NOTE: The following article summarizes a report on the 2011 septic and stormwater surveys prepared by the consulting firm Forrest Bell Environmental for the Steering Committee of the Lake Wentworth/Crescent Lake Watershed Management Plan. A full copy of the consultants’ report, complete with photos, is available on this web site at: http://lakewentworthfoundation.org/watershed/downloads/

As the summer of 2011 neared its end, a score of dedicated Lake Wentworth Association shore representatives fanned out along the camp roads distributing notices of an upcoming survey that would invite property owners around Lake Wentworth and Crescent Lake to share information about their homes – all this in the interest of supporting the development of a management plan for the watershed that surrounds both lakes.

In the weeks that followed the notification, those same shore reps revisited their neighbors, this time accompanied by environmental consultants gathering data about the location and age of residential septic systems. With the owner’s permission, the consultants also evaluated each property for signs of erosion and other damaging effects from runoff into the nearby lake or stream.

Threats to the water quality of the two lakes had been previously identified in a diagnostic study undertaken by NH Department of Environmental Services (DES) in 1999, and the study had recommended that a sanitary survey be conducted in order to better understand the role that septic systems may have in determining the water quality of the lakes.

That understanding is important because a failing septic system can be detrimental to human health, aquatic life, and water resources. Septic system effluent typically stores a thousand times the concentration of phosphorus typically found in lake waters, which means that even a small amount of effluent can have a major impact on nearby waters.

In addition, an outdated or improperly maintained septic system can result in the delivery of disease-causing bacteria and nutrients to nearby water bodies, causing gastro-intestinal illness in swimmers or severe ecosystem dysfunction for fish and wildlife. Untreated septic waste can also contain chemicals and hormones used in pharmaceutical and personal care products, which can have severe impacts on aquatic life.

Now, a dozen years after the diagnostic study, the Lake Wentworth Foundation has partnered with the Town of Wolfeboro, DES, and the University of New Hampshire to develop a management plan for the entire Lake Wentworth/Crescent Lake watershed. When completed sometime in the fall of this year, the plan will have identified current and potential threats to the surface waters that feed and make up the two lakes. The hope is that, in subsequent years, funding will be found to begin chipping away at the sources of the nutrients that are slowly undermining the health of the lakes and their tributaries.

Last year’s septic and stormwater runoff surveys were designed to collect baseline information about the state of septic systems within 250 feet of  the lakes and their tributaries. Those survey results can then be used to estimate phosphorus input to the lakes from developed areas in the watershed.

It is estimated that a total of about 2050 pounds of phosphorus enters Wentworth each year from all sources, including erosion, fertilizer use, and atmospheric deposition. About 1091 pounds enters Crescent Lake from all sources.

Approximately 174 pounds of phosphorus leaches into Lake Wentworth each year from the septic systems of shoreline properties. In Crescent Lake, the figure is about 28.6 pounds.

That means that fully 8% of the phosphorous entering Lake Wentworth leaches from septic systems.

Likewise, at least 3% of the phosphorous entering Crescent Lake is from surrounding septic systems. (The lower load at Crescent is a result of the public sewer system along some shores and the overall smaller number of homes around the lake. However, Lake Wentworth contributes another 6% of the phosphorus in Crescent, so that 9% of Crescent’s phosphorus comes from septic systems.)

For the two lakes taken together, 6% of load is from septic systems.

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During the recent survey of properties along the shores of Lake Wentworth and Crescent Lake and their tributaries, volunteers from the Lake Wentworth Foundation distributed informational brochures to help homeowners care for their properties and protect the quality of nearby surface water resources.

In case you didn’t get your set of these helpful brochures, or if you’d like additional copies, you can now download them for viewing and printing.

“Landscaping by the Water” provides advice on the selection, planting, and care of trees, shrubs, and ground covers — most of them native to New Hampshire — that fit settings along a lake shore or stream bank. Not only do these plantings enhance the beauty of a waterside property, but they work well to keep soil in place, helping prevent stormwater runoff that can carry large amounts of phosphorus into the water. Phosphorus acts as a fertilizer for green plants — good for suburban lawns but a source of weed and algae growth when it migrates into a water body.

As an added advantage, use of native plants reduces the amount of care that landscaping requires, since the trees and shrubs naturally thrive in our climate.

A second brochure, “Preventing Non-Point Source Pollution,” provides guidance on avoiding actions that can lead to the contamination of surface waters from residential properties. Non-point source pollution is the type that does not have an easily identifiable source and can arise from broad land areas such as shoreline residential neighborhoods. It can include runoff from roads  (including  poorly maintained gravel roads), erosion of residential yards caused by rain and melting snow, and runoff from farms and lawns.

Pollutants from these sources include: phosphorous-laden sediment, animal wastes and associated bacteria, pesticides, fertilizers, toxic substances, road salt, and fluids from automobiles.

