By Buz Whelan and Bill Henry

Bog Removal Boat

You made have seen a funny-looking yellow contraption this past week on West Emerald Lake, but if you missed it look to East Emerald Lake in the coming week. That’s a bog boat, and its purpose is to remove the floating bogs from lakes, here East and West Emerald Lakes. And that ‘contraption’ cost upwards of $85,000, accessories not included. Accessories include a huge bladder for containing and draining the bog material, large diameter hoses and miscellaneous connection and holding gear.

Essentially a peat bog is lake bottom. It can become loose and then in warm weather float to the top of the lake. It presents a swimming and boating hazard and gives off an unpleasant odor. Bogs have a tendency to accrue, to grow larger and larger over time. If unchecked they will eventually take over a lake, at first turning it into a swampy quagmire and eventually drying out to leave a meadow, its character depending on local native growth.

Beginning two years ago, management sought bids on removal. Eco Scientific

Bog on East Emerald Lake

Solutions was chosen to do the work. They have done other types of lake management work for the association in the past. Owner-operator gave an estimate of $8,000 and a budget line item of $9,500 was put in the 2012/2013 budget to cover the additional cost of permit fees. It was estimated that 700 cubic yards of wet material would have to be removed from the lakes, which would leave about 250 cubic yards of dried matter to be eventually taken from the site. Bog removal will take about two weeks, until the end of next week, and then an additional several weeks will be needed for the material to dry.

Emerald Lakes will retain some of the dried material since it makes a very nutritious topsoil.