|
Hello Friends of Pleasant Lake,
I wanted to send a quick follow-up to our lake community regarding the recent Cyanobacteria bloom announcement and what steps your lake association is taking.
This is obviously very concerning to all of us as we are diligently attempting to get answers as to where the nutrients are coming from that may be causing these bloom events. The PLPA has engaged the services of FB Environmental, an environmental engineering firm from Portland, Maine, that comes very highly recommended to us for their work with other lake associations on a variety of watershed related engineering projects. FBE will be conducting 12 sediment core sampling in several locations around the lake, as well as performing phytoplankton water testing, this morning (9/23).
The sediment sampling will give us a good indication if the bottom sediments of the lake are holding phosphorus, causing 'internal loading', or if the nutrients are coming from other sources, such as runoff, septic systems, etc. The phytoplankton testing will give us an indication of how widespread the cyanobacteria is throughout the lake, vs. is it just in isolated areas.
We will keep you posted once we get the results of this sampling, however it may be several weeks since the sediment samples must be sent to Wisconsin for their analyses. In closing, I would like to thank Craig Williamson and all of his Watershed Committee for the many hours they have spent working on this situation, coming up with a strategic plan for us to follow in getting answers and taking corrective actions. And thank you, our friends of Pleasant Lake for your continued concern for the lake and your support of the PLPA's efforts.
Sincerely,
Doug Baxter
President, PLPA
|
