Maybe most folks are on vacation. Maybe everyone else is staying inside and watching the Olympics. Perhaps it’s because the TAB didn’t publish a word about it in Wednesday’s paper. Or perhaps everyone but me is riding in the Pan Mass Challenge this weekend.
But I’ve been surprised that there seems to be such a muted response to the algae bloom that closed Crystal Lake Monday, perhaps for the remainder of the swim season.
I’m surprised there’s been so little outcry, angst, discussion, expressions of concern, people asking a lot of questions, demands for public meetings and, hey, even the usual conspiracy theories, regarding something that seem pretty significant in a place we call the Garden City.
And need I remind you, we live in a community that loves to have opinions — and complain — about just about everything?
Am I just missing it? Or have we as a society becoming so accustomed to the fact that we’ve been destroying our environment — flooding, droughts, tornadoes in our state, nor’easters before Halloween, micro bursts that tear apart neighborhoods, and so on — that we just shrug when we’re told that our pets, not mention our children, shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy one Newton’s most cherished natural resources?
The Newton School Comm just spent $1.6 million of excess tax money like a pack of hungry dogs and no one questioned why the BoA doesn’t need to re-appropriate the slush money. And we need to be outraged about algae? Since Hector was Nonantum pup, hasn’t there always been red tide at the shore? It’s the same effect!
But has it always been the blue-green kind? I think Greg has a point. Sorry to admit, but I’d probably be more upset if I actually had a swim permit. But much as I like fresh-water swimming, I haven’t bought a pass for the last two years because the hours are so limited that with my work schedule I wouldn’t get there enough to make it worthwhile. Not to mention how often my swims seemed to get cut short by thunderstorms. I used to like the late season the best, when they were open til Labor Day and it was cooler and less crowded, but they don’t even try to stay open that long anymore.
Greg-I remember hearing you talk about how much you love Chrystal Lake. For other people, it’s the parks or the villages. I suspect it’s just that for most residents, the lake isn’t a part of their lives. If you’re used to or enjoy a clear lake – as you’d find in NH, Maine, or Vermont – our lake just doesn’t have the draw.
As for the state of the environment and the number of environmental events in the last few years, I’m as concerned as you are about that.
I’d be more freaked out if we lived out near 495. I feel like there is no way for a city to have natural settings that aren’t contaminated in some way. Cold Springs park is dog urine forest. Crystal Lake is right next to a frequently used train track and surrounded by a neighborhood nicely landscaped homes that are sure to be using chemicals of some sort.
I don’t know this as a fact but I thought that algae overgrows from phosphates in detergents? Is there an antidote for it?
When I was a kid, there were always tadpoles and peepers in the water near Levingston Cove. I’ve yet to find any when visiting with my kids in the spring.
Not to dismiss your concerns, but I see a lot more wildlife in the Charles river (turtles, beavers and otters) than I’ve seen in past years. This suggests to me that the water is actually cleaner.
Is fertilizer run-off the prime cause of the algae bloom? If so, a sensible measure might be to limit the use of fertilizers on property within XX feet of the lake. I imagine though that its a lot more complicated than that.
@Jerry, who would you get to enforce that?
@Ted– I think it’s more a matter of education than enforcement. I’m wondering if the Parks and Recreation Commission has a program to inform nearby residents on ways to reduce substance infiltration.
Jerry Reilly — Exactly. http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/74885.html
There is probably excellent cause for us to step back and take a look at the climate and other “odd” things going on around us. Yes, the Crystal Lake phenomenon may be a fluke, as is the fact that we had no winter to speak of.
I was just in the Minneapolis area last week. Their lake swimming is down. Why? Because the lakes are 90 degrees in water temp and – in the words of one local resident “It’s just not refreshing anymore.”
@Ted and @Mike Striar – I think it could be a combination of education and enforcement … but primarily education. I believe the Conservation Commission already has some level of jurisdiction around the lake so perhaps they would be the logical enforcement body.
