Environmentalists Draw The Line For Lake’s Water Levels

By Kendra Bobowick

Both beauty and personal enjoyment will deteriorate as quickly as the shoreline if water rises in Lake Lillinonah as far as Program Director and Senior Attorney for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment (CFE) Curt Johnson can see.

His concern stems from recent discussions of a Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) being defined by the Northeast Generation Service (NGS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Northeast Utilities that manages and operates power-generating facilities.

The management plan is underway as part of the electric company’s compliance with its license issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The license leaves room for increased water levels (roughly two feet above current levels), and although NGS has no immediate plans to raise the water, representatives have stated recently that they have the legal right to do so.

NGS is also for sale, and the same rights extend to buyers.

Referring to NGS’s “track record” Housatonic Valley Association Executive Director Lynn Werner feels certain that NGS will not draw a higher waterline.

“I think it is unlikely that NGS will raise the lake level, but it’s possible simply because it is allowed by the license,” she said.

Increasing the concern is uncertainty about the lake’s future operation.

“It’s unknown if a newcomer combined with the license allowances will raise the level,” Ms Werner said.

Environmentalists speculate about the destructive impacts of a two-foot variance in the lake’s usual operating height. Mr Johnson has recently received a report from CCA, LLC, a civil engineering and surveying company out of Brookfield, that drew what he believed were obvious conclusions regarding Lake Lillinona’s shores.

“It’s a very wooded shoreline and if you add two feet it will have a huge impact on the vegetation and trees,” he said. “Trees will drown, die, and fall in the lake.”

Mr Johnson describes a scenario that worries him.

“There will be a mass of dead trees and what that means for human beings trying to enjoy that shoreline is a tangle of dead trees in the water effectively destroying the shoreline,” he said.

The result from a rise in water levels “inadvertently creates a shoreline that is not useable,” Mr Johnson explained. “It’s certainly a big impact on human use of the lake.”

He also remarks on the washout he believes will land in the river.

“Sediment will literally wash into the lake,” he said. The influx of sediments will create issues downstream, starting in Lillinonah, then Lake Zoar, and on down, he said. The effects would travel downstream, across the Stevenson Dam and downriver, he added.

Confirming Mr Johnson’s concerns, Ms Werner said, “Picture the shoreline going up and tree trunks are submerged; it kills the trees and roots don’t hold the shore. [The shore] gradually washes away so there is a flood of sediment washed into Lake Lillinonah, then Lake Zoar and downstream.”

Impacts are destructive to habitats relying on a craggy or rocky surface on the lake bottom, she explained. Fish, and even oysters farther down the river, depend upon a rough bottom for their eggs. Additionally muddying the water, literally, are decreased light levels, which have an impact on the underwater habitats, she said.

Ms Werner feels the SMP does not account for a jump in the water level, and makes her doubts clear.

“You have issues this plan can’t address,” she said. Expressing her lack confidence in the plan’s ability to handle impacts of increased water levels sustained over a period of time, Ms Werner said specifically, “Raising the lake could create problems that the SMP could not address.” She also implied that a Shoreline Management Plan “is useless,” if a large portion of the shoreline erodes.

In other respects Ms Werner admires the management plan. She said, “The SMP draft out there provides a lot more protection than we ever had before.” She notes its stipulations for shoreline plant-life. “It provides for maintaining a better quality of water.”

She said, “Natural vegetation along the lakes protects the quality of the water and acts as a buffer and filter for pesticides.”

(Attorney General Richard Blumenthal also addresses water levels, see related story)

Energy And Water Levels

Mr Johnson wants to know how much additional energy would be produced with increased water levels. If the exchange is significant, he said, “There has got to be a plan to manage the lake shore to minimize the impact.” He refers to both visual and environmental impacts.

Communications Specialist for Northeast Utilities companies, Donna Powell confirmed that current operating levels will not suddenly increase.

She did not address the questions of how much more energy might be generated by an increase.