Flints Pond cleanup at issue for town

Friday, March 5, 2010

HOLLIS – Voters who attend the annual Town Meeting Wednesday will be asked to decide whether to let the town take $106,000 from a reserve fund created 16 years ago to cover some of the cost of cleaning up Flints Pond.

The remainder of the cleanup money would come from the state, local fundraising and town conservation funds, according to the residents group Flint Pond Improvement Association.

By contrast, a petition article that follows asks voters to discontinue the Flints Pond capital reserve fund and put the money in the town’s general fund.

The article, No. 7 on the warrant, is supported by the Board of Selectmen and recommended by the Budget Committee. It hasn’t received the endorsement of the town’s Conservation Commission.

“Cleaning up that pond is justified because the state, the DES, conservation, all these experts recommend it,” Selectmen Chairman Vahrij Manoukian said. “We have a body of water. Let’s clean it up and maybe one day use it if we have a scarcity of water.”

For roughly two decades, the town has eyed a cleanup of Flints Pond, a 49-acre body of water located north of the Nashua River not far from Route 130 and bordered by Flints Brook, Crestwood Drive and Nartoff Road.

Indeed, last year, town officials said it would take at least a year for them to make a decision, based on concerns ranging from cost and liability to environmental impact.

The Conservation Commission isn’t supporting the article, Chairman Tom Dufresne said, because the cleanup proposal doesn’t address the issue of prevention.

“It would need to be cleaned out every several years,” Dufresne said. “It’s throwing good money after bad.”

Meanwhile, the Flint Pond Improvement Association has launched a public information campaign on its Web site, www.flintspond.org.

The group maintains that the cleanup would benefit not only residents living near the pond, but also anyone inside or outside town looking for a place to go boating or fishing.

There is a state boat launch on the pond.

Presently, the pond is plagued with milfoil, an invasive weed affecting many bodies of water across the region and state.

Flints Pond, however, isn’t impassable. Nor is it so clogged with weeds that canoes, kayaks and other watercraft are unable to navigate its waters.

But environmental experts have recommended treating the weeds to prevent the pond from becoming a swamp or forest in years to come.

“It benefits the town as conservation,” said Darrin White, spokesman for the Flint Pond Improvement Association.

White said cleaning up Flints Pond would add to local conservation measures, including land protection such as that at Beaver Brook Association.

“It’s in that category,” he said.

White said that if voters approve the warrant article, his group would kick in $25,000 to be added to the $106,000 in the reserve fund. In addition, the residents have applied for several state grants to offset the total expense of $154,800.

“It’s a natural water supply,” White said. “There’s wildlife. And it affects the water in the Nashua River.”

A year ago, the town asked the residents’ group to do more research and return this year to discuss the request.

Ten years ago, after studying the pond, the Army Corps of Engineers estimated it would cost the town $9 million to dredge the entire 49 acres, and selectmen nixed the project.

Dredging to remove milfoil roots, moreover, posed another problem: The process would disturb arsenic in the sediment, experts have said.

Experts also pointed out that the pond, located over an aquifer, is spring-fed and can’t be drained.

State DES officials said materials dredged wouldn’t pose a risk to the environment if they were dried and contained properly, and the state recommended that materials removed from the pond be deposited in the town’s stump dump, placed over an impermeable cover and covered with dirt.

But there are no guarantees. In fact, state DES officials told the town that the state wouldn’t be held liable should the arsenic leak into the ground.

White said the Flint Pond Improvement Association wants to preserve the pond, provide a healthy habitat for wildlife and offer opportunities for recreation.

The residents’ association is showing a five-minute video about Flints Pond on Channel 12, the local cable access channel, on Saturdays and Sundays at 9:30 a.m., noon and 5:30 p.m. The video will also be shown at Town Meeting.

Hattie Bernstein can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 24, or hbernstein@cabinet.com.