BY DAVE CHOATE
Last summer, the discovery of a high concentration of E. coli in Glen Lake forced the town to close it for several weeks. This summer, Rebecca Caron made sure there were no surprises.
“It’s important to just start taking care of (the lake). I do testing because somebody needs to volunteer to take care of it,” she said.
Caron is a Glen Lake resident who volunteered to assess the water for possible contamination on June 15.
Exactly one month later, she received word from the state Department of Environmental Services that the lake was within acceptable levels for all of the qualities she tested.
“Everything was acceptable across the board,” she said “The next step is getting everything to above average.”
Caron said she plans to consult with biologists and others to figure out the best course of action for improving the quality of the water. She said she regularly picks up trash and considers that an important first step, especially at the public beach where visitors often leave items behind.
The town began testing for E. coli after the scare as well, and their May water test returned normal levels for the bacteria. There have been no positive tests since the original breakout, and the original cause is still unknown.
Town Administrator Susan Desruisseaux said the town typically conducts its E. coli testing once a month during the summer. So far none of the tests have turned up abnormal levels of the bacteria, and she said the results are available on the town’s Web site.
“(The building inspector’s office) is probably going out to take a test of the lake next week. Typically, they’ve always tested during the summer months when usage of that area really goes up,” Desruisseaux said.
Caron said the testing took a couple of hours alongside a biologist who taught her the various mechanical necessities. Next time out, she plans to go alone.
Sara Sumner, the Volunteer Lake Assessment Program coordinator at the state DES, said 174 lakes and ponds in New Hampshire are currently tested. She said she and two interns spend summers training all the volunteers for the tests they’ll need to perform.
“Basically, volunteers test the water once per month through the summer,” Sumner said. “The goal is that over time we can use that data to finds long-term trends to establish how much all these factors change.”
In the past, the DES reported that some treated sewage was directed into the lake, but that was an unlikely cause because the flow redirected back in 1991.
She said the number of people on the beach also might contribute to problems in water quality. She noted the lone public beach on the lake is quite small and brings crowds of people, including children, to the shores of Glen Lake.
Caron plans to head back out in the third week of August to see how consistent her results will be. She said if the results are the same, she’ll have a better idea of what the next step will be.
“It’s a perfect little family lake. We’d very much like to keep it that way,” she said.
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