Maine Lakefront Property Owners Ponder the Question: Lake or Pond?

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Maine Lakefront Property Owners Ponder the Question: Lake or Pond?

Fair Winds on the upper basin of Moose Pond, Bridgton, Maine

Lakefront property owners often ask the age-old question, “What’s the difference between a lake and a pond?”

The Maine DEP attempts to answer the question this way:

“About half of the 6,000 lakes and ponds that have been assigned a state identification number have been named, many having two or three names. At least thirty have one name with the word lake in it and the other with the word pond. For example, Bryant Pond is also known as Lake Christopher and Dexter Pond sports the name Wassookeag Lake! It is often these dual names that make folks wonder exactly where do we draw the line in Maine?”


“One classic distinction is that sunlight penetrates to the bottom of all areas of a pond in contrast to lakes, which have deep waters that receive no sunlight at all. Another is that ponds generally have small surface areas and lakes have large surfaces. So a combination of surface area and depth are considered from a technical perspective.”

But then you have examples like Moose Pond in Denmark, Bridgton and Sweden. Though it’s called a pond, Moose Pond is eleven miles long, one-mile wide at its widest point, covers 1,694 acres and has three basins. It has a maximum depth of 77 feet and a mean depth of 20 feet. The light doesn’t penetrate to bottom of all areas of Moose Pond, especially in the middle basin.


Even on the upper basin, which has a maximum depth of 31 feet, it’s obvious that the water stratifies into three distinct layers. Do a cannonball of the dock and you’ll know what I mean. Technically speaking, ponds are supposed to have only one or two layers during stratification.

The DEP states, “So to answer the question above: no definitive line exists between lakes and ponds. The one distinction that has any legal application is the designation of a water as a Great Pond. Maine state statues define lakes and ponds greater than ten acres in size as Great Ponds. If an impounded water is greater than thirty acres in size it is also legally considered a Great Pond; impounded waters less than thirty acres that were greater than ten acres before dammed are also Great Ponds.”
And our answer to the question of what the difference is between a lake and a pond–the names probably came for the original settlers who lived near them. The terms appear to be arbitrary–in Maine anyway. And we like it that way. Keeps everyone guessing.
In the end, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a lake or a pond–all are subject to the same water quality standards.
To learn more about lakefront property for sale on Bryant Pond and Moose Pond, click on the green boxes above.
To learn more about these ponds, check out the blog links below.

Bryant Pond Lakefront Real Estate Accentuated by Picturesque Sunsets and Towering Norway Pines
Moose Pond in the Sebago Lakes Region of Maine, Offers Views, Fishing, Recreation and Clean Water

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