Peabody council pushes for Crystal Lake cleanup

PEABODY – The murky waters of Crystal Lake might become crystal clear sooner than expected with the recent push by City Councilors to recommend bonding for the roughly $1.5 million clean-up project.After a detailed presentation by Community Development Senior Planner Blair Haney, members of the Ad Hoc Committee on Crystal Lake and Friends of Peabody Lakes expressed urgency to speed up the process.”It’s time to put this biodredge experiment to bed,” said Friends President Jack McMahon. “We need a plan and we need it now before it’s too late.”McMahon presented to the Committee an invoice detailing the entire costs of using biodredging and hydraulic dredging technology on both Crystal Lake and Elginwood Pond. His calculations, based on analysis completed by an outside contractor, Synagro Technologies, estimated the total cost to be near $1.5 million.Haney’s plan proposed the idea of a two-phase process, beginning with preventative Low Impact Development (installing catch basins and storm drains) and ending with dredging. Councilor Ted Bettencourt Jr., however, would like to see the process reversed.”We need to address the problem, then worry about storm management after it’s cleaned,” he said, comparing the process to cleaning a wound. “We’re delaying tending to the wound.”In May 2006, the city voted to try out the biodredging project on a 5,000 square foot area of Crystal Lake because of its low cost and promising good results. The process involves releasing bacteria into the area to literally eat away at the organic material responsible for eutrophication, the dense growth of plant life caused by the excessive buildup of nutrients. The nutrients managed their way into the lake with the help of excessive runoff.So far, the city has only been able to appropriate $25,000 of its own money and obtain two $400,000 grants from the state. Bettencourt has asked Community Development numerous times to present some form of financial breakdown in order to better judge their next move in terms of funding the extensive project.Councilor Dave Gravel shared his sentiments.”I really want to know where the money has gone and where it’s going,” he told Haney.Gravel made a motion to receive a master plan and resource management plan, which was unanimously approved by the Committee, then later by the entire City Council.Councilor Mike Garabedian’s motion to recommend bonding for the full $1.5 million also received a unanimous vote by both the Committee and later City Council.