| Issue #38, December 14, 2006 |
Solar Power
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Town Will Vote Whether or Not to Have the Sun Clean the Water
By T.J. Clemente
In Water Mill, a group under the leadership of Steve Abramson, called the “Friends of Lake Nowedonah” hopes to restore Mill Pond, the lovely pond at the west end of town, to its former state — a clean pond where you could take a swim on a hot summer’s night. In recent years, geese droppings and runoff have changed the status of the pond. Now thick unpleasant layers of algae have formed on the surface. To solve this problem, the residents, through Mr. Abramson’s organization, brought in Bruce Richards, the local representative of an environmental company called SolarBee, to evaluate what could be done.
In 1988, SolarBee became the first company to manufacture a solar powered device that in fresh water lakes can reduce stagnation, remove odors and deal with algae problems. By the year 2004, 600 of these solar powered devices were being deployed throughout the country. The solar power cells can run the SolarBee for twenty-four hours without any sunlight after being fully charged. The device floats on top of the pond while it draws water up from below the surface, through an intake hose, and spreads it across the surface in a near-laminar long distance flow pattern. The patented intake system allows a specific depth to be treated without a risk of disturbing the sediment. Some SolarBee units circulate as much as 10,000 gallons per minute. Even though this unit is fully powered by solar cells, the proposed SolarBee’s to be used on Mill Pond are not to be that large.
On December 18, at their next meeting, the Southampton Town Trustees must decide for or against use of the circulators. They must decide if letting this project proceed is in the town’s best interest. If approved, Mr. Abramson reported said, the Friends of Lake Nowedonah, would raise the funds needed to clean up the pond. Donations will actively be sought from residents in the immediate area. Mr. Abramson says the group expects to rent up to four of the circulators initially. If happy with the results, the Trustees would entertain the possibility of purchasing four SolarBees for around $160,000. There is even the possibility of using the SolarBee on other ponds. Having a healthy eco-system in all of the ponds is a nice goal. With the recent increased number of geese droppings and the toxic results of those droppings, action is needed to prevent all ponds from becoming dead. The action to be taken on Mill Pond will be a test to see if the local ponds can be managed successfully with this new technology. Hopefully if all works as planned by next summer, once again, Mill Pond will be a place where one could take a quick summer night’s swim in safety. The thick unpleasant and damaging algae will have been eliminated.
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