Week 8: A Change of Pace

June 12 and 13, Wednesday and Thursday:

This week, Luke and I took a break from carp tracking to assist Dr. Pinou with her NOAA grant program, Finding Our Way. The program is designed to teach middle school age children about the Housatonic Watershed. While Candlewood Lake is a part of the Housatonic Watershed, unfortunately, the program was not very relevant to our internship. The first two days of the program were uneventful, and were spent aiding the teachers supervise the children. The children participated in experiments related to water quality and meteorology. The overall idea of the Finding Our Way program is to educate the children to be good stewards of the environment, spreading the information they learn at the camp program to their families.

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June 14, Friday:

Today's camp program was much more applicable and interesting to us and our internship. We, along with the Finding Our Way program visited the Shepaug Hydro Station in Southbury, Connecticut. The station, like Candlewood Lake is owned by First Light and is one of the main producers of power for the region. The Shepaug Dam separates Lakes Lillinonah and Zoar. Lillinonah and Zoar were formed during the early 1900's by damming the Housatonic River. Both lakes are afflicted with similar issues to Candlewood. They are infested with invasive populations of both Eurasian Milfoil and Zebra Mussels. Thankfully, Candlewood Lake has not yet been affected by invasive Zebra Mussels, but it is at high risk for contamination due to the fact that the major source of water for Candlewood is the Housatonic River.

Pictured Above: Lake Zoar

Due to the many environmental precautions that need to be taken, First Light Employees stated that their hydroelectric power plants on the Housatonic River are some of their most expensive facilities to upkeep and run.

Pictured Above: The turbine that the water from the Shepaug Dam turns to create power

Not only are the environmental restrictions a barrier to the profitability of the hydro stations, but all the facilities on the Housatonic River owned by First Light were built prior to 1950, with the oldest dam built before 1910. The stations require a lot of upkeep to keep the old parts running, a task which is sometimes difficult as many of the original components installed are no longer made.

Above: a view from across the top of the Shepaug dam

The dam drops off 200 feet on the side of Lake Zoar. There is about 100 feet difference between the levels of Lake Lillinonah and Lake Zoar in order to create the necessary gradient for hydroelectric power. Candlewood Lake has a similar gradient between itself and the Housatonic River. However, rather than a dam, the Rocky River hydro station of Candlewood Lake relies on water moving down a penstock to generate power, the water is then drawn back up into the lake from the Housatonic River via the same penstock when prices of electricity are low.

Above: within the red circle are two enormous common carp, they are about 200 feet below the dam in the waters of Lake Zoar (zoom in on the center of the red circle if you are unable to see them)

Compared to other sources of power like coal, hydro power is a clean energy alternative. Despite the fact that dams can have environmental implications such as disrupting the flow of rivers and blocking fish migration, they are definitely a better alternative to non renewable energy sources. We also found that First Light does try their very best to make sure that they are impacting the surrounding environment in as few ways as possible. Within the next few years, they will be adding fish ladders for migrating fish species, as well as example buffer gardens in Lake Zoar, Candlewood Lake, and Lake Lillinonah.