Every Year is Going to be a Great Year for Lake Attitash!

In 2019 we got an amazing gift. Our lake received an alum treatment in the early spring of 2019, thanks to a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, and funds raised from the LAA membership, Amesbury and Merrimac. This alum treatment sealed the excess nutrients that create harmful algal blooms into the sediment of areas of the lake that were deeper than 11’. It was successful. We now enjoy clear water, significantly reduced phosphorus and higher oxygen levels in the water. We are happy and so are the fish and the plants! Because the cost of the 2019 alum treatment was lower than expected, in the spring of 2020, Amesbury put additional alum in the deepest areas of the lake, a relatively small area that has the deepest levels of sediment. The lake remains clearer and the levels of Cyanobacteria remain under control.

We can all love our lake!

We can do our part to prolong the success of the alum treatment. It does not last forever but everything we do to minimize the flow of nutrients into the lake though storm water runoff and soil erosion will extend the positive effects of the alum treatment. What we do on our property around the lake and in the watershed has an impact, for better or for worse, on the water quality in Lake Attitash.

Ways that You Can Protect the Lake

The Lake Attitash Association is committed to providing up to date information on ways to protect Lake Attitash to the watershed residents, people who use the lake and the public in general. The following summaries have a links below each topics that were prepared in conjunction with the S.319 grant to mitigate the proliferation of Cyanobacteria in Lake Attitash. Click the + for each section to expand that section and learn more.