Anyone have organic silt or runoff issues in their lakes?

[Fatroll]

I am on a governing board of our lake and recently sat through a presentation from John from http://lake-savers.com/

He has taken the process of typical pond aeration and modified it to eat up the organic matter on the bottom of lakes. Keep in mind, this does not help with the inorganic sediment. I found his "brew" of bacteria on the shoreline that was then distributed throughout the lake very interesting (peeked the interest of the bio nerd in me). It seems like this process is an excellent base support for fish populations as well (I fish a ton when not skiing). Our lake community has a 300 acre lake, but we are working toward testing to see if this process is a possibility for us. Just thought I would throw this out there in case anyone else is looking for solutions and dredging is not a cost effective option.

[Skoot1123]

@Fatroll Let me know how this goes - I'd be interested in learning more about this program.

[Fatroll]

As a lake community we are probably a year or two away, with testing and funding. Based on rough estimates, seems to be about a 1/4 of the price than a large scale dredge project or even less. Of course, I look for the added benefit of less turbid water as my ski reacts better in clear water.

[eleeski]

Careful of clear water. It allows the sun to penetrate to the bottom which fuels pondweed growth. I'd way rather have cloudy water from a plankton bloom than pondweed. Blue dye works OK but is costly - especially for 300 acres. 300 acres of pondweed is a disaster.

 

Just something to consider.

 

Eric

[Fatroll]

Based on this guys process, it seems that the goal is to "Eat" up the nutrients especially phosphorus which tend to nourish the invasive plant species. The lakes he has done has actually seen less "topping out" plant growth. Our is pretty shallow and our soil is clay so it will never be clear water with all the boat action (especially the ballast machines). But I will be interested to see if the overall health of the lake, including water quality, fish populations, etc improve.

[bishop8950]

There are airation success stories. I think it takes a lot of airation and time. In a larger lake in MI (Sherman) the airators made no measurable impact on the muck after a few years of effort. Instead They ended up blasting with herbicides and snapped the lake back into shape, but they still have muck. Obviously dredging gets the muck but does cost more. I guess I am saying if airating, don’t skimp on the number of airators.

[MuskokaKy]

Agree with @eleeski if the light can penetrate bottom something is going to grow.....interested in seeing what the results will be though.

[Fatroll]

he estimated 70 aerators for our 300 acre lake. no small project

[BraceMaker]

I assume these aerators are a rotary vane pump with some form of porous bubbler?

[bishop8950]

What was interesting st Sherman lake is the water was significantly colder and stinky in the bubbles around the airators. 70/300 acres sounds good. Fun to ski through them as well.

 

Agree on the comments around clear water. But it’s not an easy thing to tune unless you have alum treatments within your budget. But I will deal with issues related to water that’s too clear vs the issues I see at most opaque lakes.

[Fatroll]

He has his own patented aerator. Very low profile maybe 2-4 inches thick. The surface water appears to only be stirred with minimal "bubbling". We would welcome some plant growth. We have 3 small patches of lily pads (est 300-400 total square feet of growth).

[BraceMaker]

May seem silly - but what sort of riparian buffers do the lots around the lakes have? Do you regulate the frontage?

[Fatroll]

For our lake, that is one of the concerns as new construction around one of the major inflows is a couple years away. This is a concern as we will experience more storm runoff with less vegetation holding water back. This means more organic and inorganic sediment in a already shallow and turbid lake. Much of the lake shore itself is not developed and it would preferred if we could keep it that way. The only part on the lake that can be developed in the future is right by our slalom course. The rest is park. Part of our future plan is to build sediment traps in the major inflows which can be dug out every year. We are considering various options for the sediment that is already there which is includes this aeration option, dredge, etc. Still working on surverys and prelim planning as none of this is cheap and we have two different homeowners associations to work with.

[BraceMaker]

Maybe some form of planned architectural element like a shoreline planting of erosion prevention plants/grasses that would be uniform across the entire shoreline?