I may not be able to get a complete report out
today due to a funeral and visitation I am attending starting this morning.
Anything missing, probably including the Naysayer alert will be a day late.
Joe Rush, our lake biologist/manager was in
attendance for a Q&A that lasted for some time. He was very informative in
his explanation of the dangers of blue/green algae blooms and his reason for
asking us to close the lake. He is looking at actions to help avoid such
serious blooms in the future including adding more filtering plantings, and
yes, a possible alum treatment as well as other options. He had been on the
lake just before the meeting and noted the algae had moved again, now to the
east side of the lake as well as some other areas. This means the worst areas of
contamination will not be contained, but will drift, making this impossible to
know where the worst areas will be but also the bulk of our lake is infected
with this toxin. One good point is the odor means the algae is dying and
starting to run it’s course. The lake will revert back to normal before too long
a time. Monitoring will continue until we can sound the all clear.
Naturally the very dry and hot conditions
contributed greatly to this problem. No water is entering the lake from the
inlets at this time so there is stagnation. The idea of using new wells or the
well from the golf course to supplement lake water was discussed again. The golf
course well was used many years ago but was shut down as I recall due to
complaints from Caledonia residents that we were draining their aquifers. That
is strictly my recollection and may not be accurate. All ideas will be
investigated by lake management for future courses of action.
Ken Dillenburg