperiled along with the smaller ones but it just takes a bit longer for the impacts to be seen.
Since 1979, UNH has coordinated the Lakes Lay Monitoring Program which Shaheen said she was aware of. It uses volunteers, many of whom live on the lakes who have seen changes, to collect water quality samples on the lakes.
McQuaid said they work with various lake groups and the state’s DES volunteer Lakes Assessment Program.
It is hard to get new volunteers, they said and that is one area they could use more help.
Smagula, who moves around the state to various lakes, said she is finding they are having a hard time recruiting volunteers and there are no others to step in.
Aging septic systems were also identified as a key issue for the state’s lakes and they noted a bill in the legislature looks to shore up that problem and is likely to be signed by the governor after passing both the House and Senate.
House Bill 1166 https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/bill_status/billinfo.aspx?id=1166&inflect=2 requires that the buyer of any property within 250 feet of shore be required to conduct a septic evaluation prior to the sale.
“This has been a big loophole for years and I am happy to see it come,” Tarpey said. “Now they have to have an actual septic evaluation and they have six month, maybe a year, to fix it,” under the bill.
Stormwater is about 50 percent of the problem which includes failing septic systems and finding ways to slow down that runoff can make a big difference they told Shaheen.
On Lake Waukewan in Meredith, a health ordinance was passed to improve failing septic systems and it took ten years to fix their systems but money was provided to help the owners with the work.
McQuaid also noted that the advent of short term rentals have had impacts on septic systems.
There are grants for community septic systems in some communities, Smagula said but it is “not there yet” for every community.
Shaheen was told that as part of the Clean Water Act, there used to be a lake restoration fund and a clean water diagnostic feasibility study program which used to study these type watershed plans. And now the pot of money, changed in the 1990s, has evaporated. The language remains but the funding is not there.
“Well that is something we can work on,” said Shaheen. “Unfortunately, because we are still under this deficit reduction act because of the debt ceiling fight, the budget this year that we are starting to work on is going to be even tighter. But it is something we ought to start working on now,” she said.