The last brochure, “Septic Systems: How Do They Work? How Do You Maintain Them?” explains the components and the workings of septic systems and provides tips on extending their effective lifetimes. As the brochure explains, poorly maintained or failing septic systems can leach their contents, including pathogens and chemicals, into the soil and underlying groundwater, from where those pollutants can make their way into nearby surface water such as lakes and streams. It is estimated that 5 percent to 10 percent of the phosphorus found in our waters are the result of leaching from nearby septic systems.

Funding for all three brochures was provided in part by a Watershed Assistance Grant from the NH Department of Environmental Services with Clean Water Act Section 319 funds from the US Environmental Protection Agency. The Lake Sunapee Protective Association shared materials used in the preparation of the publications.

The brochures comprise part of the outreach effort connected to the Lake Wentworth/Crescent Lake Watershed Management Plan being undertaken through a partnership of the Lake Wentworth Foundation, the Town of Wolfeboro, and the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Freshwater Biology.

The state Department of Environmental Services is providing assistance and guidance on technical issues. Day-to-day oversight of the project is under the direction FB Environmental of Portland, Maine, and Portsmouth and Comprehensive Environmental, Inc. of Merrimack.

Wolfeboro residents can take part in the kickoff of the watershed management plan for Lake Wentworth and Crescent Lake during a public session scheduled for Monday, August 8, at the Wolfeboro Public Library. The meeting, which begins at 7 p.m., will feature an overview of the data gathering, analysis, and engineering work that will produce the comprehensive management plan. The project is scheduled for completion in early fall of 2012.

Making the main presentation at the kick-off meeting will be the project consultants: FB Environmental of Portland, Maine, and Portsmouth, who will oversee much of the scientific data collection and analysis; and Comprehensive Environmental, Inc. of Merrimack, who will focus on engineering components in the project.

The August 8 meeting will offer an opportunity for residents to learn how the project can provide the town with data vital to managing some of its major surface water resources. Consultants and steering committee members will also answer questions and provide information about the extent to which residents in the watershed can take part in the project.

The Lake Wentworth/Crescent Lake watershed encompasses 60 percent of Wolfeboro’s land area and is a major tributary to Wolfeboro Bay.

The steering committee of the Lake Wentworth/Crescent Lake Watershed Management Plan has selected the consultants who will oversee the project. They are FB Environmental of Portland, Maine, and Portsmouth, who will oversee much of the scientific data collection and analysis; and Comprehensive Environmental, Inc. of Merrimack, who will focus on engineering components in the project.

FBE and CEI were selected by the project steering committee from among eight consulting firms and partnerships bidding for the work, which is funded by a $67,800 grant from the NH Department of Environmental Services, up to $30,000 in matching funds from the Lake Wentworth Foundation, and some $50,000 in expected in-kind services from volunteers in the community.

FB Environmental has consulted on a number of similar watershed management plans in New Hampshire, including a project involving the Acton (Maine)/Wakefield (NH) Watersheds Alliance just southeast of Wolfeboro. CEI has designed and implemented restoration work on a number of New Hampshire water bodies, including Baboosic Lake in Amherst and Nutt Pond in Manchester.

The steering committee for the Lake Wentworth/Crescent Lake watershed management project includes Town Planner Rob Houseman, Lake Wentworth Foundation President Jack O’Connell, Planning Board Chair Kathy Barnard, DPW Director Dave Ford, Agricultural Commission Chair Charles Horsken, Don Kretchmer from the Lake Wentworth Association, Bob Craycraft from the University of New Hampshire, and at-large members Joseph Carilli and Richard Masse.

If you travel anywhere in Wolfeboro where one of the major tributaries of Lake Wentworth crosses a roadway, chances are good that, over the course of the last six months, you’ve spotted something unusual in the streambed. Poking out of the water is what probably looks like a large white yardstick attached to a fencepost.

Stream gauge

What you’re seeing is a critical tool in the recently initiated watershed management plan for Lake Wentworth and Crescent Lake – a stream gauge. As the name implies, these gauges, marked in increments of feet and tenths of a foot (rather than inches) measure the height of the water flowing in the stream.

Why is that important? As it turns out, one of the critical aspects of the watershed management plan is getting a handle on how much phosphorous is entering the lakes each year. Phosphorous, you’ll remember, is a plant nutrient that’s great for suburban lawns but highly disruptive to clean lakes like Wentworth and Crescent, because it feeds weeds like milfoil as well as microscopic algae that rob a lake of its clarity.

As it turns out, much of the phosphorous that enters the lakes does so via the streams that feed the lakes. Often, the phosphorous is hitching a ride on sand and other debris washed into the water by runoff from a storm. We’ve all seen the evidence: gravel roads, roadside culverts, and sandy beaches marred by deep trenches where stormwater has eroded the soil and carried it off to a nearby marsh, brook, or even lake.

