Lake Monitoring Program

MVCA monitors forty-four lakes on a five year cycle to identify and document long-term trends in water quality. The key parameters (total phosphorus, dissolved oxygen, temperature and water clarity) will provide a simple, cost-effective means to quantify the extent of aging of the lakes.

Once a lake is sampled MVCA is able to classify it as oligotrophic, mesotrophic, or eutrophic, depending on age and whether they have little, some, or a lot of life, respectively. Oligotrophic lakes are the youngest, mesotrophic lakes are middle-aged lakes that are less deep and more fertile than oligotrophic lakes, and eutrophic lakes (the oldest lakes) are most fertile and even shallower than mesotrophic lakes.

The collected data will be put into a central database to identify long-term trends in water quality. Water quality results will be published in a concise, easy to understand State of the Lake Report and will be made available to shoreline residents and interested parties.

TBD