Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

Contact: Dan Olson, 218-846-7390 Detroit Lakes, Minn. -- It can take just a minute or two to determine if a person is healthy or not by simply taking their temperature or running a blood test. But judging the ecological health of a Minnesota lake is not so easy, often requiring years of data collected by volunteer monitors. More than a 1,000 residents currently volunteer as monitors, and many more are needed to keep tabs on all the lakes in the Minnesota. It takes eight to 10 years of lake clarity monitoring to weed out the affects of unusual weather conditions and determine if any real substantial change is taking place. That information can then be used to plan projects to halt or reverse negative trends. In a land of 10,000 lakes, that means a lot of monitoring needs to happen. Fortunately, 1,148 Minnesota residents volunteer their time each summer checking the clarity of 1,095 lakes as part of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's (MPCA) Citizen Lake Monitoring Program. That group includes the Berg family on Long Lake near Detroit Lakes. Each week every summer for more than 20 years, Berg family members have boated to the same spot, lowered a white piece of metal called a "Secchi disk" into the water, and recorded the depth when it's no longer visible. Because the lake has been monitored for so many years, the Long Lake residents can factor out the effects of overly dry or wet years and get a good idea if the lake is getting clearer, cloudier or remaining unchanged. In the case of Long Lake, the water has been getting cloudier. "When we started monitoring in the mid-1980s, we could see down 20 feet in the spring," says Sheri Berg. "Now we might see down 13 feet in the spring if we're lucky. We're hoping steps the lake association is taking will help get clarity in the lake back to where it used to be." Out of concern for the deteriorating condition of their lake, residents began looking for ideas on how to stop and/or reverse the negative clarity trend. Several years ago some residents began discussions with the nearby city of Detroit Lakes to expand the city's sanitary sewer system to include the homes around Long Lake. That idea became a reality last summer when the first homes on Long Lake were connected to the city services. The project will continue through several phases. "There was not complete agreement to join the city sewer system," said Lee Hassler, chairperson for the Long Lake Association. "But residents are unanimous in wanting to save the water quality in their lake." He said more and more people are following the "Restore Your Shore" ideas developed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and leaving areas next to the lake in a more natural state. He said the association also applauds the county's adoption of a new shoreland ordinance designed to help keep lakes from being "loved to death" through unsustainable development and over use. "I think the new shoreland ordinance is going to help a lot of lakes in Becker County stay cleaner," Hassler says. But the only way lake owners will be able to tell, says Jennifer Klang of the MPCA, is if they monitor the condition of their lake during an extended period of time. She said good, consistent monitoring will clearly answer those kinds of questions. Information about the MPCA Citizen Lake Monitoring Program, including how to become involved and annual clarity reports for more than 1,000 lakes, is available on the agency's Web site at www.pca.state.mn.us/water/clmp.html. Information about restoring shoreland to a more natural state to protect lakes from runoff and erosion is available at the DNR Web site www.dnr.state.mn.us/restoreyourshore/index.html.