AUBURN — Protecting the Lake Auburn watershed is critical to the future health and financial well-being of Lewiston-Auburn and greater Androscoggin County.

That was the word from local officials Tuesday at the Androscoggin River Watershed Council’s annual conference in Auburn.

The conference focused on topics, including shoreland stabilization, PFAS and climate change. Planning for resilient water supplies and lake protection, particularly Lake Auburn, were also topics of conversation.

The Lake Auburn watershed touches seven towns and cities across 18 square miles: Lewiston, Auburn, Minot, Hebron, Buckfield, Turner and Poland.

Eric Cousens, executive director of Public Services for Auburn, Erica Bufkins, community and land use planner for Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments, and Danielle Olsen, watershed manager for the Lake Auburn Watershed Protection Commission talked about measures taken to protect Lake Auburn and its watershed in the past, and what may be needed in the future.

One idea is to create a shared code enforcement officer position that would be focused solely on shoreline regulation and watershed protection.

The position may be part of budget discussions for next year with the watershed commission for the upper watershed communities, Olsen said. Funding would mainly come from ratepayers, she said, noting she would look for other revenue sources, including the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

“We want to get this off the ground at least for now and see where it takes us,” Olsen said.

The speakers also talked about the importance of considering water resources during when towns and cities go through their comprehensive planning process. A state-guided, long-term plan outlines a municipality’s vision for future growth, land use and resource protection.

“It (the municipal comprehensive planning process) is a real opportunity to be part of what changes over the next decade or more in your community,” Cousens said.

Cousens also talked about the efforts being done by the Lake Auburn Watershed Council in limiting growth in the watershed.

He said the council has been working hard at limiting the amount of development and building. The minimum lot size was changed from 1 acre to 3 acres, and homes were prohibited in the agricultural zone in the watershed, lowering the number of potential building lots from 120 to 40 over a 100-year build-out projection.

The lake is one of only 50 drinking water sources nationwide that has received a waiver of filtration, which is granted based on a variety of factors, none more important than being an exceedingly clean water source.

According to Cousens, Auburn’s waiver of filtration requirements from the federal government allows water officials to charge users some of the lowest water rates in the state, which helps promote economic development.

“When you have projects like a paper manufacturer or other manufacturing processes that use a lot of water, buying that water adds up to be a significant cost for a part for their business, and it makes (the area) more attractive by having affordable water rates,” Cousens said.

Olsen highlighted the Lake Auburn Watershed Protection Commission’s history, starting with 1875, when Auburn first began drawing water from the lake. Lewiston started drawing from it in 1899.

According to Olsen, 2.5 billion gallons of water was supplied to about 45,000 customers last year.

Lake Auburn is “critical to the drinking water supply” of two of the state’s biggest cities. She said if it isn’t managed correctly, it would get more costly.

“We serve a lot of people with a single source, and our source is unfiltered,” Olsen said. “When we see more development, we see more run off and erosion into the lake, which means more contaminants in the lake, higher turbidity, higher phosphorous,” she said.

“(The current process) relies on low turbidity and low bacteria. When those levels were elevated, we might lose our filtration waiver. If that happens, we would have to build a filtration plant and this would cost the ratepayers a lot of money,” she said.

Four years ago, city officials estimated a filtration plant would cost about $40 million to build, not including the cost of operating the plant.