Unity Pond Watershed-based Management Plan — What’s Next?

On Thursday, October 27, 2022, Friends of Lake Winnecook (FOLW) and Waldo County Soil & Water Conservation District hosted a public meeting to update Unity Pond watershed residents, lake users, and all interested parties about current efforts to restore water quality in Unity Pond. The meeting was held in person at the Community Center in Unity (32 School Street), and online via Zoom webinar. The meeting included a Q&A session to allow time for the public to ask questions about the plan. Public feedback will help inform the plan and to successfully carry out restoration efforts. Visit the FOLW website at https://www.lakewinnecook.org/ to review the Draft Action Plan for the next 10 years, and to ask questions or provide input to the lake association.

The lake association and its partners are completing a two-year study to update the Unity Pond Watershed-Based Management Plan (WBMP). The last watershed plan was completed in 2007 and expired in 2017. Meeting attendees will hear from project scientists including Jennifer Jespersen of Ecological Instincts and Dr. Ken Wagner of Water Resource Services to learn about the current state of water quality and management strategies for improving the water quality of Unity Pond over the next 10 years.

Unity Pond is a 2,569-acre lake with a 30-square mile watershed located in the towns of Unity, Troy, Burnham, and Thorndike. Unity Pond’s outlet, Sandy Stream, flows into Twenty-five Mile Stream which flows into the Sebasticook River in Burnham and then into the Kennebec River in Winslow. Unity Pond is one of 21 lakes included on the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Impaired Lakes Priority List due to changes in water quality over time and specifically because of persistent, nuisance summer-time algal blooms that occur almost annually. Water quality data have been collected in Unity Pond since 1977 which indicates a decrease in water clarity starting in the mid-late 1980s which persisted into the 1990s before leveling off. In 2021, FOLW led a watershed survey which identified 109 sites where pollution (primarily soil erosion) is getting into the pond. The updated WBMP, which will be discussed at the meeting, is the next step in the process to allow local conservation partners to access state and federal grants to improve water quality.

In addition to FOLW, the project steering committee and technical advisory committees include representatives from the Waldo County Soil & Water Conservation District, USDA/Natural Resource Conservation Services, the towns of Unity and Burnham, Center for Wildlife Studies, Maine DEP, Ecological Instincts, and Water Resource Services. Funding for this project, in part, was provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Section 604(b) of the Clean Water Act. The funding is administered by the Maine DEP in partnership with EPA.

(Jen Jespersen of Ecological Instincts contributed to this post).