It is true that the lake levels of Sebago are unnatural. They have been so since the first dam was placed on Wescott’s Falls below the natural outlet of the basin. Doug Watts of the Friends of Sebago Lake in November of 2010 did extensive research on what the natural level of the lake was. In his research he discovered that there were no flowage rights or claims of damage from high water (even though there had been dams on the lake or below it for decades before) until the dam was flowed over the spillway in 1884. This would mean that six inches below the level of current maximum of 267.16 mean sea level or 266.65 msl would have been the established natural high-water mark for the lake.

In the current 401 Water Quality Assessment done by the state, calculations of drainage size and runoff estimated that the lake in a “natural” situation would rise and fall about two feet, not four. There would be floods and droughts but two feet would be its normal rise and fall or 264.65 msl as a low water mark. Is it a coincidence that the Maine office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife recommended that the lake not drop below 264.5 msl level for June into October, and no lower than 263.5 msl?

Is it a coincidence that Turtle Cove is cut off at levels below 263 msl and John Boland of Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife recommended that the lake not drop below 263 msl?

Is it a coincidence that state biologists Sonny Pierce and Richard Eldridge recommended that in order to prevent significant impacts to the wetlands of Harmon’s Beach that the lake not go below 264 msl?

To the Friends of Sebago Lake and Sappi the natural level of the lake is the 135-year Warren level of the lake and not the true natural level of the lake. Consider that a 10-year drought flow for the Presumpscot is 4,000 cubic feet per minute (Murch 401 WQC). The current plan allows for 15,500 cfm in a critical low lake condition, and the new flow plan that the “Friends” and Sappi support calls for 24,000 cfm or six times the natural low outflow. Just as in the past 135 years of “unnatural” regulated flow it is an outflow plan that does not consider inflow. It is a plan that Samuel Warren purchased to keep the paper mill running at full capacity, even when Sebago Lake aquatic habitat, wetlands and docks had no water.

The recent 401 Water Quality Assesment for the lake was the first time in 135 years that the lake could be managed for what was best for the lake and not the river and the industrial revolution. The state chose to appease the paper and power companies instead of protecting the economy and ecology of the lake.

In a 2005 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) environmental assessment, the sales tax from marine-related businesses was $892,000.

That is 5 percent of sales or almost $18 million. Lake fuel sales was 253,000 gallons or almost $900,000. The boating/recreational season in Maine is short. To shorten, even by a week, the time when those who come to the lake or have summer homes on the lake means that if they do not boat, they do not come and they do not spend. Not just at “marine-related businesses” but all businesses in the seven towns around Sebago Lake.

What does Sappi lose in order to keep the lake at navigable and ecologically important lake levels? The state has made that decision without knowing. There is no mention of the amount of electricity lost.

In its application for a license for the Eel Weir Dam at the end of the lake (March 2002, volume 1), Sappi states that they would lose $541,500 if the license was denied for the dam and they generated no power at Eel Weir. No one wants to deny Sappi the rights to use the water from Sebago Lake. No one is asking that they do not take water out of the lake. But we do ask, those whose door it goes by first, that we have a right to protect the lake from drought, low water, and ecological and environmental harm.

While the Friends of Sebago Lake claim that marinas and boaters want higher water, they do so to direct your eye and your minds toward the upper levels of the lake. It is the lower lake levels that affect marinas and boaters. It is preventing the lake from going too low that has been the fight. Not for higher water.

Charles M. Frechette is the owner of Sebago Lake Marina in Sebago.