Lake Monitoring

The Lakes Council has partnered with UW-Oshkosh and UW-Extension to help recruit volunteer lake monitors and publicize their results.

Citizens have been volunteering to help monitor water quality in these lakes for decades, but their numbers were usually low – only a few people to cover the largest area of open water in the state. The low numbers were a mystery, given that the Winnebago Pool Lakes are surrounded by about half a million people and are used by thousands of boaters on a good day.

Starting in May 2005, the project has trained and equipped over 100 citizens to measure lake water clarity. Two-hour training sessions have been hosted in Winneconne, Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Hilbert, and Menasha. Each volunteer signed up to monitor one or more stations. Some volunteers formed teams with neighbors or relatives. The training covered information on our lakes, how they change over time, and what we can tell about a lake from its water clarity.

One of the most basic assessments of the Winnebago Pool Lakes is how they measure up to the U.S. Clean Water Act. All four lakes are listed as “impaired waters” (dnr.wi.gov/org/water/wm/wqs/303d/303d.html) due to excessive algal blooms, phosphorus, and sediments delivered by streams. Removal from this list requires data proving that water quality has improved. With a large network of citizen lake monitors, we will be able to tell where and when algal blooms were most intense over the summer.

Springtime data will help us locate the largest inputs of sediment to the lakes. Continuing this citizen-based effort will provide the kind and amount of data needed to prove that improvements made in our cities and on our farms have made a real difference to the lakes. We look forward to the day when we can claim that the Winnebago Pool is no longer “impaired” and meets the Clean Water Act goals of providing fishable and swimmable waters for all Americans.

For more information about Lake Monitoring contact us.