Property owners on Clary Lake in Whitefield and Jefferson are pursuing a lake level petition. If successful, the action would start the process of the Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection establishing a required lake level.
The petition comes in response to what many residents feel is a dramatically low water level in the lake this fall and winter. Paul Kelley, a representative of Pleasant Pond Mill, LLC, the dam’s owner since 2006, has said the drawdown is simply an effort to prevent spring floods from overflowing the dam.
George Fergusson, a property owner on the lake and former president of the Clary Lake Association, started the lake level petition earlier this month.
On Dec. 17, the Clary Lake Association Board met and decided to support the petition, said the association’s current president, Ellis Percy. “We’re behind the petition 100 percent,” Percy said in a telephone interview on Dec. 19. The lake level “impacts wildlife, it impacts property owners and it impacts public boat ramp” on Rt. 215 in Jefferson.
Percy said the board believes DEP – whom they feel is an independent expert – should set the water level in the lake.
Under Maine law, private dam owners have the right to control the level of the lake. However, if a lake level petition is submitted, DEP sets a required water level for the lake. Then, if the water level is not maintained in the required range, the dam owner may be penalized.
In order for the petition to be valid, the petition must have the signatures of 25 percent of the lakefront property owners from each town – about 15 owners in each town.
“We feel that threshold should be very easy to meet,” Percy said. “We hope to have the petition complete by the end of the year.”
