Water Sampling Report

Good Morning! 
Kelli Merrell, who did the sampling for E.coli at the beach this summer, sent us her report.  Sampling does not continue after Labor Day, but the reports have been excellent all summer, so we are left wondering what actually caused the spike in bacteria counts during 2011 and 2012.  Here's what Kelli reported: 

E coli sampling for the 2013 swim season ended last week.  The beach at Joe’s Pond was sampled Memorial Day to Labor Day.  Below are the results.  You can see that they are low and did not come close to the 235 limit at which the Vermont Department of Health recommends closing a beach until retesting comes back below the standard.  These results are similar to the results I got at the beach when I tested it from 2005 through 2010.  In 2011 and 2012 I did not have the time to volunteer to test the beach for the town.   There were exceedances of the standard in 2011 and 2012.  We will never know why those exceedances occurred.  We know the samples were not taken and analyzed in accordance with EPA guidelines and that could be the reason for the exceedances in 2011 and 2012.  It is for that reason I made the time to sample this year to eliminate any question in sample handling and processing.  With the data collected in 2013 being similar to that I collected from 2005 through 2010, it seems plausible that the exceedances in the last two years were due to the sample handling procedure used.  Regardless, the results from the 2013 sampling show that the Joe’s Pond Beach had very low E coli levels all summer long and like 2005 through 2010, it was a safe place to swim!

This chart shows Kelli's findings throughout this summer, well below even the Vermont standard (the green line) and way, way below what the federal EPA has set (the red line).  Even though we are left with perhaps some of the same questions, there were some definite benefits as a result of the high bacteria reports:  People are now much more aware of their septic systems, and at least a few septics were upgraded and others are being closely monitored; we learned a lot about how to control the goose population if we have an invasion again like the summer of 2012; and cooperation has been established between Joe's Pond Association and both Cabot and Danville to aid in keeping Joe's Pond clean by improving shorelines and runoff, especially from roads. 

 This is our house this morning.  There is always something more to be done to maintain our homes, and this year it's for us to have a new roof installed.  We did the roof when we moved here, about 18 years ago, but in some areas, it was beginning to show signs of age - curling and shedding grit - not to mention the stain streaks (obvious in the photo.)  So here we are, in "construction mode" once more.  We hope we get a decent stretch of weather for this job, but we weathered the rain last night just fine, so we're confident everything will go well, and even tonight's possible frost won't disturb Steve, Shane and Wally.  They started on the back of the house yesterday, and I took this picture early this morning, before they arrived.

The only problem with having workmen around is that our cat, Woody, gets pretty nervous.  Yesterday was tough on him, but today he's managed to maintain "nap mode" on the living room sofa at least for the time being.  As they work further across the roof to the area over him, I expect he'll be in to complain.

If you go to the on-line directory, you'll see that at least some of the pictures of members' cottages have been updated.  We still have some to do, but hope to have all pictures in place fairly soon. Then it will just be necessary to update when someone's property gets a serious changeover.  

The following notice came to me this morning - click to make it larger.