Every fall the same three questions arrive from lakefront owners and the people about to become them: when does the drawdown actually start, how far down does it go this year, and when will the water be back. The public notices answer in license language. The better answer is in the minutes of the meeting where FirstLight, the Candlewood Lake Authority and the state sat down and said it plainly. On March 18, 2025, the "Rocky River Drawdown Technical Committee" met at FirstLight's New Milford office, and the minutes, "Prepared by Nora Judkins," were filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on March 31, 2025 as Attachment D to FirstLight's annual nuisance species report. They are posted on the Authority's Reports page inside the 2024 plant survey package. Here is what the people who run the lake said, quoted as printed, and what it means for a buyer timing a purchase, a dock, or a seawall.
Every quotation below is from those minutes or the draft plan filed with them. Speakers are named as the minutes name them.
The schedule: shallow in 2025 to 2026, deep in 2026 to 2027
Brian Wood, FirstLight's Senior Land Manager, opened with the plan: "We're proposing that the 2025 to 2026 drawdown begin in November, this upcoming fall and end in early April, with the goal of having the boat ramps available for open day of fishing. We're on track right now coming out of a deep drawdown in 2025." The alternation is a license term, "Article 403 which requires that we do alternating and shallow and deep drawdowns." Neil Stalter, the Authority's Director of Ecology, confirmed the sequence: "a shallow is what is schedule right now, right?" and Wood: "Right." Later Wood named the next one: "the next scheduled deep drawdown in 2026 to 2027," and closed the question for the coming winter with "we're committed to shallow now."
The draft plan filed with the minutes defines the two: FirstLight draws Candlewood down each winter "alternating annually between shallow (4-6 feet below normal operating levels) and deep (8-10 feet below normal operating levels) water elevations." Wood put the elevations on the record at the end of the meeting: "427 is our min pond and then we go three to four feet below that operating and pumping and generating throughout the winter. And then during the deep drawdown drops down to 420 and down to 418, so that we don't go below our 418 our conservation restriction that we agreed we wouldn't go below."
When it really starts, and why the notice says November
The most useful exchange for anyone scheduling contractors was about messaging. Stalter: "the FERC permitting has a drawdown to go from November to May effectively, right? But people read that and they're like, 'OK. It's November 3rd. Why the hell is the lake like, still full?'" Dana Andrews, FirstLight's Operations Manager for Connecticut: "Last year's notification went out and it said, Likely to be January, yeah, it's because that's where it's kind of been in the past right. At least since I've been here. We've been drawing down. Yeah, usually in mid to late January." Wood: "it's not going to commence until, January 1st and then even then, it's not going to disappear 10 feet it's going to slowly lower over time and we may pump and generate depending on the market."
Why November is printed anyway: "DEEP boating I think years ago, did pick November 1st? It was because boating season ends on October 31st, that's why our FERC License is written that way." And the instruction the Authority wanted in a video: "Take your docks out of the lake, please. Take your docks out, by November 1st." Wood's reason: "The longer the people reside on the lake in the end of November, the more likely there is to be ice damage." Andy Brydges, FirstLight's Director of Community Relations, proposed publishing history instead of a date: "maybe we could look back. Ten years on what the date, for the last 10 years, it's averaged a date of start," with the caveat that "it wont drop on November 1st."
How fast it falls and how fast it fills
Mark Howarth, the Authority's Executive Director, asked whether the drawdown rate is several times the refill rate. Andrews: "when we're generating, say, with our just our one largest unit, which is the norm, we generate just one unit. We could drop that lake" and Wood: "Six inches per day." Andrews: "Yeah, six tenths a day. Yeah, so when we generate a pump, that's 1/10th, so there's a big difference between, the gen and pump status." On refill: "It's not days that it stops, we are running 24/7 to refill Candlewood for weeks. It only stops for maintenance." The refill target for spring 2025: "the goal is to achieve minimum operating level of 427 feet," and "Second Saturday in April, I think is the goal," with the operational caveats stated plainly: "We don't loose a pump. We don't have other operational issues," and "get anymore drought between now and then and you can't pump." If a pump were lost, Andrews said, "Then we can still probably get up by Memorial Day."