So how do the stream gauges work? The answer is that, in order to protect a lake, you need to know not only how much phosphorous it currently has but how much is coming in. If, as is the case, with Wentworth and Crescent, a lake is still relatively healthy, you want to know if phosphorous is coming in at a rate that exceeds the lake’s long-term ability to absorb it.

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The effort to develop a management plan for the Lake Wentworth/Crescent Lake watershed cleared its final hurdle on June 22 as Governor John Lynch and the Executive Council gave their approval to a $67,800 grant from the Department of Environmental Services to a partnership of the Town of Wolfeboro and the Lake Wentworth Foundation. The money is part of a larger pool of funding made available to the state by the US Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Water Act.

The DES funding will be combined with a $30,000 pledge by the Lake Wentworth Foundation and some $55,000 in matching volunteer labor and materials to create a detailed scientific picture of the surface waters in the watershed. The project is expected to begin in July and last a year.

The Lake Wentworth/Crescent Lake watershed covers some 22,500 acres, encompassing about 60 percent of Wolfeboro’s land area, with smaller portions in Brookfield and New Durham.

Members of the local steering committee, including Town Planner Rob Houseman, LWF President Jack O’Connell, Planning Board Chair Kathy Barnard, and Bob Craycraft, director of the University of New Hampshire’s Lakes Lay Monitoring Program, will oversee the project, which will be conducted by a consortium of environmental consultants.

Selection of the consultants is expected to take place by early July.

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Following a summer-long effort, the Lake Wentworth/Crescent Lake watershed management plan project has received the go-ahead from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services and the US Environmental Protection Agency to proceed with a final application for grant monies under the federal Clean Water Act.

The action comes after members of the management plan Steering Committee compiled a detailed budget and list of objectives for the project. Those materials were then submitted for review in a highly competitive process that put the local project up against communities and non-profit organizations from across New Hampshire. The Wolfeboro project was eventually selected for an intensive interview process that had DES and EPA staff reviewing the goals and proposed methodologies of the local proposal.

Participating on behalf of the Wentworth/Crescent project were Lake Wentworth Foundation President Jack O’Connell, Wolfeboro Town Planner Robert Houseman, University of New Hampshire scientist Bob Craycraft, Wolfeboro resident and limnologist Don Kretchmer, and Wolfeboro resident Rich Masse.

In late September, DES notified O’Connell that the local project had been approved to move forward with a final application for some $68,000 in funding under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act. The local proposal also rests on a commitment of up to $30,000 in matching funds from the Lake Wentworth Foundation and some $55,000 in volunteer services from town employees like Houseman (who would act as fiscal agent for the grant) and assorted volunteers from the local community.

The project still requires final sign-off from DES and EPA as well as approval by the Governor’s Council and Governor John Lynch. Word from DES is expected by early January, with Governor’s Council action coming later in the spring.

The effort to develop a watershed-wide management plan for Lake Wentworth and Crescent Lake has picked up critical support with a pledge from the Lake Wentworth Foundation to provide up to $30,000 in matching funds for a grant being sought from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Resources. The local effort is one of numerous similar projects across the state competing for some $500,000 in funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act.

Grant awards under this program are administered by NHDES and require a 60/40 division of costs between DES and the local groups receiving the monies.

In addition to the LWF funding, which was approved by the Foundation’s trustees at their most recent meeting, the Wolfeboro Planning Board, whose chair, Kathy Barnard, sits on the project’s steering committee, has thrown its support behind the effort. The board endorsed the project after hearing a presentation from several steering committee members about the project’s value in helping municipal decision-makers evaluate planned growth in the community.

The watershed management project is a collaboration of the Foundation, the Town of Wolfeboro, the Center for Freshwater Biology at UNH, and additional partners from a number of public and private organizations in the area.

Information about the progress of the local watershed management project can be found at www.lakewentworthfoundation.org/watershed.

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The Lake Wentworth/Crescent Lake Watershed Management Plan steering committee has defined a list of objectives aimed at meeting requirements imposed by the state and federal governments for the award of EPA grants.

The committee, comprising members from the Lake Wentworth Foundation and the Town of Wolfeboro, was formed from a larger group of community stakeholders in late 2009 in order to prepare an application for EPA funds that would be used to develop a management plan for the Wentworth/Crescent watershed.

Among objectives identified by the steering committee are:

• Compilation of existing water quality data for Lake Wentworth and Crescent Lake to determine the ability of the lakes to assimilate phosphorus, an element known to feed algae blooms and weeds in a water body
• Establishing the water quality target for phosphorus and other water quality parameters in Lake Wentworth and Crescent Lake
• Identification of current and future pollution sources in the watershed
• Estimating pollution reductions needed to maintain the water quality target and future watershed conditions
• Determining the actions needed to reduce pollution inflow and maintain water quality goals
• Providing outreach and educational activities to provide public awareness of problems caused by stormwater runoff and inadequate septic systems
• Designing on-site modifications calculated to remedy identified sources of pollution, such as road runoff
• Identification of professional consulting services to oversee development of the watershed plan