The surface waters of Maine belong to the people of Maine. I believe that most people are comfortable with agencies and/or commissions managing and protecting our water resource for us. But what happens when a commission, such as the Lake Auburn Watershed Protection Commission, fails in its duty?

Apparently, nothing happens.

A complaint was filled about improper logging on LAWPC land and, in a Feb. 4, 2013, email, the city of Auburn confirmed that an erosion problem resulted from the harvest of timber.

The specific problem is that slash was allowed to collect in streams, causing small dams. Those dams have led to stream-channel alterations.

Soil erodes, then collects on other brush downstream, creating more robust dams that cause even greater stream-bed alterations and so on.

If that situation were to exist on private property, LAWPC would be leading the charge to have the landowner fined per day until the problem was resolved at the landowner’s expense.

Unless something is done this fall to stabilize the situation, Lake Auburn will start 2014 with a nutrient plume off LAWPC land. The longer the problem is ignored, the larger the cost, both financial and environmental.

Had the LAWPC responded this past spring, the stream beds would be mostly intact. With every rain this summer, more damage occurred and the cost went up.

Next spring will see a major unraveling of the stream beds unless the people who own the water demand that it be protected from LAWPC.

Scott Hatch, Harrison