Candlewood Lake has been producing energy — and enjoyable — for practically 100 years

Boating, fishing, or taking within the surroundings — Candlewood Lake is a favourite summer season spot for residents of higher Fairfield County. But do you know Connecticut’s largest lake is definitely man-made?  Candlewood has been producing hydroelectric energy for nearly a century.

Folks with the Candlewood Lake Authority are the eyes and ears out right here. Their brand-new analysis vessel, docked in New Fairfield, is souped up with plenty of cool know-how to maintain the lake safer and cleaner.

“We designed it from the start and put the different features in that fit well for us,” mentioned Mark Howorth, who runs the group. He additionally grew up on this.

“Obviously, you know, lakes don’t have town lines and things like that, so it gets tricky,”
Howorth mentioned. “For public safety to be performed on a body of water that crosses municipal boundaries, they decided to form an organization.”

And so, the Lake Authority was born in 1972. Along with New Fairfield, Danbury, Brookfield, Sherman, and New Milford additionally border this Y-shaped lake. It is 11 miles lengthy and will get as much as 90 ft deep.

“And on the environmental side, we are sort of misnamed because we don’t have any authority over the environmental side,” Howarth mentioned. “But we do a lot of the research, study, and then we make recommendations, you know, whether it’s regulations or things like that. We also work, you know, at the state level with regulators.”

The new boat additionally has sonar functionality. Being a man-made lake, there are nonetheless remnants of what was right here earlier than that we will now see beneath the floor, together with a bridge.

“That was there in the 1920s before they flooded the lake,” Mark mentioned, pointing to the display as we handed over. We can see both finish of the bridge that used to run over a small river.

So, let’s again it as much as 1926 when the thought for Candlewood acquired the ‘okay.’ Joining us on board is Len Greene with FirstLight, the corporate that has managed operations right here since 1999. He explains this engineering feat was the primary of its form within the United States.

“It’s a big, beautiful battery that was designed 100 years ago this year, was finally built in ’29, so we’re coming up on the official 100th anniversary of this lake,” Greene mentioned. “And it was built to generate electricity, essentially store water that is discharged down through a big pipe down the hill in New Milford, into a station called Rocky River.”

At the underside of the lake is the small farming city of Jerusalem. Homes, faculties, graveyards, and extra have been demolished and moved earlier than the world was flooded out.

“It’s an amazing feat of engineering if you think about the time they did it and the technology that they had to do it with, you know, steam shovels and in some cases things by hand,” Greene mentioned. “And 100 years later, it’s still operating and doing what it’s supposed to do from an electricity standpoint and obviously, has created a fantastic place for people to live and recreate.

That is on full display here today — water skiing, kayaking, tubing. We can see this place is clearly the spot for summer fun as we cruise up to the north end in New Milford to check out the dam.

“If we were able to see over the top, it’s a huge, very steep slope,” Greene mentioned. “But where that turnoff is past the boat barrier, that is actually the intake for the hydroelectric facility. So, if you go down that channel, at the end, there’s this massive tower that is essentially the drain, where water comes in and comes and goes down the penstock into the station.”

While FirstLight handles energy above the floor, when you get underwater, that is the place Sophie Licht is available in because the Lake Authority’s director of ecology. And like Mark, she grew up on this lake too.

“The lake is kind of why I went to school for, yeah, marine and freshwater biology,” Licht mentioned. “There’s just so many interesting things about it.”

She mentioned it is particular to have the ability to return to her hometown.

“I haven’t lived here in ten years, so it’s really awesome to be able to come back and learn a whole different side of the lake and try to do everything we can to protect it.”

Licht began work right here this summer season. Sometimes she will get to leap within the lake with scuba gear.

Sofie Licht

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Candlewood Lake Authority

“You probably have, like, on a good day, around five to ten feet of visibility. It’s very green, but there are a lot of fish in this lake,” she mentioned. “There’s some big, massive carp, bass — I can see, when I’m underwater, why this is such a good bass fishing lake.”

And in fact, zebra mussels — a tiny, freshwater mollusk from southeastern Europe. Licht explains that sadly, it appears to be like like this invasive is right here to remain.

Sofie Licht

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Candlewood Lake Authority

“Zebra mussels are pretty well established in Candlewood right now. They’re here and they have a reproducing population, so it is kind of is what it is. Their new concern is hydrilla, which is an invasive weed, an aquatic plant, that we don’t have in the lake right now, but it’s in the Housatonic River.”

That is how simply these items can take over an area ecosystem, outcompeting native species for meals and habitat.

“A lot of these plants spread through fragmentation, so if you break a piece off and throw it in a lake, that piece of plant can actually reproduce, and that could establish and then start a whole new population. So, it just really takes that one.”

Every winter, FirstLight attracts down the water ranges within the lake. It helps with upkeep, but it surely’s additionally an effective way to get an concept of what is rising beneath. Exposing aquatic vegetation to decrease temperatures freezes them all the way down to the basis and prevents them from rising again as simply subsequent 12 months. It additionally helps with these pesky zebra mussels.

The workforce mentioned there are different invasives they’re retaining a watch out for, together with ones that aren’t in Connecticut but, and even in New England. For instance, golden mussels in California, or spherical goby discovered within the Great Lakes.

“Zebra mussels we have, right, but there’s also quagga mussels which are a cousin of the zebra mussels but tend to be more prolific than zebra mussels,” Howarth mentioned. “Those have been moving east and towards this area, so it’s certainly possible that, you know, at some point we could really have that threat at our doorstep. As Sophie mentioned the golden mussels — right now they’re in California, but those sound like they’re even worse! But again, far away, but these things — as they call them, aquatic hitchhikers — hitch a ride on a boat and get brought to another body of water.

The best way to keep these pests out is to clean, drain, and dry your boat before putting it in another body of water. As long as people do that, Candlewood Lake can keep providing fun and power for years to come! “