As you know, the annual meeting will have a couple of guest speakers that are experts on ways to help mitigate cyanobacteria blooms. In addition, you should be aware that the board created a subcommittee in the fall of 2023 to look into possible treatment options for when there is a bloom. The subcommittee primarily used the list of options from the US EPA website and dug deeper into options that, at first glance, seem possible for Province Lake.

The attached table is a summary of that work. The first 3 columns are directly from the EPA website. The last three are case studies, additional information and Province Lake potential. We thought it would be good to allow you to review this before the meeting and therefore we are providing this to you now. The long and short of this is that there is no “silver bullet”. Any option would require approval and permitting from NH DES, and we are not sure what involvement would be required of Maine DEP. Most are very expensive, and to obtain funding through grants etc. will not be quick. The best and longest term solution is to limit the nutrient load into the lake. This will be the primary focus of the guest speakers. After the speakers, there will be some time to talk about the table attached.

As a reminder, the meeting will take place on Saturday July 27 at Edge Lake Farm at the Golf Course. Social meeting starts at 9:30, with the actual meeting beginning at 10. We hope to see you there.

The PLA

Cyanobacteria Treatment Options

We wanted to share information with all members who are interested in voting at the annual meeting. There will be at least three items that will require a vote that we felt you should review in advance of the meeting. We will be approving the minutes from last year’s (2023) meeting and you can read those on our website under “News & Important Info” then “PLA Annual Meeting Minutes”. We also will be voting in new officers and directors and you can read their bios in the attached pdf file. Finally, there is a very minor change to the bylaws where we added a function that the Treasurer does. You can see that edit in the pdf below and it is track changes, so the edit is highlighted in Red.

We hope you are enjoying the summer and we hope to see you at the annual meeting on July 27th at 9:30am at Edge Lake Farm.

Board Nominee Bios

ByLaw Proposal for July 2024 Annual Meeting

Hi Province Lake Community,

The cyanobacteria Advisory has been lifted.  Below is the official communications.  The red signs are coming down.

The PLA

Hi All,

The cyanobacteria warning at your lake has been removed, please see below for details.

While the bloom accumulation has dissipated, NHDES advises that lake-goers look out for discoloration or surface accumulations in the future. Please continue to monitor your individual shoreline for changing conditions.

The red cyanobacteria advisory signs can now be removed from public access points.

Thank you all for your communication. If you see cyanobacteria in the future, please report it through the bloom report form.

Please forward this email to other residents / community members who need this information. If they would like to be added to the email distribution list, please have them sign up through this form to be directly included on future communications from NHDES. If you prefer to no longer receive these sampling updates, simply respond, and indicate “unsubscribe”.

Best,

The CyanoHAB Team
Cyanobacteria Harmful Algal Bloom Program
Watershed Management Bureau, Water Division
New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services
29 Hazen Drive, P.O. Box 95, Concord, NH 03302-0095
603-848-8094   hab@des.nh.gov

NH DES performed sampling at the lake on Tuesday, June 18th.

Unfortunately, visible blooms were noted along Bonnyman Road, and sampled concentrations were higher than the state limit … official notice below.

Hi All,

The cyanobacteria warning remains at your lake, please see below for details.

Please keep signs posted at public access points. NHDES will arrange for sampling again next week. Warning details can also be found on the Healthy Swimming Mapper. If you click on the warning symbol, you can see our most recent sampling date. When warnings are lifted, the red symbol for the waterbody will no longer be on the map. 

Please forward this email to other residents / community members who need this information. If they would like to be added to the email distribution list, please have them sign up through this form to be directly included on future communications from NHDES. If you prefer to no longer receive these sampling updates, simply respond, and indicate “unsubscribe”.

Best,

Kate Hastings and the CyanoHAB Team
Cyanobacteria Harmful Algal Bloom Program
Watershed Management Bureau, Water Division
New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services
29 Hazen Drive, P.O. Box 95, Concord, NH 03302-0095
603-848-8094   hab@des.nh.gov

Hello Province Lake Community, 

Unfortunately, NH DES came and sampled again today and found two out of 5 locations well above the state limit.  As such, the warning stays in effect and the signs stay up.  The official notification is below.  They will be back again in a week to test again.

Regards,

The PLA

Hi All,

A cyanobacteria warning has been issued at your lake, please see below for details.

Please keep signs posted at public access points. NHDES will arrange for sampling again next week. Warning details can also be found on the Healthy Swimming Mapper. If you click on the warning symbol, you can see our most recent sampling date. When warnings are lifted, the red symbol for the waterbody will no longer be on the map. 

