NEW GLOUCESTER – The two-year project to protect the quality of Sabbathday Lake is finished, and on Wednesday the results were reviewed.

The Steering Committee advised that 30 technical assistance projects and 15 land projects helped landowners manage camp roads, pathways, erosion and sedimentation problems.

The $106,000 project was funded in partnership by state, federal, town officials and landowners. An earlier program through the Clean Water Act helped launch about four years of work with landowners and towns to divert storm water carrying phosphorus from reaching the lake.

The grant was administered by Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District and headed up by project manager Mary Gilbertson. In addition, Don Kale of Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection worked with landowners and a corps of youth conservation workers.

Residents learned to build water bars, install razor blades of rubber to divert water, install basins, plant vegetative buffers and apply mulch to deter water from going directly into the lake.

Shoreland property values are protected by having a healthy lake, Gilbertson said.

Sabbathday Lake marks the headwaters of the Royal River that runs into Casco Bay. Several years ago it was rated by Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection as moderately unstable. Its 345 acres includes a cold water fishery and affords recreational opportunities to the public.

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