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Duck pond options aired Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Frank, the former Lithia Park swan, has retired to a pond at Mountain View Retirement Residence in Ashland - at least until city officials figure out how to keep his former home in the park clean. By TONY BOOM Mail Tribune ASHLAND - A floating, plant-covered island similar to one former President George Bush has in a small, brackish pond in Kennebunkport, Maine, may be used in Lithia Park's upper duck pond to clean water and reduce muck in the bottom of the pond. The island is one of five suggestions in a report to the Parks and Recreation Commission. Commissioners will consider proposals to improve the 17,000-square-foot pond when they meet Monday at 7 p.m. Frank the swan fares well Frank, the male swan removed from Lithia Park's lower duck pond last year after his mate died, is living comfortably at an Ashland retirement community. Frank was moved to Mountain View Retirement Residence after pneumonia and an infection possibly related to stagnant water in the pond caused his mate's death. Frank's return to Lithia Park will await improvements in water quality and consideration of public sentiment. Parks department plans now call for draining the pond four times per year into Ashland's sanitary sewer. A pump installed this fall to drain the pond can also supply water to a cascade that will provide aeration and recycle the contents once every 12 hours. An earlier cleaning of the pond resulted in a proliferation of daphnia, microscopic crustaceans, in the city's wastewater plant. Installation of filters should eliminate the problem said Paul Kay, a water consultant who has volunteered his services to help clean the pond. Fish habitat restoration work in Ashland Creek cut off fresh water supplies to the upper and lower duck ponds in 2000. The change resulted in murkier ponds and may have contributed to the death of a swan in the lower pond last year Besides the island idea, the report also considers a floating greenhouse, a cascading waterway feeding the pond and a synthetic mesh aeration system. The island would be about 15 feet across and work in conjunction with a small wetland in the pond. A pump for circulation and plants to add oxygen and reduce nitrogen are among that plan's features. Ocean Arks International of Burlington, Vt., creates the product, called Lake Restorer. The nonprofit research organization has engineered and installed five restorers during the past 10 years. They include one at a Tyson Foods plant that treats a million gallons of water a day. "The floating technology is aimed both for restoration of polluted ponds ... and wastewater treatment," said Erica Brown, environmental biologist with Ocean Arks. The firm had estimated $100,000 to engineer and build the island, but Brown is working on a revised plan using local workers for construction. She expects that estimate to be $50,000 or less. Afterward, maintenance can be done by city crews. "We have so many ponds that we can clean up with fairly simple methods if we understand the biology," said Paul Kay, an irrigation and water consultant who voluntarily produced the report. Kay recommends cleaning the pond with a restorer or the restorer and the floating greenhouse, the trademarked Living Machine made in Taos, N.M. The greenhouse incorporates tanks with animals and organisms that break down and digest pollutants. Pumps move water throughout the greenhouse and back into the pond. The restorer and the machine would operate without having to remove the estimated 60 cubic yards of organic and mineral sediments on the bottom of the upper pond. Draining and cleaning has been eliminated due to potential damage to the pond's clay lining. Both Brown and Kay say keeping some sediment is beneficial to organisms living in the pond. A synthetic net system with aeration equipment would add oxygen but wouldn't remove nitrogen. Beneficial bacteria would grow on the netting. Pond sediments would have to be removed. A wetland would use 1,000 to 2,000 square feet of the pond's surface area. It would increase pond diversity and would help clear the pond. A water cascade would increase oxygen. The pond already has a cascade feature but it isn't used. Cost estimates for the other proposals wasn't immediately available. Commissioners will receive an evaluation of Kay's proposals prior to the meeting from URS Engineering of Portland. The commissioner is considering the proposals for consideration in the city's next budget. Reach Ashland bureau reporter Tony Boom at 482-4651, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.