Sebasticook Lake pollution unabated > Contamination by wildfowl remains problem

NEWPORT — Sebasticook Lake has become duck-poop soup, say experts, and efforts over the past year to curb the problem have failed. Officials have tried everything from banning the feeding of the ducks to applying for a federal permit to begin exterminating the cormorants.

In a last ditch effort to save their lake, town and lake officials are hoping a planned workshop will begin the lake recovery process by linking all the pertinent water quality agencies together.

Ron Goode, Sebasticook Lake association president, said that early one morning this summer he stopped by the swim front — where in two hours children were scheduled for swim lessons — and counted 75 cormorants sunning themselves on the dock. “And while they stretched their wings, flapping to dry themselves, they painted the dock white [with excrement],” he said.

In August, the town closed the swim front because the E. coli bacteria count was too high. Beyond being a problem of esthetics, the situation then became one of public health.

Lake Association members are at their wits’ end with the birds, whose numbers have been increasing so quickly they are a key ingredient to the lake’s contamination. The problem, according to water experts, is the people who live on and visit the lake have taught the ducks and cormorants to like french fries better than wild rice. The result, they say, is feces contamination in the lake, particularly at a rock reef (a favorite drying-out spot for the cormorant population) on the swim front side of the lake, which is approximately 4 1/2 miles long and 4 miles wide.

First, officials tried convincing everyone not to feed the ducks. Then they tried passing a law so no one could feed the ducks. Then, in desperation, they sought a permit to begin shooting cormorants, the messiest of the lake bird population. Nothing so far has worked.

Townspeople voted down the attempt at banning duck feeding and last week the federal government denied Newport’s depredation permit, which would have allowed the shooting of the birds.

On a recent tour of the lake with outdoor enthusiasts, Goode explained “We’ve got a 4,000-acre lake here with 28 miles of shores and a watershed of bogs and marshlands extending from Lake Wassookeag in Dexter to Corinna and down to Detroit. It’s a first-class duck factory.”

Goode maintains “The state stocked alewives to help clean up the algae, but the fish attracted `shags’ and gulls — especially after the landfills were closed. Practically every rock on the lake is whitewashed now,” he said.

Ed Butler of the Maine Department of Agriculture agreed with Goode and he approved Sebasticook Lake as a site in need of “nuisance control” last August. His approval, however, didn’t carry enough weight on the federal level.

According to Diane Pence of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Newport has 45 days to file a request for reconsideration of its permit and if that fails, another 60 days to appeal. Goode holds out little hope of winning.

Meanwhile, Goode has organized a workshop for 9:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 8, called “Sailing Towards Healthy Waters.” More than 17 representatives from state, federal and county agencies have been invited. Water quality experts from as far away as Vermont are planning to attend.

Experts have linked the algae that is choking Sebasticook Lake each summer with not just duck droppings, but also fertilizers (phosphates) washed into the lake from surrounding farmlands and residue from wastes discharged from mills and canning factories once located upstream in Corinna.

“This will be a round-table discussion on the lake, its water quality and where we go from here,” said Goode. After 15 years of lake restoration work, Goode said, “We’ve had so many studies on this lake, people forgot what they studied.” By putting all the principal players in one room, at one time, he said, a cooperative effort — and possibly a watershed district — can be started.

“The lake is entirely in Newport but the things that affect us come from St. Albans and Palmyra and Corinna,” said Goode.