Please forward this email to other residents / community members who need this information. If they would like to be added to the email distribution list, please have them sign up through this form to be directly included on future communications from NHDES. If you prefer to no longer receive these sampling updates, simply respond, and indicate “unsubscribe”.

Best,

Kate Hastings and the CyanoHAB Team
Cyanobacteria Harmful Algal Bloom Program
Watershed Management Bureau, Water Division
New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services
29 Hazen Drive, P.O. Box 95, Concord, NH 03302-0095
603-848-8094   hab@des.nh.gov
—

Hello Province Lake Community,

Unfortunately and as previously communicated to you, NH DES did analyze the samples they got and have issued an Advisory for the lake.  We have put the signs up and DES will be back in a week to take new samples.  The official notification is below.

Regards,

The PLA

Hi All,

A cyanobacteria warning has been issued at your lake, please see below for details.

Warnings are issued when cell counts exceed 70,000 cells/mL. NHDES advises lake users to not wade or swim in the water during a warning. Please also keep pets and livestock out. The warning is not based on a toxin evaluation and is intended as a precautionary measure for short term exposure. Please see our newly updated FAQs for more information.

NHDES will resample in a week. I will reach out to you before then for updates. If you have information on where accumulated material is being observed at that time, please let us know to guide our sampling efforts. Warnings remain active until the bloom subsides. You can also see warning details on the Health Swimming Mapper.

To the health officer or other official responsible for posting signs, please post our red cyanobacteria warning signs at all public access points. Please let me know if you do not have any to post or if you need replacements.

Please forward this email to other residents / community members who need this information. If they would like to be added to the email distribution list, please have them sign up to be directly included on future communications from NHDES. If you prefer to no longer receive these sampling updates, simply respond, and indicate “unsubscribe”.

Best,

Kate Hastings and the CyanoHAB Team
Cyanobacteria Harmful Algal Bloom Program
Watershed Management Bureau, Water Division
New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services
29 Hazen Drive, P.O. Box 95, Concord, NH 03302-0095
603-848-8094   hab@des.nh.gov

Hi Province Lake Community,

Unfortunately, several blooms have been observed around the lake over the last couple days, including this morning.  This has been reported to NH DES and they are analyzing the samples to determine if the signs need to go up or not.  We just wanted to get the message out that blooms have been observed and that we all should remain vigilant.  Attached is a picture from this morning. 

Once we hear more from NH DES, we will communicate that to you.  Again, if you see something like the picture attached, stay out and especially keep children and pets out.

Regards,

The PLA

Hello PLA Community,

We have received some not very welcome news from the Loon Preservation Committee regarding the testing that was performed on the unhatched, abandoned egg collected from Bella Island last year.  The egg was found to have a high level of PCBs.  The manufacture of PCBs was banned in 1979 because of health issues associated with exposure but the hazardous contaminants are still found in air, water, soil and sediment today.  Once again this is not a problem that is specific to Province Lake but something that is present in all of our lakes.  Once these contaminants are in our environment there is very little that breaks them down.  The contaminants found in the eggs are one data point and would have come primarily from the fish they were eating in the weeks preceding egg-laying.  Please consider this when considering consuming fish caught from Province Lake.  Eating fish from any lake or pond in NH has not been advised for many years due to concerns related to mercury content.  We will be working with DES and the Loon Preservation Committee to get  some of our fish tested to give us specifics related to the types and levels of contaminants.  

One bright spot is that last year we also had a successful hatch of a loon that was able to mature and successfully leave Province Lake in the fall.  That had not happened in many years and speaks somewhat to the fact that our lake is healthy enough to support loons. At this time there are at least two loons on the lake and we have put out the floating nest.  Maybe they will decide to use the island again?  Whatever they choose we will all do what we can to support them.  Hopefully we will have good news on that front soon.

The information provided to us can be viewed at by clicking here …. Loon Egg

Thanks,

Jim Aiken
Province Lake Association

Hi All,

Summer is coming and the PLA is looking for a few volunteers who can assist us by providing a pontoon/party boat for our water sampling program this coming summer.

This program is run in conjunction with UNH and the NH Lay Lakes program. We have trained and equipped personnel but need boats and drivers to do the sampling. The sampling typically takes 1-2 hours and starts at 9am. There are usually 2-3 people joining (an expert water quality personnel from UNH, potentially a UNH intern, and a water sampling volunteer from the PLA). The dates of sampling are:

     Monday, May 13
     Monday, June 3
     Monday, July 8
     Monday, August 5
     Monday, September 9

You can express your interest, any dates you could volunteer, and provide contact information (email & phone#) to Katie Jones at kjones@provincelake.org. We will follow up with more specific information. 

This is a great excuse for spending a morning on the lake while helping to keep it healthy and learn about water quality!

Thank you.  
The PLA