RYEGATE, Vt. (AP) - A northern Vermont lake that suffered many years of algae blooms and other challenges has improved to the point that it’s being removed from Vermont’s impaired water list next month, the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation said.
Ticklenaked Pond in Caledonia County has had five years of water quality improvements and its delisting will make it the first lake or pond in Vermont to be restored to phosphorus reduction goals mandated by the EPA, the department said.
Phosphorus runoff from farms and roads can fuel toxic algae blooms in a lake. The state attribute the improvements to the hard work of Ticklenaked Pond Association to reduce runoff and nutrient pollution and a 2014 treatment funded by the Environmental Conservation Department.
“A collaborative effort carried out by the Ticklenaked Pond Lake Association, camp owners, the town and farmers in the lake watershed continues to help reduce driveway erosion, stormwater and agricultural runoff, and road erosion issues,” DEC Watershed Planner Danielle Owczarski said in a written statement. “By implementing no-mow lakeshore zones, better road practices, cover cropping, nutrient management plans, and barnyard practices, we ‘checked off’ source after source from the list generated by the action plan.”
The lake treatment is the culmination of over a dozen years of efforts by the association and others “who love this gem of a lake,” said the association’s chairperson Sally Wilson.
The association continues to limit the spread of Eurasian Water Milfoil and native species are returning to compete, said the association’s chairperson Sally Wilson. Fish populations improved and loons returned to the lake over the last few years and are producing chicks, she said.
“We are grateful to the DEC and all who made this possible,” she said.
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