Successful completion of the watershed survey

Volunteers and team leaders for Webber Pond. (contributed photo)

by Mary Schwanke
Webber Pond Association
Water Quality Committee

For the first time in more than 20 years a complete watershed survey has been accomplished for the 14,226 acres (22.5 square miles) of land surrounding three connected ponds in our area. Three-cornered Pond is the headwater for the two larger ponds, draining into Three mile Pond via Barton Brook, which then drains northwest into Webber Pond via Seaward Mills Stream. Twenty volunteers, including 17 local community members and three environmental stewards from the Maine Conservation Corps, joined 10 technical leaders from Ecological Instincts (Manchester), Kennebec County Soil and Water Conservation District, and Maine DEP for three full days of survey work. Teams of three spent the days walking shoreline proprieties, inspecting driveways and camp roads, and checking culverts at stream crossings for signs of erosion and storm water runoff. Runoff is the leading cause of excess external phosphorus in lakes, fueling algal and cyanobacterial blooms, including some that can release toxins harmful to children, pets, and wildlife.

In addition to the surveys of developed land conducted May 15-17, a team from Ecological Instincts has undertaken surveys of agricultural and forested lands in the watershed to help complete the picture. Only about five percent of land owners opted out of having their properties surveyed, which is great news for generating a very comprehensive data set to help us understand factors affecting our water quality. The watershed survey data, along with data from water sampling in 2024 and this summer, will be used by our professional consultants to model external and internal sources of phosphorus and generate recommendations to reduce total phosphorus in all three ponds. A summary of survey results will be shared with the public and will be used in the development of a 10-year watershed based management plan to help improve water quality.

This project is being funded by two grant programs administered by Maine DEP, the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and the Nonpoint Source Grant for Pollution Control Projects (NPS) totaling nearly $100,000. Additional support has been provided by the Towns of Vassalboro and Windsor, the John Sage Foundation, the China Region Lakes Alliance, and Maine Lakes/Lake Stewards of Maine. Two additional proposals were recently submitted to the 2025 CWSRF and NPS programs to fund the project’s remaining tasks: completion of all data analyses and modeling, review and prioritization of management strategies including potential remediation options, and the writing of the new Tri-Watershed Based Management Plan by late 2026/early 2027. The plan will be used to guide watershed restoration and protection efforts over the next 10 years.

Special thanks go to our intern, Ellie Hatt, an environmental steward with the Maine Conservation Corps. She was instrumental in preparing the property lists and sector maps for the watershed survey, as well as helping with the training of volunteers for this project.

Volunteers and team leaders for Three-cornered and Three-mile ponds. (contributed photo)