Quote:
Originally Posted by ishoot308
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I was recently told from someone at DES that the water quality in Winnipesaukee is much better now than during the 60's and 70's. Many of the camps back then had no regulations on their septic and overflow was constantly just sent directly into the lake.
I remember staying many times at the Chanticleer in the late 60's and all the cabins were simply leeching their septic into the lake!
Yes more can be done to keep it clean, but it's not all bad and in fact water quality has been worse in years past.
Dan
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Is there an online reference available about water quality in the 60's and 70's? It is possible that it was worse, but that isn't common knowledge. That was before my time here, but since the early 80's, it is very evident to me that water quality has gone down in parts of the lake. It is difficult to find fresh water clams in the north east quadrant any more and the bottom is more muck than sand. Graphs I have seen of the phosphorus levels over the past few decades show a marked increase and frightening trends. The septics of 30-40 years ago were much worse, but there were way fewer homes and full time residents on the lake. In addition, water runoff then was a lot less, because the area was much less built up. The runoff contribution to poor water quality is likely more a problem today than septic ever was in the past. There is no reason to back off the efforts to make the lake clean again.