CONCORD — Nine residents, joined by the Newfound Lake Region Association, have filed an appeal before the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services’ Water Council of a decision by the Dam Bureau to maintain water levels that the appellants maintain are causing shoreline erosion.
A group known as the Concerned Citizens of Newfound Lake filed a petition in 2018, asking for the state-controlled dam on the Newfound River to adjust the operational guidelines known as the Lake Level Management Curve, established in 1982. They argued that the 1982 Curve “adversely affects the rights of property owners above the outlet of Newfound Lake and interferes with the use and enjoyment of the water for recreational purposes….”
As a result of the petition, the Dam Bureau in 2019 adopted an Interim Operating Curve for the summer to determine the feasibility of operating at a lower lake level. By the end of the summer, after listening to testimony from the interested parties, the bureau decided to continue the experiment under a Modification of the Interim Operating Curve.
Lake residents found the change to be “appropriate and does not result in adverse impacts to the upstream or downstream interests in Newfound Lake,” but the Dam Bureau wrote, “While the petition focused on the reduction of Newfound Lake levels as means to address shoreline erosion, environmental and other issues, several others submitting testimony highlighted the impacts of lowering lake levels to some existing dry hydrants, fish habitat and spawning.”
The bureau concluded that the 1982 Curve “is in the best interest to preserve public enjoyment of all resources on Newfound Lake, and meets, to the extent possible, existing obligations to hydropower operators and to the fishery and aquatic resources in the Newfound River.”
In their appeal to the Water Council, the appellants call the Dam Bureau decision “unlawful and unreasonable”.
They argue that the 1982 Curve caused serious beachfront erosion because of the higher water levels, especially to the Hebron Town Beach and the delta of the Cockermouth River that feeds into the lake. The data presented to the Dam Bureau noted 22 beach erosion sites around the lake, with Bristol’s Cummings Beach experiencing some of the worst erosion; sedimentation of both the Cockermouth and Fowler rivers reaching “new highs”; the creation of extensive aquatic bed vegetation; and the loss of between 1.12 and 1.26 vertical feet of sand at the waterline on the Hebron Town Beach in less than a year’s time.
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