The first known published information regarding New Hampshire lakes can be found in a pamphlet distributed at the turn of the century advertising the "restorative and healing spring fed waters" of Lake Sunapee's Soo-Nipi Lodge Resort. However, the only real data presented was that of "albumen protein", a curious measurement not usually associated with water quality but with nutritional studies of the time.

The first compilation of New Hampshire lakes and ponds and their surface areas was published in 1934⁽¹⁾. Funded by relief agencies during the depression and under the direction of the State Planning Board, the project determined lake areas by making planimeter readings on available USGS quadrangle sheets - averaging several readings per waterbody. Despite revisions to the quadrangle sheets through the years, most of the areas from this report are still in use today.

Water quality sampling up to this time consisted primarily of a few readings on some selected lakes. A 1935 study of North Pond and its tributaries in Fox State Forest in Hillsboro related low pH values with decomposing organic matter in the water ⁽²⁾.

Initial research at UNH in the early part of the century was in the distribution and biodiversity of aquatic plants throughout the region. Samples collected from the early 1900's through the present can be found at the University's Hogdon Herbarium.

The first recorded statewide lake water quality sampling in New Hampshire was a comprehensive, coordinated survey effort by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (NHF&G) in the late 1930s. The surveys were designed to collect data related to fish health and habitat in order to provide a scientific basis for the fish stocking program. The surveys were designed and initiated by Earl Hoover, completed by Herb Warfel, and utilized university professors, conservation officers, Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers and other experts to accomplish them. (Note: One of the lake sampling crew and coordinator of the plankton studies was W. Tommy Edmondson, a graduate student of Yale's G. Evelyn Hutchinson and later one of the leading limnologists of the country at the University of Washington.) A preliminary survey of 30 lakes was conducted in 1936⁽³⁾. The procedures were finalized⁽⁴⁾ and followed by surveys of lakes in the Androscoggin, Saco and Coastal watersheds in 1937⁽⁵⁾, the Merrimack watershed in 1938⁽⁶⁾ and the Connecticut watershed in 1939⁽⁷⁾. Data collected in the surveys included temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, alkalinity, carbon dioxide, color (visual observation), Secchi transparency, rooted plant abundance, plankton volume and fish species present. The fact that the entire state was surveyed in three years (including the rivers and streams that are not discussed here), and that the data was analyzed and published, along with pictures, graphs, tables and sketches, in the same year as collected, is a testament to the enormity of the project and the dedication of the individuals involved. Add to that the fact that the leader of the project, Earl Hoover, died prematurely at age 29 in 1939, and the timely completion of the project moves into the miraculous category.

In 1945 NHF&G initiated a new program to survey lakes not sampled by the Hoover effort and to re-survey lakes thought to have undergone changes. Lakes were surveyed in the late 1940s and early 1950s using the same protocols and collecting the same data as Hoover, and the data was published in a series of three reports commonly referred to as "the green books"^{(8, 9, 10)}.

University research in the 1940s and '50s generally involved the engineering and sanitary aspects of water quality of our lakes and surface waters. Pioneering research by Dr. Arthur Slanetz (who later became an active UNH Lakes Lay Monitoring Program volunteer monitor on Silver Lake in Madison) resulted in a method to infer the source of bacteria contamination (i.e. human, waterfowl or farm animal).

In 1947 the New Hampshire Water Pollution Commission was officially established. Prior to that time, water pollution related sampling and public health was conducted by the Division of Sanitary Engineering within the State Health Department. The first order of business for the newly formed commission was to collect water quality data in support of proposed surface water classifications. The initial effort was directed toward recreational waters and headwater streams. The most commonly collected data during this time was pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen and total coliform bacteria. The data was never formally published but much of it is available in the lake files at NHDES.

During the 1950s and '60s, sanitary surveys were conducted around many of the state's lakes, leading to the identification and correction of any direct discharges to the lakes or adjacent failed sewage disposal systems. With the lakes, ponds and headwater streams generally meeting use classifications, the commission turned its efforts in the late 1960s and during the '70s to the abatement of pollution caused by the major point source discharges of industrial and municipal wastewater, which primarily went into rivers. [Note: The Water Pollution Commission became the Water Supply and Pollution Control Commission in 1967 when responsibility for the public drinking water program was transferred from Public Health. Then, in 1987, when the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) was formed, it became the Water Supply and Pollution Control Division and is now known as the Water Division. References to NHDES in this report for activities prior to 1987, refer to one of these predecessor agencies.] Lake studies at this time focused on intensive sampling of lakes receiving point discharges and suffering annual nuisance bluegreen algal blooms. These lakes included Kezar Lake in Sutton, Lake Winnisquam in Laconia, Mascoma Lake in Enfield, Lake Skatutakee in Harrisville, Glen Lake in Goffstown and Pearly Pond in Rindge. Many of these lakes were treated annually with copper sulfate as a temporary solution to control the algal blooms. Numerous staff reports were published on these lakes as well as basin reports describing the efforts to treat the various point sources.

