Kristina Ertzner, city of South Portland

SOUTH PORTLAND — A GoFundMe page has been posted looking for help from the community to help save Hinckley Pond from algae that has taken over the pond. 

More Maine’s lakes and ponds have been exposed to algae over the recent years. South Portland’s Hinckley Pond has experienced cyanobacteria blooms in the past three years. Many residents and visitors go to Hinckley Pond to walk their dogs on the trails, spend time trout fishing, ice skating during the winter, or just a nice stroll. 

When the algae turn into visual globules, it can be toxic to humans and be fatal for animals, including dogs. 

“The algae produces two different toxins: one that causes neurological problems, and one that leads to liver failure,” said John Calarese from Blue World Environmental. “Humans usually know enough to avoid these algal blooms, but dogs do not differentiate between clean and polluted water. Signs that a dog has been in contact with blue-green algae include twitching, weakness, seizures, vomiting and diarrhea.

“Although it might be days before the toxins take effect, it is more common to see symptoms within hours, even minutes after exposure, particularly following ingestion.”

Phosphorus and nitrogen that is found in fertilizers and animal waste is a critical nutrient that fuels algae blooms freshwater ponds. Blue World Environmental will treat the upper and lower pond with carbon reef bags. A total of 83 bags are predicted to be used to treat the 1,000-foot area. The bags are floated from buoys to prevent sinking. The buoys also show residents and guests that a treatment is in progress at the park. 

“Blue World Environmental is a new company,” said Calarese. “We are in the business of water and soil remediation. In this particular case we remediate blue green algae from water waste using a proprietary estimated carbon reef that we have in our arsenal. We have been working with the United Nations on this project for four years and finding an economical way to deal with water pollutants including blue algae, E. coli and things of that nature and being able to eradicate them.”

Blue World Environmental will donate the proprietary activated carbon for the project. This will include 170 carbon reef bags that are estimated to cost thousands of dollars. A GoFundMe account has been created to raise money so the project can begin as soon as the ice thaws. The funding will be used to help with ancillary costs and supplies that include buoys, anchors, rope, signage, labor, testing and analysis and equipment rental. 

“(The) Hinckley Pond issue came to our attention through contact with the Maine DEP and South Portland, so we offered at our expense for our services to donate our technology to help eradicate the blue algae blooms that have come to their attention,” said Calarese. “In that process the needs of the town and the needs of this project have added expenses to this, the number of buoys, reef, weights, clamps just to keep the number of bags in place. There are going to be over 120 to up to 160 of them total, each set up is going to estimate the cost from $40 to $80 a set up.

“The budget frankly wasn’t made for that much when we originally put this in place, we didn’t budget for that. Furthermore, when I was looking into this and dealing with Parks and Rec and dealing with the fact that the city has a much larger issue with their leash laws. The park is very well used, and people really love the park and want to continue to use the park with their dogs. I wanted to make this an educational thing. I think signage was a really important part of the project, so people are going to see buoys in the waterways, and I want them to understand why they are there, what is algae, what does it do, what is Blue World, is it safe, and what was the whole meeting of it. My thoughts were we should truly have finished a project that everything was done 100 percent. From the project being put in the water correctly to the signage and communications was done right. So, when we put it all together, we were way off the budget.” 

They hope to reach their fundraising goal of $15,000 by April.

“We came up with the idea since this is all donated let’s come up with an inexpensive way to ask the community for help to do this project. This is where the GoFundMe came from,” said Calarese. 

In July 2020, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection confirmed that the algae in Hinckley Park is cyanobacteria that is toxic to humans and animals. South Portland’s Parks and Recreation Department posted warning signs and then closed it to the public when staff members noticed the algae.