Pond Retrofitting in Carroll County

A coworker at American Amalgamated Corrugated Conglomerates of America asked me recently (she works in the machine shop), 'what is going on across the street from Solernos?'

The fact is that across Carroll County the ponds (storm water management systems) are being retrofitted to meet new EPA standards. I'm not sure if the standards are at the federal level or the state level, but a representative from the County told us that the fine for not retrofitting the pond is more than the cost for retrofitting it.

You'll recall last May I blogged about the County coming to the pond in our neighborhood and doing a fish catch. Thus began the process to retrofit our pond. The county originally wanted to put a dry water management system in its place. This is an area that fills up when it rains, but quickly drains as the water drains into the underbody of the system. "You guys really want a pond?' we were asked. Uh....yeah.

This was our pond before the retrofitting. Notice the pretty trees, cattails, and invasive willows. Unseen in this picture are the hundreds of blue gill, large mouth bass, crappie, and the occaissional catfish. Not in the picture are the red-winged black birds that make their nests around the pond, the gray heron, the mockingbirds, the crows, and the mallards. You do see one single goose in the pond.

This is our pond during the retrofitting. I had no idea that it was this deep. Seriously - if they put that excavator in the pond and filled up the pond with water, you wouldn't see the excavator. It makes me a little anxious thinking about all those kids that were playing hockey on it last winter when it was frozen.


Here's what it looks like now:

Very sterile. Uninviting. Non-environmental. I'm sure it'll take a few years for it to come back. And this is to make the water better, right? The county promised to restock it. They put 1,000 or so golden shiners fingerlings as a starter. Sounds like we won't be fishing here for while. This is not good when yout 10 year old son wants to fish EVERY DAY.

The county is now working on the pond in the Harvest Farm development in addition to the two ponds on the north side of Route 26 across from Solerno's. If you have a pond in your neighborhood, expect that in the near future it will be a giant mud puddle for a while.

Here's the pond in the Harvest Farm neighborhood. The pond was full of giant koi - 20-30 inches in length. The county said they had to destroy them because they were an invasive species and there was some invasive fungus or algae or something like that in the water, so all of the fish had to be destroyed.

Nothing like making everything better by destroying it first! That should be Maryland's motto - Destroying Maryland to Make it Better!