In the battle against the water lilies overwhelming the pond in Concord’s White Park, it’s time to bring out the big guns. Or, in this case, the big diggers.
“The recommendation … based on it being a shallow pond, obviously very good for the lotus plant to grow, is to dredge the area that we need to get everything cleaned up,” said Parks and Recreation Director David Gill. “We sprayed three years ago but it’s continuing to take over the pond. It’s just exploding,”
The lotus plant, a native of Asia that is common in home aquariums, showed up a few years back and nobody knows exactly how or why. It has taken root and expanded quickly and currently covers more than a third of the surface area of the two-acre pond. Left alone, it will cover most or all of the pond before long and choke out most other life, but removing all of it won’t be easy. If just a few roots are left behind, the growth could return.
“We need to lower the water and get to all the growth and roots, do it manually – make sure we get it all,” said Gill.
Details of the operation are still being worked out, including how much the two-acre pond will have to be emptied, how much material will have to be hauled out, and where this tons of mud and muck that’s free of weeds will be placed until it drains – gets “dewatered,” in industry terminology – and can be replaced.
The city has funds in the capital reserve account to remove the plant and is lining up contractors.
Gill said the city would like to get the work done this fall as the weather cools, but is facing obstacles including difficulty lining up contractors, who have been overwhelmed by customer demand and labor shortages during the pandemic.
“A lot of the vendors are really busy. In an ideal world, I would like to do it this fall but most likely it is a 2022 project,” he said.
This won’t be the first time the pond, which was an early water supply for the city, has been dredged. Gill said work was done in the 1940s and 1970s, and is overdue to be done again. Small ponds naturally fill up and eventually become a bog in a process known as eutrophication.
“We’re overdue to do maintenance to make sure it stays a pond … and is good for the next couple of decades,” Gill said.
(David Brooks can be reached at 369-3313 or dbrooks@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @GraniteGeek.)
