Water Quality - Lake Monitoring

The Commission has been monitoring lakes within the watershed since 1989. Metropolitan Council’s citizen assisted monitoring program (CAMP) agreed to undertake a volunteer lake sampling study in order to provide an economical method of broadening the water quality database on the lakes in the Twin Cities.

The general purpose of the program is for volunteers to collect in-lake samples from Little Long Lake and Ardmore Lake.  The volunteers will collect surface water samples to be analyzed for total phosphorus (TP), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) and chlorophyll-a (CLA).  In addition, the volunteers will measure surface water temperature, water transparency, and fill out a lake sampling form to help describe the lake and weather conditions at the time of the sampling event.  The lakes will be visited biweekly from April through October 2007.  After each sampling date, the Council will arrange for chemical analysis of the samples either through its own laboratory or an outside laboratory.