In the 1960s and '70s university research was focused more on lake ecology. Investigations in 1967 and '68 by Dr. Phillip Sawyer and his students compared the ecological conditions (chemical, physical and biological environments) of Lakes Region waters and tried to relate the resulting water quality conditions. Studies by Dr. Art Mathieson and his student Gerhard Grundling attempted to test the theory that certain algae could be used as indicators of water quality conditions. While that effort proved more complicated (the indicator species used commonly in other states at the time do not occur in the soft waters we typically have in NH!) they were able to prove that the limiting factor to algae growth in our NH lakes is the nutrient phosphorus. This was most important in the context of lake management and regulatory rules then, and it remains a critical issue today.

A cooperative effort in the 1970s among UNH, NHDES and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) summarized existing lake quality data and listed available lake quality reports. This effort resulted in the 1975 USGS report entitled "Characteristics of the Lakes, Ponds, and Reservoirs of New Hampshire, with a Bibliography".

The passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972 (officially, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972) marked a major turning point in the fight against water pollution in the country. Among other initiatives, the Act established the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program that required permits and effluent limits on all point source discharges, and also required states to classify, according to trophic condition, all publicly-owned freshwater lakes. NHDES initiated a lake trophic survey program in 1975 and reported on an initial list of 171 lakes in 1981⁽¹¹⁾. These surveys consisted of depth readings and the construction of a bathymetric chart, a mapping, identification and abundance rating for macrophyte (rooted aquatic plant) growth, a dissolved oxygen and temperature profile, net phyto and zooplankton identifications, Secchi disk transparency, chlorophyll, bacteria and water samples with depth for pH, ANC, color, conductivity, phosphorus, nitrogen and other related parameters. These lake trophic surveys have continued through today with annual inventory reports produced - the latest as volume XVII in 2001⁽¹²⁾. These surveys result in the assignment of a trophic classification for each lake and, along with the two volunteer monitoring programs discussed below, provides some of the data for this website. Also under Clean Water Act direction, year-long, comprehensive diagnostic/feasibility studies were conducted on problem lakes or lakes in need of protection. Corrective actions were taken through either clean lakes implementation studies or nonpoint source implementation projects.

To foster collaborations for more applied lake research and to provide community outreach opportunities, the Freshwater Biology Group (FBG) was established at UNH in the late 1970's. Initially a partnering of faculty and students from the departments of Plant Biology and Zoology, this group performs lake studies, diagnostics and assessments for lake and watershed associations, and communities throughout the state, often times employing students and volunteers to defray costs. The FBG is now one facet of an even more expanded and collaborative effort. The UNH Center for Freshwater Biology (UNH-CFB) is positioned to provide a collaborative foundation for a variety of university students, researchers, academic programs, departments, and outreach programs on a wide range of concerns from aquaculture to zebra mussels.

The UNH-FBG initiated a Lakes Lay Monitoring Program (LLMP) in 1978 with a pilot program supported by students working with the Lake Chocorua Association, followed by a fully volunteer staffed program by the Squam Lakes Association in 1979. The program was the first lake monitoring program in the state to utilize volunteer monitors and is coordinated and operated by university faculty and students. It is currently administered through the UNH-CFB and UNH Cooperative Extension Water Resources. The continuing demand by the public for increased volunteer monitoring opportunities led to the establishment by NHDES of a Volunteer Lake Assessment Program in 1985. These two complementary volunteer monitoring programs sample both lake and tributary waters for trophic related parameters and provide the most recent data for this website.

During the 1970s acid rain and its impact on the environment became a hot issue. Early, original work on the acid rain problem was initiated in Woodstock, NH by the U.S. Forest Services' Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the 1960s. This work continues today under the guidance of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation. NHDES initiated an acid rain trend-monitoring program in 1981 that continues today. Approximately 50 lakes, including high elevation, remote ponds, are sampled each year for acid rain related parameters.

