AUBURN, ME (August 10, 2022) – The City of Auburn has received confirmation that it is on the right track with proposed ordinance changes. The city can move one step forward towards goal of modernizing lake protection ordinances by limiting density and incorporating best practices in phosphorus control and subsurface wastewater disposal in the Lake Auburn Watershed.

This work follows up on a comprehensive analysis that FB Environmental conducted for the City of Auburn in 2021, with Horsley Witten Group and Dr. Adam Daigneault of the University of Maine, and peer review by David Rocque, a licensed state site evaluator and soil scientist.

 The full report and newest memo can be viewed online at auburnmaine.gov, as part of a staff presentation at a meeting of the Auburn Planning Board this evening, and as part of a presentation to the Auburn City Council during their August 15 meeting.

According to FBE, although the changes result in improvement in water quality over a “do nothing different” scenario, the city’s (and its partners’) work to protect Lake Auburn is not done.

According to the report, the City of Auburn has taken valuable action to protect Lake Auburn, however “the goal [to protect Lake Auburn] cannot be ultimately met without the cooperation of [other towns within the watershed] to implement similar development strategies controlling phosphorus in the watershed.”

Auburn staff look forward to working with the Auburn Water District and Lake Auburn Watershed Protection Commission during review of phosphorus control plans and updating of the watershed base plan through a public process.