Graham Lake Ellsworth Maine (Penobscot: transfer, beaches, renewal)

[American girl]

If our dock could sing this would be it's song: I fought Graham lake and the lake won, ohhhh I fought Graham Lake and the lake won.

Got the old girl into the water on Sunday and Graham Lake spit it out on Monday. 40 feet/1800+ pounds of pressure treated with iron wagon wheels dashed upon the beach. DH turned in RL (raving lunatic). Took the chainsaw to it (oh dear) so now were going to put in a mooring and a small alumninum dock. You just can't fight mother nature.

The wind blew so hard I couldn't even plant the vegetable garden. All the little seedlings laying horizontal on the bare ground. Managed to get them in Tuesday.

Joke around here is hope you enjoyed summer last Saturday. It's all you're gittin'

[lasalsa03]

Hi there,

My family owns a 25 acre parcel on Hardwood Hill Island. We actually own part of hardwood hill! I have a license to sell real estate but I don't actually practice. We want to sell and I'm trying to research good agents that deal with waterfront or even island properties. I'm not really familiar with the area so i'm hoping that some Graham Lake Natives, can send me some suggestions on agents/agency/prices?

[American girl]

Raining SO hard this morning that neither dog would come out from under my oversized umbrella - the puppy peed on my shoe!

Put on my LL Bean raincoat and realized that I hadn't yet taken out the winter liner. Guess that about sums up this spring's weather.

[Plum #1]

A PPL representative recently told me in an email that PPL owns the flowage rights around Graham Lake to the 107 feet above sea level point- that's about three feet higher than the maximum present lake level of 104.2 feet. As I understand it the present FERC license sets the max level and extends to 2017; I expect a new license will be negotiated before the present one runs out.

Too bad about your dock A.G.; the water level should be starting to drop soon if it hasn't already, we haven't been over for a while to see.

[American girl]

Originally Posted by Plum #1

A PPL representative recently told me in an email that PPL owns the flowage rights around Graham Lake to the 107 feet above sea level point- that's about three feet higher than the maximum present lake level of 104.2 feet. As I understand it the present FERC license sets the max level and extends to 2017; I expect a new license will be negotiated before the present one runs out.

Too bad about your dock A.G.; the water level should be starting to drop soon if it hasn't already, we haven't been over for a while to see.

I suspect you are right. If folks living around the lake would like a say in how high or low the water levels can be we should be considering the license negotiations now. Graham Lake has become more popular. For years the lake was ignored as undesirable - when compared to the area's deep water lakes and ponds. Today with affordable waterfront property so scarce Graham Lake has become much more popular and many of us would like to see higher water levels throughout the summer. A couple of years ago the water level dropped so low the first week of August that we had to take the boat out for the season! We're fully aware that PPL owns the flowage rights, and that they are a business and and generate revenue by generating electricity. That said, I think lake dwellers can, and should, participate in the discussion when negotiations are underway. I'm sure there will be public hearing(s).

[Isle Girl]

As of yesterday, the water level was still high. As a matter of fact, after the rainstorm last week it actually went up on our "beach" where we could pull the boat right up to the camp path !
I hope it doesn't go down for a while as it's so much easier to bring supplies over without trudging/sludging across the beach this time of year !

I do miss my walks around the shore with the pup though without bushwacking

[American girl]

Lake dwellers were briefly cut off from Ellsworth Saturday when a portion of Rtes 179/180 washed out. It looked like Niagra Falls in miniature as the brook spilled over the road in its rush to reach the river. I drove 60 miles round trip through Waltham, Eastbrook, Franklin and Hancock into Ellsworth to post the photos on our news site fenceviewer; it's ok to peek.

In our ten years on the lake we've never seen the water this high. It would be a boaters dream if it would only stop raining! Our new aluminum dock hasn't moved an inch, though for one of the very few bright spots in our Graham Lake life. No good weather in our future, either according to NOAA. My dad said his rain guage showed 6 inches of rain Saturday morning when he got up.

My second planting of basil is going down and I'm afeared for my pepper plants which are looking very jaundiced. Inside projects are getting done in record time this summer.

[cebdark]

Oh wow. I'm glad the DH and kids came back from Eastbrook via Rt. 9 yesterday.

It looks like that road could give way underneath at any time.

I can recall years ago (probably around 12 or 13) when the water was over the road, but I don't recall it rushing like that.

[Plum #1]

It sounds as though the lake is higher than it's supposed to be now.

I forgot to say in previous posts that I located the lake level scale; it's near the Rt. 180 bridge. When heading west across the bridge if you pull off the road on the right just before the stop light and walk down to the lake outlet, you will see the scale on the concrete on the other side of outlet. I needed my binoculars to read it though. As I understand it the max level is supposed to be about 104 feet and 4 inches on the scale.

[American girl]

PPL Maine has sold six of its Maine Dams including the one on Graham Lake. Here's a link to the story in the July 2 issue of the Bangor Daily News. http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/109808.html (broken link)

Weather continues to be miserable. Thursday and Friday have a glimmer of hope.