One of the contentious points in the recent swim-at-your-own risk controversy was that abutters are allowed to swim at their own risk but not the general public. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to require those same abutters to forgo algae causing fertilizers on their property in return for that special access.
I should add that I have no knowledge of whether or not the abutting properties are currently using fertilizers on their properties around the lake. I do seem to remember some golf course quality lawns over there which I think is usually a good indicator of substantial fertilizer use.
Jerry Reilly — You didn’t mean to suggest the quid pro quo, did you? I was on your side until that part. Swimming in natures waters (at our potential peril) is what the earth gave and gov’t shouldn’t take away. Polluting the same — well, it’s gov’t job to stop that. Gov’t has few other serious responsibilities.
Did any of you happen to watch Chronical last month where they featured waterfalls of New England? In many of these rather dangerous waters there was at-risk swimming allowed . Those fools (so say some here) enjoying that damn nature…
@Jerry, abutters have “riparian rights” to use the lake if they live on it. And Hoss is absolutely correct that the government has the authority to restrict the use of fertilizers except under certain conditions to prevent pollution as well as other hazards to the environment and public health. This would seem to be one of them.
A Crystal Lake abutter came before the Conservation Commission just the other night and was told they had to maintain a vegetative buffer between their property and the water to prevent or reduce exactly the kind of runoff problem that is contributing or causing the current algae bloom. The property owners complained bitterly about how a vegetative buffer would interfere with their view of the lake, and for better or worse, the Con Com caved and only required ground cover vegetation as a buffer, which may or may not be able to prevent the problem (the city’s conversation planner recommended a more robust buffer).
That is why I am concerned about who and how environmental protections would be enforced. If a property owner is more concerned about making sure their lawn and lake view are perfect, all the education in the world is unlikely to have a salutary effect.
Ted Hess-Mahan — How can we see minutes to the Conservation Comm meetings? Are they on-line? (Small point, but you won’t mind it we we add some commas in your first paragraph to make the conditions appear less broad… nits)
Con Com Minutes are posted here.
Sorry about the punctuation (a panda “eats shoots and leaves” and a gunslinger “eats, shoots, and leaves”). I blog extemporaneously without taking time to review and revise.
@Ted, I love that panda-gunslinger thing! Is that from some English teacher in the past?
@Julia, it is from a book I love, entitled “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.” The author cites, by way of example, the following joke:
@Jerry, I believe that questions about fertilizer run-off into the lake extend beyond the actual abutters to include homeowners in the 34 streets in the area of the watershed. The Crystal Lake Conservancy conducted a very extensive watershed survey last year. They tried but were unable to to assess chemical usage in the watershed. You can see information they posted here: http://www.crystallakeconservancy.org/watershed-survey.html
My take-away from this information is that since the lake is a kettle pond, all potential pollutants that enter the lake -whether as storm drainage, surface run-off or from the watershed, are a source of potential contamination.
@Hoss, no I wasn’t suggesting a quid pro quo. I was more just spouting off personally. The Crystal Lake residents seem to be the loudest voices in trying to restrict swim-at-your-own risk by the general public. In doing so, they often hold up concerns about the water quality. I would just hope those same citizens are equally concerned about water quality when they make lawn care decisions.
While ConCom wanting a vegetation buffer is a good thing. I’d imagine that trying to discourage use of lawn fertilizers in the vicinity might be more important. If the lawn’s are filled with fertilizer, the buffer might slow or somewhat reduce run-off but particularly in heavy rains it will still end up in the lake.
It’s my own personal quirk, but the sight of a “perfect” chemically enabled lawn elicits the same response in me as seeing someone with their 18th cosmetic surgery – its kind of grotesque. That same quirk also gives me a defensible rationale for ignoring some yard work at my own house and that’s always a good thing.