The state fisheries biologist, Joe Cassone, gave the ecological reason the April date matters: "bass spawning kicks off not to much after that, and they spawn in that near shore," in "the three to five foot deep area of the lake."
What the drawdown is for now
The draft plan records the origin: "In 1983, the CLA and CT DEEP requested annual winter water level drawdowns as a method to control Eurasian watermilfoil; annual winter water drawdowns are now required by the License." With the milfoil gone, the purpose has shifted, and the minutes say so. Wood: "the deep drawdowns are now effectively managing zebra mussels reoccupation," and, "Versus it was weed management in the past." On the plants: "I don't think that drawdowns effective control for Milfoil, or for Hydrilla," then "it's a moderate control on milfoil." Stalter on the mussels: "it's not gonna eliminate the zebra mussels. We know that," and his forecast that the population will keep "peaking in the next couple of years" before, "in all likelihood," it crashes and "then it'll begin to reach equilibrium."
When Linda Brunza of the state's Office of Environmental Review asked what the drawdowns are for "if you're not doing a repair," Wood answered with the license: "in order for us not to do an alternating deep or shallow, we have to go and amend our Federal Hydro license," and with the grid: during a polar vortex "the New England grid needs Connecticut's largest pump storage generator in order to hold up the grid locally during this event. Can we get approval to move from a shallow to deep?" He also named the constituency: "five towns and 1500-2000 people, who are used to things being the same for 40+ years," who, if the pattern changed, "are all gonna have to remove their docks and add an incurred expense."
What the 2024 to 2025 deep drawdown bought
Wood: "we completed two major dam repairs we had to get done," and "quite a few people cycled in for permits, because they had deep where it made sense for them to wanted to do significant sea wall repairs." Stalter: "we had the good freeze. People were out there enjoying the ice, which was cool. It's been awhile since we've had that." Budget timing is why the pattern is hard to change on short notice: Andrews, "Our budget for this year in the shallow drawdown for next year is already in," and Wood, "in June, we're proposing what is our next budget for the following year," forecasting "almost six months to 8 months out in revenue and expense to refill."
The Squantz ramp rebuild
One item explains why the state launch on Squantz Pond has been under construction. Wood: "we worked with CT DEEP who is in the process of redesigning and reinstalling a new ramp and Squantz Pond." The design target is the deep drawdown elevation: "Build the ramp out the 418 feet so that when we're at 4:20, essentially a deep drawdown. And in theory you'll still be able to get out in Candlewood lake," where in the past boaters needed the lake "up at 428 feet plus, to get a boat in and out." The benefit, in his words: "You won't be dropping into a plunge hole of the boat. You'll be able to get out there in a deep drawdown."
What this means before you offer
- Read "November" as "January." The notice says the drawdown season opens November 1 because boating season ends October 31. FirstLight's own operations manager says the lake has usually started dropping in mid to late January, and it falls about six tenths of a foot a day when it does. Plan dock removal for November anyway; that is the ice rule, not the water rule.
- Deep years are seawall years. The 2024 to 2025 deep drawdown brought a run of shoreline permits. If a listing's wall needs work, the 2026 to 2027 deep drawdown is the window FirstLight has scheduled, and who actually owns the shoreline on Candlewood Lake covers whose permit that is.
- Docks are the recurring cost of the pattern. FirstLight counts 1,500 to 2,000 people who take docks out every fall. Your Candlewood dock permit does not come with the house is the paperwork side of that.
- Refill has a target, not a promise. 427 feet by the second Saturday in April is the goal; a lost pump or a dry spring pushes it toward Memorial Day. A spring closing on the water should read the 2026 refill against that.
- The drawdown is no longer about weeds. Its stated purpose now is zebra mussels, maintenance and the grid. Where Candlewood's weeds went, and when they come back is the plant side of the same filing, and zebra mussels are in Candlewood, hydrilla is not yet is the mussel side.
