Damage at Chemo Pond

In regard to the flooding at Chemo Pond, I don’t know where Allan Leighton gets his facts and information, because it simply isn’t true that Chemo Pond floods every year. My parents have had a camp for more than 60 years on Chemo Pond, and we have never known it to flood, other than the usual spring thaw, which raised the water level a few inches for a few weeks.

Since Leighton put his dam in effect, we have lost our entire shoreline, amounting to at least 14 to 20 feet to the water line. He likes to say that many people at Chemo Pond like the high water level, but these people are not sustaining damage to their property. I recently had to install a $5,200 filter system because the water level is so high it filled my well with lake water. Many others have had extensive well and septic-system damage, as well as erosion of property. It seems ironic that we, as home and camp owners on Chemo, are warned by the DEP not to remove as much as a pebble or clear any brush from our shoreline, and yet Leighton, without a license to operate his dam, is allowed to take our entire shoreline away from us without even consulting property owners.

Who is liable for resulting damage? Charlene Brooks Clifton