[R]UTLAND — Piedmont and Combination ponds in Rutland don’t have to be drained.
A recent study revealed the quality of the water in Moon Brook, which flows through the two ponds, can be restored by taking other actions short of draining them, city Public Works Commissioner Jeffrey Wennberg said Tuesday.
The news that the ponds can be saved was revealed at a meeting Monday night of those who own property near the ponds as well as other concerned residents, he added.
“The information was welcomed by those in attendance because it resolved the long-standing fear that the ponds would have to be drained and a stream channel restored to achieve the needed cooling,” Wennberg added in the statement released late Tuesday afternoon.
Moon Brook water quality does not currently meet state standards. The city is required by the state of Vermont, according to Wennberg, to improve the water quality in the brook.
For years the state and city had differing views over the causes of Moon Brook’s impaired status.
The state has contended the main cause is stormwater runoff. The city had maintained that elevated temperatures are responsible. In 2015, a third-party report by Kleinschmidt Associates found both causes contributed to the waterway’s poor health.
Another factor the firm cited was habitat degradation.
The city and the state have been working since that time to find solutions.
“After a decade of controversy and litigation, last year the city and the state agreed that solving the problem will require controlling stormwater entering the brook and lowering summertime water temperatures,” Wennberg said in the statement. “The two ponds are believed to be a main cause of excessive heat in the brook.”
Combination Pond is just upstream from Piedmont Pond.
The city last year received a grant from the state Department of Environmental Conservation to hire the engineering firm Milone & MacBroom, with offices Waterbury, to look at ways to reduce the heating of the water.
“Monday’s was the third of five planned public meetings on the subject, and the first in which the engineers confirmed that planting shade trees, dredging the ponds and lowering water levels can achieve the needed temperature reductions,” read the news release, titled “Study supports neighbors’ call to keep ponds.”
The next step, according to the release, is for consultants to prepare photo simulations to show the public at the next meeting the “future appearance” of the ponds.
Construction could begin by October 2018, if all goes according to plan, the release added.
Wennberg could not immediately be reached Tuesday for comment.
Michel Messier, who lives on an embankment overlooking the pond, has been trying to save it for years and helped form the group Save Combination Pond. He also could not immediately be reached Tuesday for comment.
