In 1873 typhoid fever broke out at the Bay View House (one of Bar Harbor's fifteen hotels). Eight cases shut down the hotels. Five more cases were diagnosed when visitors returned home, and a scarlatina epidemic closed the Rodick House. If Bar Harbor was to survive, it had to assure visitors of a supply of untainted water. The town rose to the occasion, building a wooden sluiceway to Eagle Lake in 1874 and ever since Eagle Lake has provided the town's fresh drinking water.

The watershed of Eagle Lake includes the watershed of Bubble Pond, their combined watershed lying wholly within the bounds of Acadia National Park. The watershed of Bubble Pond contains approximately 473 acres, including 32 acres of water surface area. The watershed of Eagle Lake contains approximately 1,763 acres, including 437 acres of surface area. The volume of Eagle Lake is approximately 1,804,000,000 gallons, or 22,400,000 cubic meters. Six intermittent tributary streams feed Bubble Pond and Eagle Lake, all of them characterized as being extremely "flashy" or affected by immediate precipitation events.

Human use in the combined watershed of Eagle Lake and Bubble Pond includes automobile roads, parking lots, carriage roads, hiking trails, the maintenance yard of Acadia National Park, and boating (canoes, kayaks, and motorboats with motors of ten horsepower or less).

In 1998, the Bar Harbor Water Company served 1,697 metered customers: 1,323 residential, 300 commercial (including hotels, motels, restaurants) and 74 governmental customers (including the Town of Bar Harbor). The water company serves 101 public fire hydrants and 47 private ones.

The Bar Harbor Water Company treats water drawn from Eagle Lake with chlorine gas as a disinfectant, hydrated lime to adjust the pH (acidity), a corrosion inhibitor to stabilize the surfaces of lead and copper pipes, and fluoride to promote dental health. Eagle Lake is one of only twelve water supplies granted a waiver from regulatory requirements for filtration of surface waters in the State of Maine.

Six of the Great Ponds at Acadia National Park serve as public water supplies for four Mount Desert Island communities:

These designated drinking water sources place restrictions on human activities including swimming, unleashed pets, and littering, or disposal of waste.

Many residents of Bar Harbor live in rural areas and draw water from a well, so are not included in the table above. Whether you draw water from a main or a well, think of the many ways you use water every day for drinking, cooking, showering, washing, cleaning, irrigating, and other uses in and around your home.

Bacterial water sampling was conducted by Acadia's resource management staff at several recreational swim beaches within the park during the 1990s. The purpose of the sampling was to provide information to park managers on the potential health risk to park visitors from water-borne pathogens. The National Park Service currently does not require monitoring for bacterial contamination. Determining the risk to human health based on a correlation between the incidence of illness in bathers and the levels of a given bacterial indicator is not entirely straightforward.

The results of monitoring conducted in 1993 and 1994 indicate that bacterial levels at all ANP areas sampled (Echo Lake, Lakewood, "Ponds End" on Long Pond, Sand Beach, and Sand Beach Lagoon) were well within Maine bacteria standards and EPA guidelines, except for two short term exceedances at Sand Beach lagoon. Each of the high bacteria sample events at the lagoon were preceded by soaking rains (approx. 1 inch) within 24 hours of sampling, and both of the indicators responded similarly i.e. spiked to high densities then returned to acceptable levels. There has been no evidence of significant water contact related illness reported by swimmers from MDI beaches.

The proximity of individual beach areas to septic systems, camps and/or private residences, and the lack of toilet facilities near some of the beaches make it likely that bacterial pollution may become a problem in the future. Continued monitoring at selected park beaches is recommended to provide a larger database to better understand the range of bacterial densities and long term trends.

Bar Harbor, a small port on the coast of Maine, features a variety of seasonal saltwater uses, particularly from May through October.

Commercial Fishing (see table below) Recreational Fishing Deep Sea Fishing (only one boat goes out)
Individual Kayaking and Kayak Tours Whale Watching in the Gulf of Maine Nature Cruises
Cruise Ships (43 visits in 1998 with over 55,000 passengers and crew) The Cat (catamaran) Ferry to Nova Scotia Sail and Power Boat Mooring and Cruising (618 overnight boaters in 1998)

Recreational fish landings in Bar Harbor include striped bass, mackerel, bluefish, and groundfish from deep sea fishing. Records are not kept on these species.

1998 COMMERCIAL FISH LANDINGS, BAR HARBOR, MAINE
SPECIES	LIVE POUNDS	VALUE
Angler	40,304	$21,462
Cod	5,731	$5,954
Crab, Rock	13,179	$5,273
Cusk	136	$115
Flounder, American Plaice	23,526	$24,604
Flounder, Winter	22	$31
Flounder, Witch	4,644	$7,294
Flounder, Yellowtail	1	$1
Haddock	54	$65
Hake, Silver	21	$2
Hake, White	22,038	$14,903
Halibut, Greenland	6	$2
Lobster	687,482	$2,087,005
Other Fish	5	$1
Pollock	21,136	$14,839
Redfish	97	$40
Scallop, Sea	90,618	$79,908
Sea Urchins	706,522	$692,341
Skates	1,613	$285
Wolffishes	136	$77
TOTALS	1,617,261	$2,954,202