MEAD LAKE SURVEYS WILL BE DISCUSSED
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 -- 10:20 AM
Plans to improve the water quality at Mead Lake continue to move forward.The Stakeholder Leadership Team (SLT) for the Watershed Partnership will meet November 19th to go over data collected during separate surveys conducted this summer.
Mead Lake is listed on the federal and state impaired waters list. It?s suffered from crippling algae blooms, the result of excessive phosphorous run-off.
The surveys should help the group better understand how people view and use the lake and their lakefront property.
"Our response rate was extremely high," says County Conservationist Matt Zoschke. "Higher than expected."
So far, they've surveyed lakefront property owners as well as those that use the lake.
Nearly 90% of lake property owners completed the survey.
All tolled, hundreds of surveys were returned to the group and an additional survey of farmers living upstream will go out soon.
Cool weather delayed the algae blooms at Mead this summer, but it was still a problem.
"We saw delayed algae blooms. But, when it did bloom, it bloomed at about the same level it did in years previous," he said.
Zoschke?s already been working with farmers upstream to find funding to help offset costs of implementing conservation practices that will help ease the phosphorous run-off to tributaries of Mead Lake.
The Watershed Partnership is developing a Lake Management Plan that should free up more government funding to implement these practices.
"We have to remember that when we do a practice on the landscape, there's going to be a lag-time before we see an improvement in water quality," he notes, adding it will probably take a decade before there's a noticeable change to water clarity.
Anyone with an interest in the project can attend the meeting November 19th at 7 PM at the Mead Town Hall.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.