West Otter in Action

August 28, 2008 was a good day for a chemical water test at our inlet and outlet. We also did a chemical water test on July 18, 2008.

At the inlet the water temp was 65 degrees in July and 50 degrees in August. There wasn?t much flow at all in August - mostly cool spring water. In July the air temp was 79 degrees and in August the air temp was 74 degrees.

At the inlet - dissolved oxygen was less in August and e-coli was up a little but still ok. PH was less than in July. At the outlet the water temp in July was 73 degrees and in August the water temp was 74 degrees. Dissolved oxygen was the same both months but the e-coli was up a little.

The ph was down and the turbidity was down in August. The water quality index rating in July for the inlet was medium and at the outlet the rating was good. In August the water quality index rating at the inlet was good and at the outlet the rating was medium. If anyone needs numbers from the tests - I have them!! The August chemical test was our third test for the year and we hope to do one or two more and one or two more secchi disc tests.

We did another secchi disc test in three locations on September 20, 2008 starting at 5:45 p.m. The day was beautiful and sunny. The water temperature was 73-74 degrees. The water was a green/brown and there was some blue/green algae floating (just enough to make the lake look dirty). The first test was in 13? deep water and the reading was 6 7/10?. The second test was in 22? deep water and the reading was 6 7/10?. The third test was in 29? deep water and the reading was 7? even. Not bad at all even though we all want better.

The Secchi disk is a measure of the amount of suspended material in the water. This suspended material may be living algae, eroded soil from the watershed, re-suspended lake sediments, or other materials. The more suspended material in the water, the more turbid the lake and the less transparency. Poor Secchi disk transparency has been linked to lake eutrophication.

The West Otter Lake Property Owners Association was awarded a 2008 Chemical Water Monitoring Equipment Package from Hoosier Riverwatch. This is great! There are guidelines to follow for this award. We already know these guidelines and have been using them since we started this program.

To answer the question from the fall meeting about getting the results from our water testing. You can find the results at www.hoosierriverwatch.com. After that home page comes down - click on (search database). After that page comes down - click on - (advanced data search engine). The next page - click on - (site identification number) and use number 148 for one site and 189 for the other site. You can clickk on the year wanted or view all of the years from this page also. The results will come up for your viewing.