LYNNFIELD — The Lynnfield Conservation Commission has a new solution for Pillings Pond’s algae problems: Socks.
Earlier this month, aquatics specialists and Water & Wetlands Consulting, LLC placed “biochar socks” in the pond at Bates Brook near Bourque Road.
The socks, which Water & Wetlands deploys in water bodies around the region, serve as a sort of filter. Biochar is a highly absorbent, specially-produced charcoal originally used as a soil amendment.
In Pillings, the socks will assist in filtering nutrients, contaminants and odors that are the source of the pond’s algae.
“You can think of them almost as a giant Brita filter,” said Emilie Cademartori, the Conservation Commission’s director of planning and conservation. “As the water flows through it, it will filter nutrients that allow algae to bloom in the pond. The idea is that you can reduce some of the incoming nutrients. It should help.”
The Conservation Commission has been treating the pond for years, but it was time to up the ante to deal with algae.
“The permit to treat the pond had gone all the way back to 2004 and it had just been extended and extended over the years,” Cademartori said. “Eventually, that treatment program morphed into something that no longer met the letter of the permit. So, we used a consultant to decide the best treatment program and work on a more proactive approach.”
A Pillings Pond subcommittee meeting hit upon the treatment solution back in November, where Water & Wetlands recommended the installment of the biochar socks.
Installed in the brook, 50 linear feet of the biochar socks are designed so that water flows through them into the pond. So far, the socks are doing their job. But it’s a matter of waiting to see how tests go this summer to confirm filtering results.
Water & Wetlands will return in both May and July for four sampling events. Each time, water from upstream and downstream of the socks will be tested and compared to see how effective the socks are performing, and if it’s helping to make Pillings Pond a better body of water.
Dan Kane can be reached at [email protected].
