Joint effort is the best protection for Lake Auburn and the Androscoggin River.

While the water utilities in Lewiston and Auburn may not have worked perfectly well together a century ago, much has changed since that time.

The Lewiston-Auburn Commission on Joint Services used the Lake Auburn Watershed Protection Commission (formed by the two utilities in 1993) as a standard of how the two communities can work together.

The Watershed Commission has eight members (three from Lewiston, three from Auburn, one from the town of Turner and one from the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments). The towns of Hebron, Minot and Buckfield also have a shared appointment to the commission, but have not chosen to be represented on the commission at this time. The Auburn Water District and the Lewiston Water Division provide professional staff to the LAWPC board. The commission owns approximately 1,600 acres in the 9,792-acre watershed of Lake Auburn. The responsibility of the commission is to protect the water quality of the lake.

Today the two water utilities work very closely together on a daily basis. In addition to the Watershed Protection Commission, the two utilities share: a common water intake facility at the lake, chemical treatment facility at the lake, water quality laboratory and controls staff, and joint procurement of chemicals and services. A joint special operations team, joint engineering services and joint construction contracts further the cooperative efforts between the two utilities.

The continuing joint work to address the bird issue on Lake Auburn is yet another example of how well the two utilities work together to save the ratepayers from having to pay for a $30-plus million filtration plant.

In addition to the water utilities, the sewer utilities work together in much the same way with the Lewiston-Auburn Water Pollution Control Authority, overseeing the joint sewage treatment facility and the joint Clean Water Act master plan addressing the combined sewer overflows in the two cities.

It is important to know our history, but it is equally important to know what we are doing today. The water and sewer utilities of the two cities are leading the way in having our teams work together, drawn together to attack the challenges that lie ahead for the benefit of all our customers and the Twin Cities of the Androscoggin.

David A. Jones, P.E., is director of the City of Lewiston Department of Public Services, commissioner on the Lake Auburn Watershed Protection Commission and a member of the board of directors of the Lewiston-Auburn Water Protection Control Authority.