Thank you for running Ben Lounsbury’s May. 28 guest column, which aptly compared Lake Auburn to China Lake.

China Lake Syndrome ended up degrading not only China Lake’s water quality, but also destroyed property values and significantly reduced property tax revenues in China. China Lake’s example points to the folly of encouraging development around Lake Auburn.

Such development would reduce the vegetative buffering around our lake, when this buffering is the last line of Lake Auburn’s defense against pollution. It would replace more of Auburn’s protective forest land with impervious surfaces surrounded by lawns, the maintenance of which may produce their own phosphorus load on our lake or become a source of herbicidal contamination in our drinking water supply.

This November, Auburn’s citizens need to elect leaders who will heed the lesson of China Lake.

Michael Dixon and Carmen Dufresne, Auburn