Date: Fri 16-Aug-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Quick Words:

Ponds-Rowledge-history

Full Text:

with cuts: A History Of Industry Flows From Newtown's Ponds

B Y A NDREA Z IMMERMANN

An aerial photograph will reveal most of Newtown's 349 ponds that dot the

valleys and low lands. But these smaller bodies of water contain more than

aquatic plants and fish - they offer a fluid pathway to town history.

Until the late 1940s, ponds were primarly used by farmers to water livestock

or irrigate crops, according to Conservation Director Dave Thompson. But then

they became status symbols, created to accentuate the landscape. Aesthetic

ponds reached the height of their popularity in the 50s, he said.

Approximately 70 percent of the ponds in town have been created through

excavation. In the late 40s it cost about $200 to excavate a quarter acre

pond; today that same sized pond would cost $5,000, according to the

environmental official.

All of the ponds in town will support bass, a fish which will both feed itself

and reproduce in a small body of water. Few people in town stock their ponds

with trout because that fish requires deep, cold water, must be fed, and

doesn't reproduce, said Mr Thompson.

Up until the 1970s, the federal government offered technical and site

selection services to anyone putting in a pond. Farmers were eligible for

cost-sharing on such a project.

Some ponds emerged as an afterthought - Cavanaugh Pond was dug for fill when

the railroad line went in, and 28 acres of water were created because of

gravel excavation in Hawleyville. Other ponds resulted when dams were built

for millpower - Warner Pond, Hattertown Pond, two on the Pootatuck River

downstream from Sandy Hook Center, and Curtis Pond. Many of the ponds in town

are nameless.

Water, therefore, played a major role in maintaining a healthy local economy

derived from manufacturing buttons, boxes, fire hoses, and other goods. In

1987, the dam at Fabric Fire Hose was purchased by a private individual, Joe

Keegan of Southbury, who established a hydroelectric facility at the location.

The modest operation, which was originally expected to generate 400,000

kilowatt hours of electricity, continues to provide power today.

Hatching a Business

Another type of Newtown business supported by ponds is a fish hatchery, such

as the one established by John P. Rowins in 1953. Still in the family, the

business is now owned by Roger and Barbara Bobowick and Paul and Jane

Fitzgerald. Of the 160 acres owned by the hatchery, ponds comprise 31.

Poaching has always been a problem with such a business, whether it is by

design or ignorance. One calculated, but bungled theft at Rowledge Pond in

July of 1975, resulted in the destruction of more than 216 pounds of prime

trout and a few large bass. When alerted, Mr Rowins rushed from his home on

the property to find two huge bags of trout left dead on the road by fleeing

thieves.

The Bee reported all the police had as evidence was a pair of wet socks left

in a bag by one of the thieves.

"Something like this almost makes you want to give up the whole thing," Mr

Rowins had said, when interviewed after the incident. "I respect the trout. If

people had been hungry, I would have given them the fish. They didn't have to

destroy them."

Mr Rowin's grandson, Todd Bobowick is owner/operator of Rowledge Pond

Aquaculture Services. He has also worked at the hatchery since 1988, and now

manages that business. Annual production includes 5,000 trout, 2,000 triploid

grass carp, 10,000 golden shiners, blue gills, bull-head catfish, and large

mouth bass.

Stocking a pond provides a biological control for algae and insects and offers

recreational opportunities. And if a pond is at least four feet deep, fish

will usually winter over, said Mr Bobowick.

"You can stock a pond for a couple of hundred dollars. People don't have to be

ordering $20,000 on an annual basis," he said. "We're a small hatchery so we

have the ability to do small ponds, and offer consulting about [such things]

as putting aerators in the pond. They circulate the pond, and increase

dissolved oxygen content necessary for fish growth and survival."

Another service Mr Bobowick offers is reclamation of ponds filled with

sediment. It is not unusual for him to first remove as many fish as possible,

treat them, and put them in holding tanks until the job is complete. It is

necessary in this work to look outside of the visible boundaries of the water

to the watershed. After examining septic leech and road run-off, preventative

steps can be taken such as installing a sediment basin; and the banks, slope

and shape of the pond can be restructured, said Mr Bobowick.

"Every mountain wants to crumble, every pond wants to fill in," he said. But

sediment can be managed, he added.

For example, Hawley Pond at The Ram Pasture is now eight inches deep, and

about half its original size due to run-off from Routes 302 and 25, from the

Queen Street Shopping Plaza, and Elm Drive. "It's basically all road sand,"

said Mr Bobowick. "[Reclamation of] that pond would be a relatively easy job

because of access," he said.

The first steps would be to drain the pond for at least two weeks, then

temporarily redirect the flow. Mr Bobowick said probably more than one

sediment basin could then be created. "Once a pond is restored, you have to

maintain it," he said.

Reasons for reclaiming ponds include aesthetics, recreational, and safety.

People seem to worry about deep water, but fail to realize the dangers of deep

sediment. "If you fall in a pond, you will come back up. If you fall in

sediment, you don't," said Mr Bobowick.