The major gem of the Lakes Region of New Hampshire is our famous Lake Winnipesaukee. Its 72 square miles of water are dotted with 274 islands, some larger than others, and many with “camps” or homes on them. To call some of these edifices “camps” might be a major understatement.
In any event, our Big Lake has for many years suffered from “secret” pollution about which most people do not know unless they happen to be boaters who have tried to anchor between the mainland and some of these islands.
When a utility provider, be it electric, cable TV, telephone, or internet, wants to lay a cable from the mainland to an island in the Lake, they must obtain a “water crossing permit” from a state agency. So far, so good.
But when one of those cables ceases to function properly, it has been reported that in many instances the utility provider lays a new replacement cable from the mainland to the island and simply abandons the non-operational cable on the lake bottom. The result is a lake bottom littered with abandoned cables, and it is reasonable to assume that some of the abandoned cables contain some elements of lead-based solder.
The further result for boaters is if they try to anchor between the mainland and the island in an area where the bottom is littered with the spaghetti of abandoned cables, their anchors cannot function properly, and their boats will not hold fast.
A simple solution seems to be to require any utility provider that replaces a cable from the mainland to an island to remove the non-operational cable (and perhaps any other abandoned cables that might be found in the immediate area) rather than simply abandoning it on the lake bottom.
At present, there are no state laws or regulations that would mandate such a procedure. No doubt such a new requirement will drive up the cost of replacing the cable, but everything in life comes with a cost.
This writer is well known for strongly opposing the expansion of government at all levels and against the imposition of new government regulations without repealing significant existing regulations. But it is long past time that the citizens of the Lakes Region recognize the damage that is being done to one of our greatest assets in the name of expediency.
