Where Lake Levels Need To Be
As of this writing, we are happy to report that all our pond water levels are in great shape after a very tumultuous past week, as you can see from today’s data logger. Thanks to these persistent showers! Yet, our farmers and gardeners are still complaining that the showers do help but, “We need RAIN!” From a water quality standpoint, showers are better for our watershed with its reduced sediment flow off our properties and roads.
Regardless, Great Pond’s Village dam is currently 2.76″ above full pond with both gates closed. Long Pond’s Wings Mill dam is exactly right at 3″, also above full pond with both gates also completely shut down. Salmon/McGrath is now 4.32″ above full pond with its calibrated valve opened just the mandated 1 cfs flow. Our neighbors on Messalonskee are down 4.56″ below full, which is just a fact of life with their electricity generation needs.
As you have read, for the rest of the summer, we continue to be in our “save the water” mode with all our gates being closed when at all possible. Precipitation for the past 10 days was 1.76″ and we are looking at just 0.62″ for the next 10 days. FYI, our normal weekly precipitation during the summer is supposed to be 0.875″, so you can see where we’ve been running so far, slightly about average. The long-term forecast has and still is calling for an average 26% less precipitation, which is basically what we’ve had for the past four years. Hence, our “save the water” mode!
If you have a particular questions regarding our Dams and/or water levels, please email your inquiry to , and we will try to answer your question either in this column or via email.
Welcome back and enjoy your summer! It should be a beautiful one.
Dick Greenan is chairman of the Belgrade Lakes Watershed Dams Committee. He submitted this report on June 3, 2026.
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