“It’s my own personal quirk, but the sight of a “perfect” chemically enabled lawn elicits the same response in me as seeing someone with their 18th cosmetic surgery”
@Jerry – I like your analogy and I share your quirkiness, though mine also extends to those barren wastelands we call golf courses. The one time I actually was dragged onto a golf course with friends (out of protest I refused to even touch a golf club) there wasn’t a single bird, squirrel or cricket to be heard and it was utterly plastic and artificial – like that 18th cosmetic surgery. You don’t get a perfect chem lawn without feeding it toxic soup.
@lisap Come out to Newton Commonwealth Golf Course and see the heron, cormorant, red-wing black birds, wood ducks, Canada geese, goldfinch, red-tail hawks, turkeys, coyote, fox, rabbits, squirrel. Come in the winter-time, too for cross-country skiing and sledding. Barren wasteland?
Yes, Max, a barren wasteland. I’ve read that Commonwealth Golf Course is managed and operated in an environmentally sensitive manner and that is fantastic, but I think it is the exception rather than the rule. Perfectly manicured lawns made sense in the wet, temperate climate of Great Britain but achieving that ideal here demands significant quantities of water, fertilizer and pesticides. I’ve stood on the edge of many golf courses and been stunned by the silence when there should be a cacophony of sounds from birds and insects. I grew up next to a state forest and I still spend much time in the woods of Maine so I know just how much sound nature brings, and I’ve yet to experience a golf course that had any semblance of real nature.
And to think that in the late 1970’s there was a plan to convert the golf course, then in private hands, to 210 single family houses!
Max- did I read correctly that if the course will always remain open space even if no longer used for golf? Now that’s something I can applaud!
Few items:
1. Phosphorus from stormwater run off (usually lawn fertilizer or industrial processes) is often the cause of blue-green algae, and the EPA has started phasing in much stronger requirements for stormwater treatment (to reduce phosphorus from trickling into waters), especially on the Charles River. … http://www.epa.gov/region1/charles/tmdl.html … overall, these requirements will cost millions and millions of dollars. Such requirements probably won’t affect Crystal Lake anytime soon.
… one type of treatment is the use of alternative vegetation, which can absorb phosphorus before it runs into a water body. I’m unsure if that’s related to the vegetative barrier the Con Com was requesting of the Crystal Lake homeowner.
2. Re: enforcement, I’d wager that if the Board of Alderman approved a fine on individuals or landscaping companies caught using from a list of phosphorus-heavy fertilizers, many of the lawns of properties near Crystal Lake would go quite brown. I’d bet many landscapers (who, let’s face it, are the ones maintaining those nice lawns near Crystal Lake) wouldn’t want to risk a fine, if it was hefty enough, or could find alternative landscaping treatments that don’t rely on phosphorus-based products.
3. I think LisaP’s painting golf courses with a broad brush, after having admitted to visiting just one.
4. Re: the importance of grammar, my favorite is “Let’s eat, Grandpa.” versus “Let’s eat grandpa.”
Anyone who has driven on a dangerous winter day and came to a point where the sign says “Salt Free Zone” should now wonder why we would put green lawns ahead of babies in the back seat. Lawns are more precious? It’s not unreasonable to enforce a code of lawn treatment in a wetlands zone. And not unreasonable in the least to demand gov’t not send untreated runoff directly into open waters.
@Charlie – I said I’ve only been out onto one golf course – i.e. walking around the whole 18 holes. I’ve stayed at plenty of hotels with courses both in New England and in other parts of the US and abroad, and I have quite a few friends whose property abuts golf courses. Many of the attributes of golf courses which I find disturbing are plainly visible without venturing onto the greens, beginning with the enormous use of millions of gallons of water per day in the US alone, along with the application of huge quantities of herbicides, pesticides and fungicides (according to Waterinfo.org, golf courses average 18 pounds of pesticides per day per acre where as typical agriculture uses just 2.7 pounds per acre), combined with a landscape architecture which involves clearing natural vegetation and deforestation, changes of topography and destruction of natural wildlife habitat.