Lakes and Streams - Lake*A*Syst
- Camp Road Maintenance
- Household Wastewater
- Landscape and Vegetated Buffers
- Lawn Care
- Recreation On and Around the Lake
Lake*A*Syst was created to help people understand how their activities can affect lake water quality. This fact sheet series focuses on special water quality concerns for shoreline property owners and actions that can be taken to avoid contaminating our lakes.
Lake water quality can become degraded if excess runoff from land enters the lake, bringing pollutants with it. This is called polluted runoff or stormwater. Stormwater pollutants include soil (silt), nutrients, gas, oil and other chemicals. You can stop or significantly slow polluted runoff from entering the lake by following a few, simple, preventative measures.
This program is divided into five sections, including: (1) Camp Road Maintenance; (2) Household Wastewater (Septic Systems); (3) Landscape and Vegetated Buffers; (4) Lawn Care; and (5) Recreation On and Around the Lake (including invasive aquatic species). 
Each publication section will have information on why you need to be concerned, and a description of the topic. At the end of the section will be a self-assessment sheet. If you score in the low risk category, you are using great lakeshore property management. Congratulations! Please make an extra effort to correct any activities that score a moderate or high risk as you may be contributing contaminants to the lake.
Read on and do the self-assessments to learn how to improve your lifestyle and management practices to protect your lake water quality!
Lake*A*Syst is A Publication of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Water Quality Program, by Jessie Mae MacDougall and John M. Jemison, Jr.
