Gasoline is fairly volatile and unless a spill is large it will most likely cause little permanent damage. It won't mix with the water and will evaporate off the warm lake surface fairly quickly this time of year. That isn't to say that every spilled drop doesn't count and all precautions should be taken in proper fueling, any petroleum product spilled on lake, or anywhere for that matter, is a very bad thing for our environment!
I suspect however that most of the damage being done to the lakes right now comes from lawns and artificial plantings near the shoreline and it is the nitrogen and phosphorous from fertilizers mis and over applied to them that is causing the worst harm to Winnipesaukee.
The water quality early this past spring was noticeably better than it is now, due I'm sure to the quiet and inactivity created by the virus and the stay at home orders. Still, it didn't compare to the crystal clear water I remember as a kid growing up on the lake in the 60s and 70s. At that time when the light was right it was easy to see the bottom twenty+ feet down, there was no milfoil to speak of, and most rocks didn't have a film of algae. The lake will never again be that beautiful due to the overpopulation it now has, but a lot of ground could certainly be recovered if there were no lawn fertilizing allowed within 250' of the shoreline.
I have covered my shore front from 50 feet back with a few inches of organic NH mulch from Ambrose. It is soft to walk on, smells great, and decomposes naturally just like the forest duff that used to cover most of our lake's shores. Within 50' of the water my shorefront is just as natural as the day I found it and mostly covered in blueberry bushes ...as it should be
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