Longtime residents of South Walpole are voicing their displeasure with the declining quality of Clarke Pond.

But there could be some relief for them and the pond as a result of changes made as part of the Patriots stadium project in Foxboro.

The pond, more commonly referred to as Post Office Pond, was once a clean and beautiful gathering place for the community.

Over the past 20 years, the pond has grown progressively shallower, lost much of its water area to invasive aquatic plants, and has become littered with trash and debris.

"It’s just so disgusting," Washington Street resident Cynthia Hoag said.

She and other South Walpole residents believe that years of runoff from the Foxboro Stadium site and neglect by the pond’s absentee owners are responsible for its current poor condition.

Hoag and neighbors Jack Wiley and Capt. Roy Belcher tried to organize a cleaning of the pond several years ago.

Their efforts sputtered out after they could not figure out who owned the property.

"Nobody wants to claim it," Captain Belcher said. "If you find out, let me know."

The town assessor’s office lists the Wellesley Hills-based Foxpole Properties as the site’s owner.

Foxpole also owns the property housing the MacMillan-Bloedel lumberyard directly across the street from the pond, according to town records.

The company could not be reached for comment.

A representative for Foxboro stadium said yesterday that the runoff problem may have been caused by the now defunct Foxboro Raceway adjacent to the stadium and has already been corrected during the construction of CMGI Field.

As part of the $325 million project, a stretch of the Neponset was relocated last week from a culvert to a brand new open riverbed along the east side of the stadium.

The new bed has a number of erosion control devices; including vegetation matting and erosion check dams.

According to people familiar with Clarke’s Pond, the buildup in silt was gradual.

Wiley, a Washington street resident who serves on the conservation commission, said there had been a 50 percent reduction in water area from what had been there 20 years ago.

The problem began with the silt that came down the Neponset as part of the runoff from the stadium site, he said.

Silt deposits settle on the bottom of the pond and gradually make the pond shallower.

They also provide a fertile breeding ground for invasive aquatic plants like purple loosestrife that have further choked off the pond’s aquatic ecosystem.

Wiley noted that Smith Pond, which is located in between Clarke Pond and the stadium site, has already lost more than half of its water area and is in even worse shape.

Hoag grew up in South Walpole and is now raising her own family on Washington Street.

She can remember enjoying an entirely different pond as a child.

Neighborhood boys used to fish there in the summer, and everyone would go ice-skating in the winter, she said.

George Milliken, who lived next to the pond, would clear it off with his plow every year, she recalled.

A light attached to a nearby telephone pole illuminated nighttime skating sessions, she said.

"When we were little, it was beautiful," she said.

Now the pond looks "awful," she said.

She noted that there was a large amount of debris in the water and surrounding area and said she had some very big concerns about the quality of the water.

"I don’t know how anything lives in there," she said.

Also adding to the general unsightliness of the area is the dented and rusty chain link fence that runs along Summer Street and a wire from a nearby apartment building that hangs almost all the way down to the water, she said.

She said that she and her daughter have filled up a plastic bag full of trash simply by walking by on their way to the post office.

And while people still pull fish out of the pond, "I hope to heck they don’t eat them," she said. Belcher, a retired Navy captain, has been living on Neponset Street since 1968

During an interview on Friday, Belcher recalled a picture taken of the pond shortly after he moved in.

Back then the pond was clean and beautiful, he said.

There was a gazebo at the point across from Summer Street, and crisply cut grass leading up to the edge of the pond, Belcher said.

Now the edges of the pond have been obscured with an overgrowth of weeds and purple loosestrife, he said.

"It’s all built up. They have to get someone to cut back the trees," Water Street resident Bill Dowd agreed.

"They haven’t done any dredging [either]," he added.

Dowd owns the building that houses the South Walpole Post Office adjacent to the pond.

Speaking on behalf of Foxboro Stadium management, consultant Ed Ionata said he expects the recent improvements at the stadium site will eliminate any runoff problems.

Most of it had come in through an exposed portion of the Neponset River located in the center of the now defunct Foxboro Racetrack, he said.

The gray stone dust used on the racetrack did not settle rapidly and would make the water seem cloudy as it headed downstream, he said.

The exposed portion of the old racetrack has already been regraded to make way for a parking lot.

A ceremony scheduled for this morning at the riverbed will mark the official start of the revegetation process.

Plant beds help to secure the ground beneath them and prevent some of the soil and other sediments from washing into the river.