HAB Aquatic Solutions, Inc. finished dosing Spring Lake with alum on November 1st. The crew only encountered a few windy days during the course of the treatment, but were able to successfully navigate toward the sheltered side of the lake to continue dosing without delay.
Below you can check out the before and after pictures taken from the wheelhouse on the barge. During the application, as the alum settles toward the lake bottom it sweeps phosphorus out of the water column, and the impact is quite clear!
Before:
First Day on Spring Lake
After:
Final Day on Spring Lake
As you can see, there’s quite a difference!
On the last day of the treatment, Barr Engineering recorded a significant (almost one meter) improvement in water transparency. District staff will continue monitoring in the spring once conditions allow, since our fall monitoring has wrapped up for the season. We have a long way to go to clean up Spring Lake, but it looks like this big first step went well.