Anne and I took the first 2008 water samples on Wednesday May 14 between 10 and 11. Evan helped us launch the canoe.

Preliminary results are as follows:

#1 Dock 50 cfu
#2 Cedar Fork Creek 46 cfu
#3 Booker Creek 30 cfu

Caution level is individual reading above 400 cfu, or average above 200 cfu. TriTest (lab) will notify us if readings are above 100..

Lake water temp: 20.5 C, 69 F

SECCI Clarity: 33 inches

This test was taken after several recent rains. Our bacteria count was higher than last year, but well below the threshod of concern, and expected after rainfall. Higher readings at the dock than at the tributaries indicates that we are getting good water flow, and/or we have a lot of geese. (True) The clarity was better than at any of 2007 tests, also an indication of good flow. The temperature is a little cooler than it was last year at this time, and that seems to have no direct bearing on bacteria.

Our water tests look at an indicator organism that does not grow or reproduce in the water, so the lake flow is either flushing, diluting, or concentrating it, while it is dying. This has been a health department standard for drinking and recreational water sources at least since WW2. In general, our lake tracks University Lake, although it has a much larger and mostly agricultural watershed, and we have a 4 square mile mostly residential watershed (mostly outside of Lake Forest Estates.)

Since it is spring and we have just gone through a bad drought, and may be facing another dry summer and fall, I will make my yearly reminder about lake-margin fertilizer: Anyone living on the shore of the lake, or next to the two upstream tributataries should only be using “lake margin” fertilizer for lawns and gardens. Appliy it sparingly and fully “water it in”. Do not fertilize right before a rain. That last instruction is counter-intuitive, but rain tends to “flush” everything downstream. You want to keep all your fertilizer where you apply it. Lake margin fertilizer has no phosphorous, and the application protocol is designed to keep any surplus from being flushed into the lake, where it would fertilize the annual cyclic algae bloom. That bloom happens on its own, but fertilizer makes it worse and keeps it going longer. Phosphorous (in the form of phosphates) is only lost when soil is removed (erosion) and only needed when new plants (seedlings, sod) are set. Lake margin fertilizer is available at Southern States and from most landscapers.

The lake water level is up, and our forebays are full. The Booker Creek forebay has an expanding isthmus of silt from the North Lakeshore Drive bridge. When we restored the lake in 2003 we took some steps to make it maintainable without having to undertake the disruptive “drain and dredge” process that has gone on at roughly 20 year intervals since the lake was first built by the C.C.C. in the 1930s. Creating the two forebays and putting in standpipes that allow us to lower the lake level for preventive maintenance were part of that plan. My understanding was this process had an expected 3-5 year cycle, and we are now at 5 years. In 2005, the town came and scooped out under the bridge as part of their road & bridge maintenance, so that may have bought us some time. The process of paying for the 2003 restoration was to have spawned an ongoing maintenance fund. If anyone reading this knows where we are in that cycle, please post a reply…

Chuck Henage