The Destruction of Sebago Lake

The underwater photo above shows thick algae growth on stones at the bottom of Sebago Lake. This photo was taken at Buoy 81, south of Frye Island in August, 1997. The photo was taken by a SCUBA diver hired by Friends of Sebago Lake to document water quality conditions in various parts of Sebago Lake.

While baseline data is lacking (ie. underwater photographs from 50 years ago), FOSL believes thick algae growth illustrated above is relatively recent on the lake and may be due in part to increased phosphorus levels caused by the extreme erosion that has occured on Sebago Lake since the late 1980s.

This photo was taken on August 26, 1997 near Indian Island on the southern end of Sebago Lake. This site is within the no contact zone of Sebago Lake administered by the Portland Water District. FOSL members recall that in earlier decades, this portion of the lake was free of algae and weed growth and did not resemble the conditions in the photo above. In earlier years, this area of Sebago's bottom was marked by clean boulders and a carpet of leaves.

Because this portion of the lake is within the control zone of the Portland Water District, there is no nearby pollution source to produce the above algae conditions -- except shoreline erosion.