Water Level Policy

Role of the West Hill Pond Association

The West Hill Pond Association owns, regulates, and controls the water rights to West Hill Pond and establishes the water level policy. Those rights include, without limitation, ownership of the dam, the gatehouse located on the dam, all appurtenances thereto and rights of way to and from the dam.

What is the current water level policy?

The current policy is to lower the Lake each fall 24 inches below the 1 0-inch spillway board which is located in the gate house. The 1 0-inch board controls the maximum level that the Lake is allowed to reach as specified by State regulators. When the level exceeds
this level water must be let out.

At the end of the summer the lake is usually below the 1 0-inch board. How much depends on how dry the summer has been. Two to three inches below is normal for this time of year.

Water lowering generally begins Oct. 1 and the lake is to reach its lowered level by no later than Oct. 15. The lake: will be held at the lowered level until it freezes over or January 15 whichever occurs first. The lake will then be allowed to start its recovery. The major concern is to assure a full lake for the coming summer season. Every 5 years the lake will be lowered up to 36 inches below the 1 0-inch board so that work on docks and walls can be accomplished. The timing of the lowering and closing will be the same as noted above.

What has the lake been lowered in the past?

The lake was 12 to 16 inches below normal the summer of 1985. This led to a more conservative policy which wasn’t fully adopted until 1989.

 

What do we expect the lake to be lowered in the future?

 

Does the West Hill Pond Association Have Other Responsibilities?
More recently, the West Hill Pond Association has taken on broader responsibilities – due partly to its status as a tax-exempt non-profit – but also as a role of its function as an Organization of Organizations. The Association has been involved with water quality monitoring via sampling for decades and more recently as the sponsor of an extensive watershed storm-water survey and responsibilities related to watershed stormwater management.

With water rights ownership, we interpret the scope of our responsibility as protecting the quality of the lake and its water. Subsequently, the West Hill Pond Association is very interested in Long Term Planning to ensure that we have a clear understanding of what any impacts to water quality might be, and the measurement of changes to those impacts.