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Report to the Orono City Council <br />first week in August Bill Niccum was employed to dredge part of the 1934 boat <br />channel using the traditional dredging approach. Immediately we observed a <br />doubling in total carbon in the water column, and a significant increase In <br />total nitrogen (see data in Table I from August 1st onwards). Clearly, <br />suction dredging for channel maintenance is much less deleterious to the <br />body of water than traditional dredging practices. <br />The dams which were constructed to hold the spoils from Lafayette Bay <br />were so well constructed that the water pumped with the spoils was mostly <br />lost through evaporation as Mr. Lindsey predicted. Most of the changes in <br />the marsh could be accounted for by rainfall causing increased urban run <br />off, except on July 28th when a visiting student from Harvard who was studying <br />crawfish In the wetlands Inadvertently stirred up sediments in the wetland <br />close to our sampling points (Table II). <br />Measurements taken by the Seascout Project on Lafayette Bay (Table III) <br />show the results of a typical season of algal succession, except that this <br />year Lafayette Bay was much cleaner than last year, and is showing a great <br />improvement in terms of nutrient loading. This could be due to two reasons: <br />(1) the removal of sewage effluent from the bay and (2) closure of the boat <br />access at the comer of County Road IS and Old Beach Road. It is clear that <br />high powered boats entering shallow bays, ^such as Lafayette Bay, stir up a <br />large amount of sediment whi^h increases the concentrations of soluble nutrients <br />in the water column. <br />1