The City of Montpelier is asking the State to put more restrictions on recreation at Berlin Pond. The pond has been a source of drinking water for Montpelier since 1884, and for most of that time no human activity was allowed on it.
Montpelier owns most of the land surrounding the pond, save a couple access points owned by the Town of Berlin. The city's authority to ban recreational uses was successfully challenged in a case that reached the Vermont Vermont Supreme Court. Last year the high court ruled that only the state has the authority to regulate uses of the pond.
Currently, motor boats are banned on Berlin Pond, with the exception of electric motors operated under five miles per hour. Fishing, swimming, and paddle sports are all allowed.
Now the City of Montpelier is petitioning the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation's Watershed Management Division to ban all internal combustion motors on the pond. The request is aimed at gas-powered augers used for drilling holes for ice fishing, and space heaters used in fishing shanties. In fact, the City is also asking for an outright ban on shanties on Berlin Pond. The City's petition states:
The rule may involve inconvenience for ice-fishermen who would like to use a motorized auger or lighter fluid to cut a hole in the ice, or heaters or a shanty, but clearly Vermonters have engaged in ice-fishing for generations without using motors or shanties, especially on small ponds. Indeed, although considerable ice-fishing occurred on Berlin Pond last winter, Petitioner is not aware of any use of gas or diesel powered engines on Berlin Pond.
The City's argument for an outright ban on all internal combustion motors is that even a small amount of gasoline could contaminate the city's drinking water supply.
A standard rule of thumb is that a single gallon of gasoline can contaminate over one million gallons of water such that the water does not meet drinking water standards.
In its request to ban shanties, the City argues the ice fishing shacks could hide all sorts of illicit, and possibly disastrous, activities.
Ice shanties would be prohibited because of the potential for hidden deliberate or inadvertent contamination of the public water supply of Vermont's capital city and the Central Vermont Medical Center. The reality is we live in a time when terrorists and others look for new shocking ways to disrupt and kill in unsuspecting locations. The Boston Marathon Bombing and the Newton [sic] elementary school shootings in a small suburban town in Connecticut are two recent illustrations. The fact that Montpelier is the seat of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of State government with a Federal office building should not be ignored. There are those who like to defy rules they disagree with, or who value convenience and ease more.
Montpelier's petition for the rule change states the city is not seeking to ban fishing, swimming, or other non-motorized water sports at Berlin Pond.