In the 1990s another atmospherically derived pollutant, mercury, became the hot issue. New Hampshire, primarily through the efforts of the Risk Assessment Bureau of Public Health, initiated a broad-based program in 1992 to analyze mercury levels in fish from NH lakes. The program continues today. The fish collection effort is now coordinated by NHDES and utilizes volunteers as well as its own staff and staff from NHF&G and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The Public Health Laboratory analyzes the collected fish. The Global Atmospheric Chemistry Group within UNH's Complex Systems Research Center maintains two wet/dry mercury deposition stations located on the Seacoast and in the Swain's Lake Watershed that are part of the national monitoring network of atmospheric mercury levels.

Another issue for the time was the appearance of the non-native invasive plant variable water milfoil. Initial research on this species was conducted by Ellen Chagnon and Dr. Kenneth Kimball, under the direction of Dr. Alan Baker, from 1979 through 1982 (funded in part by the UNH Water Resources Research Center. Information provided by these studies assisted in the eventual establishment of funding for the NHDES Exotic Species Program.

Looking towards the future, the UNH-CFB is currently involved with research to help us better predict the outcomes of the ever increasing pressures on our lakes that will result from increased populations and the resulting increases in recreation, development and sprawl. Specifically, this research includes investigations into water quality trend detection; land use and the resulting nutrient runoff; lake response to climate change and the occurrence and causes of potentially harmful algae blooms.

In general, the current water quality of New Hampshire lakes is very good. New Hampshire no longer has sewage treatment plants or industries discharging directly to lakes, which caused them to turn pea-soup green with algae. The major issues facing the lakes today are mercury, acid rain, exotic (non-native) plant and animal introductions, and the increasing use of and development around the lakes leading to increased stormwater runoff and nonpoint source pollution among other issues. The most recent water quality report⁽¹³⁾ affirmed that over 95% of the state's lakes (by surface area and not including mercury) fully support all assessed uses. Because of the statewide fish consumption advisory due to mercury, no lakes support the fish consumption use. Of the 5% of lake area not supporting uses other than fish consumption, the major causes of non-support were low pH (79 %), exotic species (13 %), nuisance plant growth (8 %) and bacteria (< 1 %).

References:

1. New Hampshire State Planning Board. 1934. Area of Water Bodies in the State of New Hampshire. Concord.

2. Underhill, A.H. 1939. Acidity variations in New Hampshire fresh waters. Bull. No. 4. NH State Plan. & Devel. Comm. 9pp.

3. Hoover, E.E. 1936. Preliminary Biological Survey of some New Hampshire Lakes. Survey Report No. 1. NHF&G Depart. 78pp.

4. ____. 1937. Manual for Biological Survey of Lakes and Streams. Survey Report 2A. NHF&G Dept. 13 pp + apps.

5. ____. 1937. Biological Survey of the Androscoggin, Saco and Coastal Watersheds. Survey Report No. 2. NHF&G Dept. 160pp.

6. ____. 1938. Biological Survey of the Merrimack Watershed. Survey Report No. 3. NHF&G Dept. 238pp.

7. Warfel, H.E. 1939. Biological Survey of the Connecticut Watershed. Survey Report No. 4. NHF&G Dept. 256pp.

8. Newell, A.E. 1960. Biological Survey of the Lakes and Ponds in Coos, Grafton and Carroll Counties. Survey Report No. 8a. NHF&G Dept. 297pp.

9. ____. 1963. Biological Survey of the Lakes and Ponds in Sullivan, Merrimack, Belknap and Strafford Counties. NHF&G Dept. 276pp.

10. ____. 1970. Biological Survey of the Lakes and Ponds in Cheshire, Hillsborough and Rockingham Counties. NHF&G Dept. 219pp.

11. Towne, R.E. and R.H. Estabrook. 1981. Classification and Priority Listing of New Hampshire Lakes. Vol. I & II, Parts 1-6. Staff Rept. No. 121. NHWSPCC.

12. Estabrook, R.H. and W.M. Henderson, Jr. 2001. New Hampshire Lakes and Ponds Inventory. Vol. XVII. NHDES-WD-01-7. NHDES. 278pp.

13. NHDES. 2000. State of New Hampshire 2000 Section 305(b) Water Quality Report. NHDES-WD-00-4.