The Fryeburg Aquifer Resource Committee (FARC) was formed in 2003 by interested citizens of Fryeburg shortly after an announcement by the Nestle Corporation that its Poland Spring Bottled Water unit was considering construction of a plant in the Fryeburg Area.  Nestle currently withdraws in the range of 1 million gallons of water per year from the Ward Brook Aquifer.  Ward Brook drains into Lovewell Pond at the northwest quadrant of the lake.

In addition to current Poland Spring related withdrawals, the Fryeburg Water Company uses the aquifer as a water source, and a permit has also been issued to another corporation (the WE Corporation) which is investigating water withdrawals for commercial bottled water purposes.

FARC initiated several activities, including fund raising to support the Fryeburg Planning Board by implementing a comprehensive and independent review of the impact of withdrawals from the aquifer on the sustainability of the aquifer resource, and on nearby surface water lakes and streams, including Lovewell Pond.  That analysis is nearing completion.  Preliminary results were presented to the community on May 10, 2005, and the study will be completed mid summer, 2005.

An interesting overview of the aquifer use impacts on Lovewell Pond was included in the study.  The overview is included below.

Emery & Garrett Groundwater, Inc.

24 Common Street · 3rd Floor
Waterville, Maine 04901-6611
Phone: (207) 872-0613 
e-mail: eggime@eggi.com
Fax: (207) 872-0626
 

TO: Gene Bergoffen
FROM: Fryeburg Aquifer Research Committee
DATE:DATE \@ "MMMM d, yyyy" \* MERGEFORMAT May 27, 2005
CC:Ted Raymond         

RE:Evaluation of the Impacts of Groundwater Withdrawals from the Ward Brook Aquifer on Lovewell Pond

You requested that as part of our work on the modeling of the Ward Brook Aquifer we look into the impacts of groundwater withdrawals from that Aquifer on Lovewell Pond.  This brief report could be considered as an interim report, or you may decide that sufficient is already known, and that there is no purpose in proceeding with further investigation.

Particular aspects of the study were to include the following:

     • Review of the annual variation in water levels measured in Lovewell Pond.

     • Review of the State’s Lake Monitoring Program data on water quality in the Pond

     • Review of the State’s information on average residence time of lake water in the   Pond.

Methods of Data Collection

In order to collect data for this study we have checked all web sites that mention Lovewell Pond (EPA, and Maine Departments of Environmental Protection and Inland Fisheries and Wildlife).  We have gathered additional data from the Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program, and have also consulted with the following individuals:
 

• Gene Bergoffen, President of Lovewell Pond Association
• Howard Dearborn, long time resident on the pond
• Woody Thompson, geologist with the Maine Geological Survey and originator of the “Glacial Lake Pigwacket theory” concerning the origin of the landscape in the vicinity of Fryeburg and surrounding towns.
• Linda Bacon, lake assessment biologist with Maine DEP

Characteristics of Lovewell Pond

Lovewell Pond is an approximately rectangular lake that is hydraulically connected by a reversing stream and floodplain to the Saco River on its southeast side.   The following data is significant for later calculations:

Geology of Lovewell Pond

Lovewell Pond is a geological peculiarity in that it is a hollow in the landscape surrounded by valleys that have been filled with 10s or 100s of feet of glacially derived sediment.   The current thinking on its origin is briefly as follows:

• It and its surrounding sediment filled valleys were carved out of the bedrock by the last ice sheet, which covered the entire State of Maine and the Gulf of Maine as recently as 18,000 years ago.
• The ice sheet was melting and receding northwards in the vicinity of the lake about 12,000 years ago.  Some blocks of ice were left within accumulating glacial sediments.  These later melted to leave “kettle holes”, which are commonly small somewhat rounded hollows in the sandy landscape that are commonly floored by fine sediments.  Some are filled with water as “kettle ponds”.  Lovewell Pond may also be a kettle pond, in which a gigantic block of ice was covered by sufficient glacial sediment to insulate it for a sufficient length of time for the source of additional sediment to retreat to the north with the melting ice sheet.
• Later, when the ice clock filling the hollow that is now Lovewell Pond melted, the insulating sediment dropped to the bottom of the lake.  The “lake” was then part of a much larger lake that has become known as “Lake Pigwacket” that has since drained out to leave the landscape more or less as we see it.
• In post-glacial times a delta has been built into Lovewell Pond from the south, where flood waters from the Saco River bring in silt.

Water Levels in Lovewell Pond

Water levels in Lovewell Pond are controlled mostly by the level of water in the Saco River to the south.   When the river floods, water levels in the lake can rise by as much as 23 feet (during the flood of 1987), and commonly 12 feet, then subside as quickly as the river subsides, with normal water levels at about 363 feet above sea level.

This rapid seasonal increase and decrease in water level in the pond is an unusual aspect of lake hydrology in Maine.  It does mean that there is a and considerable flushing of the water from the lake, several times per year.  If that flushing did not occur, the flow of water from the lake’s watershed would flush the lake on average once every 3.5 years approximately.  In other words, the water that is derived from precipitation (minus evapotranspiration) in the watershed (6,200 acre feet) is less than a third of the total volume of water in the pond (21,157 acre feet) and it would thus take that amount of time to replace it all with “fresh” water.

Water Quality in Lovewell Pond

The water quality in Lovewell Pond is “moderately good” according to DEP data which includes the following:

The water in the pond “turns over” once per year just before the onset of winter.  This has the effect of bringing bottom water, low in oxygen and somewhat higher in phosphorus to the surface.

Fisheries in Lovewell Pond

Lovewell Pond is managed as a warm water fishery, and is characterized by a large variety of fish.  Brown trout are sometimes stocked but apparently cannot breed in the lake.

Conclusions in regard to Ward’s Brook

The watershed of Ward’s Brook constitutes about 2/3 of the watershed around Lovewell Pond, and is thus its most significant contributor, bringing in about 4,000 acre-feet of water to the Pond (2000 acres times 2 feet of precipitation-less-evapotranspiration).   However, the Saco River contributes more, estimated at 13,000 acre-feet (1,120 acres times 12 feet average rise in pond level).   Furthermore, this flooding of Lovewell Pond may occur several times per year.  Thus it is the Saco River that is by far the larger determinant on the water quality, water level and flushing rate of Lovewell Pond.

Our conclusion is that if Ward’s Brook were to dry up completely (we are not advocating this) that event would have little if any effect on water quality, water level or flushing of the lake.  However, there would doubtless be some change in the biota in the small wetland through which Ward’s Brook flows on its way to Lovewell Pond.