Committee Discusses Milfoil Removal Plans for Crystal Lake

The Ellington Ad Hoc Crystal Lake Milfoil Committee met Monday evening to prepare for the upcoming summer season.  The status of the milfoil removal was a hot topic of discussion.

According to the Crystal Lake Association Web site, milfoil was first discovered in the lake back in 2001 and was first removed in 2006. Removal consists of “suction harvesting,” which is basically vacuuming up the milfoil that divers pull by hand, using a hose that feeds the weed back up to a bag on a boat.  

Also, in shallower areas of water, hand bagging techniques are used. Divers go in by hand to pull out the weed and then bag it.  The bagged milfoil is brought to a location on Hoffman Road. 

The committee began by reviewing 2010. Because the 2010-2011 fiscal year doesn’t end until June, there is still work to be done this year, with this budget. They completed annual maintenance of the main body of the lake, along with the pond across Route-140, the cove portion of the lake, the stream between the pond and the cove, and the dam section. 

The remainder of the 2010-2011 budget is $1,400 and the committee is looking to put that money to good use. 

George Knoecklein, from Northeast Aquatic Research, submitted a proposal to the milfoil committee for this year. Knoecklein outlined the goals of his work, which included:

• A census of the lake for milfoil, using GPS
• To ensure no other invasive plants are in the lake
• To gather information on the aquatic plants in relation to a map of plant life in the lake
• To create a map of the lake to display the plant life in efforts to aid removal

These goals do not necessarily reflect what the committee need at this time, however, the tasks that Knoecklein developed are more pressing. 

The first task Knoecklein proposed includes both a pre-treatment and post-treatment survey. However, since the fiscal year ends before the post-treatment survey would be complete, the committee decided a pre-treatment survey with a sketch of the lake’s aquatic plants would be more suitable for task one. This would also take them to the end of the fiscal year, and into a new budget term. 

Task two would include a computer map of the lake using Google Earth and AutoCAD. The third proposed task is a summary report of what’s left in the lake. 

The committee suggested revisions to Knoecklein’s proposal, like removing task two until after the annual maintenance. 

However, there was discussion of getting another quote from a different company aside from Northeast Aquatic Research.

“We are the test product for the DEP, and we are paying for it, and they are benefiting from it greatly….competition is good,” committee member Monique Burns said. 

The committee asked for a continuation of the present line item for the 2011-2012 budget.  The total proposal would cost $6,440.  

“Once the budget passes in May, we need to see how much money we have,” Committee Chairman David Arzt said, “We might not be able to get all the milfoil out, but just enough to keep an eye on it.”