Water Quality

[straw hat]

In one of the recent strings someone brought up the issue of water quality in Stockton. I managed to find the most recent report for Stockton (April 2007). It is pretty good except for the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus which control algae blooms. I am really concerned about how much these levels have risen in the last few years. This data matches what I have seen the last few summers in the CC area. At this rate the summer algae levels will some become very high and will drastically effect summer fishing and growth. From my experience working in this area I would contibute a lot of it to the water discharge from Springfield (which now has ne regulations concerning phosphorus), livestock waste and fertilizer runoff. Missouri has had a law in effect for a long time which requires farm owners to limit the access of their livestock to streams (unenforced) and to require control and treatment of livestock waste from feed lots. In the 90's I worked on setting up a few of these treatment systems for a couple feed lots (very expensive systems) but I can assure you that not many places have these systems and the state, due to financial issues, does little to no enforcement. As far as I know there are no regulations on the use of farm fertilization.

http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/lakes/WaterQualityReport/06_Stockton_Lake.pdf

[straw hat]

Just a few more tidbits of information. If you have trouble going to sleep at night reading one of these will do the trick. As you can see, the scientist in me gets a little carried away at times! (That's an understatement) The bottomline to all of these is that algae blooms are going to get worse,(that will lead to summer depletion of oxygen), the politicians kow about it and while some minimal work has been done we are losing ground fast.

Water Quality of Little Sac River;

http://mo.water.usgs.gov/Reports/WRIR02-4154/report.pdf

A list of places that are permitted to discharge in the Sac River, these woild all be heavily enforced;

http://mo.water.usgs.gov/Reports/WRIR02-4154/report.pdf

The following site documents the spread of a foreighn Daphnia (microscopic animal which feeds on algae) into Stockton Lake. Nature’s way of controlling the increasing algae in the lake.

http://ks.water.usgs.gov/pubs/abstracts/arch_hydrobiol2006.htm

This document really details the levels of dangerous bacteria in the Little Sac. The discussion of site sources is very interesting. Remember, what he says about the bacteria level applies to the levels of phosphorus and nitrogen as they are also present in waste.

http://www.fapri.missouri.edu/outreach/publications/2005/FAPRI_UMC_Report_06_05.pdf