FRANKLIN — Who pulled the stopper on Georges Pond?

About 40 residents of waterfront camps located on the pond confronted the Franklin Board of Selectmen on Monday with their concerns about low water levels that they claim are crossing recreational use of the popular summertime getaway north of Franklin.

An ongoing debate over this new culvert that drains Georges Pond in Franklin has not kept swimmers away from the adjacent public beach. A committee of concerned camp owners is now exploring ways of protecting the roadway over the culvert from washouts without affecting the pond’s water level.—STAFF PHOTO BY TOM WALSH

In response to high water washing out the section of Georges Pond Road affecting the culvert that drains the lake into Georges Brook, the selectmen recently authorized the replacement of two smaller culverts with a larger culvert as a means of keeping water off the roadway during heavy rains.

Owners of camps on the pond claimed Monday that, despite a wet spring, the new, larger culvert has lowered water levels by as much as 18 inches, rendering some boat docks unusable.

“The selectmen cannot control the level of the pond,” Second Selectman Jeffrey Albee told those participating in a sometimes contentious, hour-long debate. “We have no right and no interest in it. Our only interest is the outlet and the road that passes over it.

“Last year, the road washed out. We put in a new culvert, and that took care of it.”

Albee said that work was done in coordination with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). First Selectman Steve Walton agreed.

“The actions we took were within the mandate of what we had to do to protect the road,” Walton said. “We asked DEP if there was a set level for the pond, and they said ‘no,’ not unless it’s a dam.”

Nonetheless, the consensus of those attending Monday’s meeting was that the size, position and level of the new culvert is negatively affecting the ecology of the pond. There is enough concern by local residents that someone trucked in two large rocks early Monday morning and placed them in front of the culvert to impede the flow of pond water through it.

Among those encouraging the selectmen to fix the problem is Maury Oliver, a Lamoine native and a current Pennsylvania resident who has summered on the pond for 40 years. As an engineer, he said, he did the math.

“You replaced a 12-inch and a 16-inch culvert with a 40-inch culvert,” he said. “Those two culverts had a 1,256-square-inch flow rate. The 40-inch culvert provides 5,027-square-inches of flow rate, which is four times as much. There is 400 times more water flowing out at a difference of 2 feet in elevation.

“You did not have the authority, or the engineering study, to authorize that culvert,” Oliver said. “You cannot make a significant, 400 percent engineering change because you feel like it and then shove it down our throats.”

At Albee’s suggestion, it was agreed to study the situation further and to discuss possible next steps at the 7 p.m. Board of Selectmen meeting on Monday, July 17. Oliver and five other volunteers from among those concerned about the culvert agreed to meet before then to consider specific strategies for addressing the issue.

“We never did anything with the intent to hurt anybody,” Albee said. “We’ll look at your proposal, and, as long as it doesn’t endanger the road, we’ll go with it.”

Walton said an effort would be made to include representatives of the DEP in future discussions of the issue.