I’ve been a Lake Auburn watershed advocate since 2004, and will remain so.

Keeping this fragile water supply in Lake Auburn flowing is of grave concern to the Environmental Protection Agency, which has already warned us multiple times that we need to prepare for filtration. That’s us. Being Auburn, Lewiston and some Poland water users.

And, now the city of Lewiston stands before a microphone because of economics.

The Auburn Water District has been asking nicely for three years for Lewiston to pay its apportioned use of water delivery costs. Lewiston uses 65% of the water but has been paying only 50% of the costs for decades.

That would be $100,000 a year and $6 million in savings to Auburn ratepayers when filtration is mandated.

This community is just one of 37 left in the whole country avoiding this most necessary federal surface water requirement. Imagine the taste of filtered water with less chlorine and caustic soda in it.

Most of the outspoken watershed folks live in the coveted northwest corner of Auburn near the lake, including me. Many are members of Protect Lake Auburn (not me), a group whose goals are different than the Lake Auburn study goals engineered for the city of Auburn.

The PLA wants to stop filtration, and any other advancements in science, because its members assume that could allow more development in their backyards and the neighborhood.

The FB Environmental/University of Maine lake study has 10 holistic recommendations starting on page 62. These are community-wide recommendations, not necessarily goals of the PLA.

Read it.

Dan Bilodeau, Auburn