Surface Water

There are three watersheds in Eaton, outlined in orange in the map below: one flowing north to Conway Lake and the Saco River, a second flowing south to Ossipee Lake, and the third flowing east via the Shepard River to the Saco River.  Eaton is fortunate in that it sits at the top of its watersheds.  With the exception of Conway Lake, some of the streams entering it, one stream on the northeastern slope of Lyman Mountain, and a small portion of the Shepards River in the northeast corner of town all surface water in Eaton originates in Eaton.  As a result Eaton has the potential to control the quality of most of its surface waters.

Conway Lake dominates the northernmost part of Eaton and is shared with Conway.  Also part of the northern watershed are Crystal Lake, Roberts Pond, and Littlefield Pond. The southern watershed contains Hatch Pond, Long Pond, and Purity Lake, the southern tip of which is in Madison.  There are no named lakes or ponds in the eastern watershed though all three watersheds contain several small, unnamed water bodies.

The eastern watershed is home to three named streams: Shepards River, Linscott Brook, and Cole Brook.  The other two watersheds each have only one major stream: Stony Brook in the southern watershed and Snow Brook in the north.  Information on flow rates for some of the major streams can be found by clicking on the streams in the map below.  Clicking on the water bodies will give their acreage.

Property lots will show up as you zoom in.  Clicking on a lot will give its map and lot number and its approximate acerage.

Testing of lakes and streams in Eaton started in 1996 with the Center for Freshwater Biology at the University of New Hampshire to establish baseline data on water quality in Eaton.  Samples were taken from streams and lakes in the Conway Lake and the Ossipee Lake watersheds.  A 2002 summary report on this work found that in general water quality was high, water clarity was moderate to high, algal growth was low to moderate, and nutrient concentrations were low.  The report recommended that Eaton continue and expand its water quality testing.

Since 2002 water quality testing has continued somewhat sporadically.  Data from 2019 indicate that there has not been much change since 2002.  Water clarity is about the same, chlorophyll concentrations are about the same in Crystal Lake and Thurston Pond and have decreased in Long Pond, and alkalinity and total phosphorus were about the same in those three ponds.  Ecoli tests of Crystal Lake in June of 2019 indicate that ecoli levels were around 1% or less of the suggested limit.