History of Red Lily Pond Project

Almost 50 years ago, with a greater than usual growth of lily pads and invasive aquatic vegetation in the ponds, Craigville neighbors needed a solution to take control of rapid changes.  In 1971 long time summer residents including Doreen Spillane, Julie Gavitt, and Martin Traywick of Craigville Realty, appeared before the Town of Barnstable Selectmen (this was before the establishment of the present Town Council form of government) to request support from the Town. Doreen Spillane was designated as the Red Lily Pond Project leader as “Restoration Chairperson”.  The Town funded a study of the ponds and remediation was discussed at length. The Reverend Nevin Kirk joined the RLPP as Co-Chairman of the Restoration Committee and they were able to involve Royden Richardson, our District 4 representative, in our cause. 

The main problems were identified as septic infiltration into the ponds by old cesspools and septic systems and lack of flush created by restricted culverts. Steven Seymour, a Town Engineer, was assigned to the RLPP. Studies were then undertaken by a Christian Camp Meeting Association contractor to develop a cluster system to move effluents from defective septic systems from four cottages and the Craigville Inn abutting the Red Lily Pond, to the Village Green that was completed in 1987. The RLPP was incorporated in 1983.

Soon after this period in 1989 the Town, State, Federal Government and the Red Lily Pond Project shared in a grant to install a second cluster system to move effluent septic wastes from 16 homes on Lake Elizabeth Drive to a large cluster soil absorption system located under the baseball field on the bluff.  The second cluster system was operational in 1991. In the meantime in 1989, the ponds were mechanically weed raked for the first time. Also the RLPP obtained an Order of Conditions from the Conservation Commission to manage the overgrown Lake Elizabeth embankment and began clearing invasive species. In 1996 the first By-Laws for RLPP were approved and the RLPP received a non-profit status as a 501-c-3 charitable organization. 

With substantial grants from the Town and State, and funding from the RLPP, a new concept by KV Associates, an environmental firm run by scientist Dr. William Kerfoot, known as subsidence mining and reverse re-layering, was undertaken on Lake Elizabeth.  The project pumped glacial sand from below the sediment layer in the pond to the CBA parking lot to collapse the muck layer and be covered with additional sand. The project ran from 1998 through 2000 and was stopped when a concrete-like layer of “river till” beneath the sediment layer was encountered, and therefore there was not enough sand to pump out to complete the re-layering process. Cranberry farmers were then hired in 2001 to distribute 250 tons of sand over the thick sediments. 

The ponds were again mechanically weed raked in 2010 using RLPP grant funds that had remained with the Town. In 2007 the herring run fish ladder was rebuilt at the expense of the Red Lily Pond Project. A 4’x4’ box culvert was installed on the Sandy Lane as well, replacing a long collapsed metal culvert. In 2015 a sturdy pedestrian bridge was constructed over the herring run near the 40 steps on the path to the beach, also at the sole expense of the RLPP. An environmental firm, Horsley Witten, began a study in 2015 of the pond’s water quality and movement with what was left of the RLPP grant funds still held by the Town, and by RLPP funds as well. The expensive study included proposing a large culvert or a bridge on the Centerville Avenue causeway, rebuilding the fish ladder/dam, and a culvert under Lake Elizabeth Drive. At present the Red Lily Pond Project needs grants and permitting to carry out the Horsley Witten recommendations.