AUBURN – High-powered speedboats that create a wake are not wanted on Lake Auburn. The Watershed Protection Commission reiterated that Thursday.

Mary Jane Dillingham, the water quality manager for both the Auburn Water District and the Lewiston Water Division, said her office received complaints from lakeside residents that a 600-horsepower speedboat has been creating a wake on the lake and, she said, has been reported to have gone into a restricted area. About a third of the lake is closed to boating, fishing and other activities to protect the water quality at intakes into the reservoir. The restrictions include canoes and kayaks.

“We’ve had some complaints but there is nothing we can do except to have the game wardens put a decibel meter on it (for noise levels),” Dillingham said. “Some of these things are hard to address and our bylaws are vague. It’s a gray area. We don’t have anything to limit horsepower.”

Auburn Water District Superintendent Norm Lamie said if the Watershed Protection Commission desires to make a formal recommendation regarding horsepower, the Water District trustees would consider it. The commission took no action.

In other business, Dillingham reported that divers might be used to eradicate milfoil from Lake Auburn. “I did attend a diver workshop and got some information on how to hand pull plants,” Dillingham said. The cost of hiring divers to pull invasive plants is $75 per hour. “We do have money budgeted for that so you might want to pilot something this year.”

Dillingham also reported that the boat inspection program is going very well. Boaters are cooperating. No invasive plant fragments had been found on boats, trailers and fishing gear entering Lake Auburn as of Thursday. The inspection program began in late May in an attempt to raise awareness and educate the public about invasive aquatic plants.

With an existing problem with milfoil in Lake Auburn, Thompson Lake and other lakes and ponds in Androscoggin County, there is a heightened awareness that more milfoil or other invasive species could be introduced into area lakes by plant fragments on boats and trailers that could sprout. Some boats entering area lakes have been in the waters of other states. There is concern about hydrilla, another invasive specie that has been found in York County.