Five generations of my family have had the privilege of creating summer memories on China Lake.  One of my enduring childhood memories of the lake is that it turned pea-soup green every summer.  Known as “China Lake Syndrome,” the annual algal blooms were the result of too much development too fast, leading to the leaching of nutrients into the lake.  Too many nutrients (phosphorus) created an imbalance in the lake’s bacteria levels and the result was algal blooms – or a green lake.  (For a more scientific explanation of algal blooms check out Maine DEP’s discussion of cyanobacteria at http://www.maine.gov/dep/water/lakes/cynobacteria.htm).

A July 15, 1991 article in the Lewiston Sun Journal makes mention of the so-called “China Lake Syndrome,” using China Lake’s experience as a warning to readers about the damage done to a lake when we allow run-off from farms and lawn fertilizer and leaking septic tanks to pollute our lakes.  Indeed, the title of this 1991 article is “Day-to-day Actions Can Damage Maine Lakes.”  Included in this article are tips on caring for Maine’s nearly 6,000 lakes and ponds, such as not spraying herbicide on submerged vegetation, and not bathing in the lake.  Today these points seem obvious, but I remember my father used to clean up in the lake with a bar of Lava soap, and the two generations of women in my family that preceded me routinely shampooed their hair in the lake.

Today, after a great deal of research and effort, China Lake is slowly mending, or at least not getting worse. This morning the China Lake Association (formed in 1987) held its annual meeting.   Although listed last on the agenda for today’s meeting, I would bet that the discussion of the Alewife Restoration Initiative (http://mainerivers.org/projects/china-lake-outlet-stream-restoration/) was the hot topic of the morning.  The scientific premise behind alewife restoration is that young alewives will improve China’s water quality as a natural consequence of their diet: alewives eat phosphorus as they move from the lake to the ocean.  Removing excess phosphorus means decreasing the severity of algal blooms.  The goal, then, is to create an environment (through dam removal) that will allow for alewives to return to China Lake by the hundreds of thousands (nearly one million, actually).

The near death of China Lake did not occur over night, and it is not an uncommon problem.  The Belgrade Lakes, a chain of seven lakes and ponds in Central Maine, are being closely monitored in light of a 40 year trend of declining water quality. Last July, the Belgrade Lakes Conservation Alliance, the Maine Lakes Resource Center, Colby College and the landowner associations on each of the seven lakes joined forces to address the continuing decline in water quality.  (See http://www.centralmaine.com/2015/07/26/belgrade-lakes-water-quality-could-dive-in-a-decade/ for details.)  See an interactive map hosted by the Maine Lakes Resource Center (http://www.mapsforgood.org/mlrc/) for a look at data collected as part of this initiative.

I take my hat off to the people across our state who have volunteered  time to help watch over “their” lakes and ponds.  Interested in getting involved on a lake association in your area?  Even if you do not live on the lake or pond, I would be shocked if your interest in getting involved was unappreciated.  Go to http://mainelakessociety.org/maine-lake-associations/ for an alphabetical list of lake associations in Maine.