Statistics

SIZE AND DEPTH - With 5,420 acres and a maximum depth of 85 feet at normal pool, Candlewood is Connecticut's largest lake.

WATER SOURCE - Water from the Housatonic River is released from the Main Dam built by Connecticut Light & Power in 1928. This facility is the first pumped-storage hydroelectric facility built in the U.S.

BOTTOM - "Basin" flats over 25 feet deep normally have soft silt. The shoreline is primarily steep-sloping and hard-bottomed sand, gravel, cobbles, boulders, bedrock outcrops.

SHORELINE - Candlewood fills several flat, winding valleys between steep, forested hills. Northeast Utilities Company controls the entire 60 mile shoreline to elevation 440. Most of the land above this level is privately owned

History of Candlewood Lake

Four towns, Brookfield, New Fairfield, New Milford and Sherman, and the city of Danbury, with about half the lake falling in New Fairfield border the lake. In its initial period, the lake was called many names depending on the town in which one resided. Danbury was a leading contender, but New Milford was the first to use the name Candlewood because the lake water on the way to the powerhouse drops down within the shadow of Candlewood Mountain. The mountain, north of the lake, was so named by the early settlers in the region who learned from the Indians how to make Indian candles. These were made by splitting the pitchy heart of dry pine logs into narrow 8-inch strips, which burn like torches and could be used in place of wax candles. These strips were known as candle wood. The best pine wood for burning was plentiful on the mountain, and accordingly the mountain was given the name Candlewood. Although the name was adopted for the

lake to avoid giving preference to the name of one of the adjoining towns, the name is most appropriate because the lake now helps to generate electric light measurable in millions of candlepower.

In 1917 a enterprising lawyer named J. Henry Roraback began buying potential dam sites along the Housatonic and Connecticut Rivers. In the same year, he also purchased the stock of the Housatonic Power Company and eventually named his combined enterprise the Connecticut Light and Power Co. As president of the company, he had the foresight to see that the economic growth of the area would be increasingly dependent on electric power. By 1919 his utility company completed construction of the Stevenson Dam just above Derby on the Housatonic River and 25 miles below the Rocky River. Then attention was focused on the final formulation of the plan to create a pumped water storage reservoir in the Rocky River basin and build a generating station in New Milford. A facility at Shepaug, 14 miles below Rocky River, was also on the schedule and was completed in 1955.

To flood the Rocky River basin and the four existing ponds, Squantz, Barse, Crick and Neversink, a total area of 5,420 acres had to be prepared. Farms and other homes, schools and churches, including two small cemeteries sparsely settled the countryside. New Fairfield and Sherman were two of the farming communities where people were forced to sell their land and leave their homes. In 1925 Charles L. Campbell began buying large tracts of property in this area which he deeded to the Power Company. It is no surprise that several families refused to sell their land. Since the Power Company had the authority to flood the valley, some property inundated by the lake is still privately owned.

By the end of December 1928, the water level reached an elevation of 429 feet above sea level, and the Rocky River hydroelectric plant went into operation.

As it is needed, water plunges down more than 200 feet through the penstock to the turbine. To carry water into the basin from the river, two 8,100 horsepower pumps are capable of hurtling one million gallons of water every four minutes a height of over 200 feet through the same penstock. When operated in reverse the pumps act as generators, and their capacity, when combined with the plant's main 25,000 kilowatt generator, gives Rocky River a total yield of 32,000 kilowatts.

In the natural balance of lake ecology, fish feed on the tiny plant algae and animal plankton. When the fish die and sink the bottom, micro-organisms reduce the remains into basic

elements to be recycled as nutrients, consuming oxygen from the water in the process, and these nutrients begin to accumulate in the lower levels. . In a thermally stratified lake such as Candlewood, there is no circulatory exchange between the warmer upper waters and the cooler lower waters in the summer. However, in the fall when the warmer water above the thermocline cools, and the water temperatures become uniform throughout the entire water column, the water of the whole lake can circulate and mix. Thorough mixing is assured before the lake freezes over in the winter because when the temperature of the surface water decreases to 4C., the densest temperature for water, the upper water will move downward, causing complete oxygenation of the lower depths. In the spring, there is similar mixing when the surface water again reaches 4C., and the two strata are at the same temperature, before resuming summer stratification. This is a beneficial process because the upper waters can oxygenate the deeper waters, which become oxygen deficient in the summer months. However, the basic elements released from sediment particles undergoing bacterial mineralization at the lake bottom will be carried up in the overturning water. The end products of bacterial mineralization are the nutrients, which promote algal growth the following summer. Then the plant plankton are nourished by these nutrients and produce replacement oxygen for the water. Animal plankton feed on plant plankton, and the minute animals and plants again become food supply for fish. In this way, the cycle of teeming life processes in the water is balanced and perpetuated.


Candlewood Lake Authority

The CLA maintains a lake patrol seasonally under the supervision of the Department of Environmental Protection. The purpose of the patrol is to promote boating safety through education and enforcement of state boating laws. Patrol duties also include boat inspections, first aid and 24 hour search and rescue. The Connecticut Boater's Guide contains the boating rules and regulations that you will need to know for Candlewood Lake and the State's other bodies of water. The patrol currently monitors channel 16 on vhf radio for emergencies.

With the approval of the DEP, the CLA has placed buoys marking significant navigational hazards (dangerous rocks & shoals). Boaters should be aware, however, that every rock in the lake cannot be marked. Therefore, boaters must always exercise caution when on the water and be on the watch for additional hazards. It is important to remember that the lake is a pump storage hydro-power facility and the lake levels can fluctuate during the year. In addition to hazard buoys, the CLA places buoys designating restricted speed areas of six miles per hour (6 m.p.h.) or less in several areas for safety reasons.

In addition to boater safety, the CLA plays an important role in keeping the water clean and safe through project "C.L.E.A.R." The goal is to implement inquiry-based environmental education programs in the schools and communities surrounding Candlewood Lake to foster widespread support for and involvement in watershed protection programs