What happened after these minutes
The plan the committee agreed to in March 2025 held until the last week of January 2026. FirstLight's January 16, 2026 release said it would "initiate the drawdown season for Candlewood Lake, which includes Squantz Pond, on Monday, January 19, 2026," that "Consulting parties have agreed to execute a shallow drawdown this year," and that "the drawdown will target an elevation of 424′ with a 2′ winter operations pumping and generation range from 424'-422′." Fifteen days later, on January 31, 2026, it announced that it "must amend the ongoing drawdown plan for Candlewood Lake, by drawing it down up to 4 feet lower than originally planned, in order to provide additional generation to the power grid during the sustained cold snap impacting New England." The cause was "a January 25 Department of Energy (DOE) emergency order, no. 202-26-03, pursuant to section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act," extended "through February 14," which FirstLight called "the first 202(c) emergency order issued by DOE to ISO-NE since 2003." The lake went "from the planned levels associated with a shallow drawdown (424'-422′), to levels associated with a deep drawdown (420′-418′)," with the refill unchanged: "the lake will return to normal summer operating ranges prior to Memorial Day 2026." The grid scenario Brian Wood described to the committee as a hypothetical, a polar vortex and a request to go deeper, is the one that happened. Whether an emergency deep drawdown in a scheduled shallow year changes the alternation for 2026 to 2027 is not addressed in any FirstLight notice as of September 4, 2026; the newest item on its public notices page is that January 31, 2026 release. Candlewood Lake's 2026 deep drawdown, what changed covers the January 2026 events in full.
Common questions about the Candlewood Lake drawdown
Is the 2026 to 2027 Candlewood drawdown a deep drawdown?
In the March 2025 minutes FirstLight called it "the next scheduled deep drawdown in 2026 to 2027," following the shallow 2025 to 2026 drawdown, under a license that alternates the two. The 2025 to 2026 drawdown was then deepened to 420 to 418 feet under a January 25, 2026 federal emergency order; whether that changes the alternation has not been stated in a FirstLight notice as of September 4, 2026.
How low does Candlewood Lake go in a drawdown?
FirstLight's numbers: 427 feet is minimum pond; a shallow drawdown runs "three to four feet below that"; a deep drawdown "drops down to 420 and down to 418," the conservation floor.
When does the Candlewood drawdown start?
The license window opens November 1. FirstLight's operations manager said the lake has usually begun dropping "in mid to late January," and the prior year's notice said "Likely to be January."
When is Candlewood Lake full again?
The stated goal for spring 2025 was 427 feet by the second Saturday in April, weather and pumps permitting, with Memorial Day as the fallback if a pump were lost.
Why does Candlewood have a drawdown at all?
It began in 1983 for milfoil control and is now required by the federal license. FirstLight said in 2025 that deep drawdowns are "now effectively managing zebra mussels reoccupation" and that changing the alternating pattern would require a license amendment.
Sources: FirstLight Power Services LLC, as agent for FirstLight CT Housatonic LLC, filing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission dated March 31, 2025, Housatonic River Project P-2576-058, "2024 Annual Report of the Nuisance Species Monitoring Plan (NSMP) Technical Advisory Committee and the 2025 Rocky River Drawdown (RRD) Technical Advisory Committee Meeting Materials," posted on the Candlewood Lake Authority's Reports page inside the 2024 Candlewood Plant Survey package and downloaded September 4, 2026: Attachment D, "FirstLight, 2025 Rocky River Technical Drawdown Meeting Minutes, 3/18/2025," prepared by Nora Judkins; Attachment C, the draft revised Nuisance Aquatic Species Monitoring Plan, for the 1983 origin and the shallow and deep definitions. Speakers are identified as the minutes identify them; spelling in quotations is as printed.
Related reading:Candlewood Lake's 2026 deep drawdown, what changed, Candlewood Lake bass tournaments in 2025, Squantz Pond, the natural lake attached to Candlewood and the Candlewood Lake overview.
If you are timing a lakefront purchase, a dock or a seawall against the drawdown calendar and want the minutes read against the specific lot, reach me through ConnorCTHomes.com.
Connor Kostyra, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson, CT Lic. RES.0836348.
Connor CT Homes is a marketing brand. Real estate services are provided through RE/MAX Rise, 1297 Main Street, Watertown, CT 06795.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Statements are quoted from FirstLight's March 18, 2025 drawdown committee minutes as filed with FERC and describe plans as of that date; drawdown timing, depth and refill depend on weather, equipment and market conditions and are set by FirstLight under its license. Confirm the current schedule with FirstLight's public notices before relying on anything here.
