LUDLOW, Vt. – The Lake Rescue Association announced that it has applied for a dredging permit with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, Agency of Natural Resources. The permit application proposes that the state allow dredging near the mouth of the Black River into Round Pond and the channel between Round Pond and Lake Rescue in Ludlow, Vt. “Sediment from the Black River is making the channel between Round Pond and Lake Rescue increasingly shallow,” said Kevin Golmont from the Lake Rescue Association Board of Directors. “We are concerned that over time the channel will become unnavigable for boats because the water level is too shallow.”
The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation has posted a draft permit #3130 on its website, www.enb.vermont.gov, which will be open for public comments until Aug. 5, 2020.
The Lake Rescue Fishing Access Boat Ramp is located on the Round Pond section of Lake Rescue. If the channel between Round Pond and Lake Rescue is too shallow for boat navigation, it will limit access for boaters, paddlers, and fishermen to the larger portion of Lake Rescue. In 2013, the Lake Rescue Association completed a similar project after Tropical Storm Irene devastated the region in 2011. “Since Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, we have experienced an increase in sediment from upstream on the Black River including storm runoff, erosion, mud, and road gravel, which collects and settles in Round Pond. It is clogging the channel between Round Pond and the larger portion of Lake Rescue,” Golmont said.
In 2018 Lake Rescue Association hired Griggs-Lang consulting geologists of Troy, N.Y. to complete a bathymetric survey of the lake. The Griggs-Lang report indicated that the affected area had become increasingly shallow since the last dredging project completed in 2013. In 2019 the state conducted their own survey, which also concluded the lake water depths have decreased.
The project is estimated to cost over $100,000 to complete. The Lake Rescue Association will rely largely on a fundraising campaign to pay for the project. If awarded, the dredging permit will be active for five years. The scope of the project includes the removal of approximately 1,980 cubic yards of accumulated sediment, which will be dredged from an area of approximately 1.58 acres in the area between the mouth of the Black River on Round Pond in the area of the channel.