The next copper sulfate treatment is scheduled for Tuesday July 21st. As usual, there will be no swimming for 24 hours after the treatment. The County Health Department tested the lake on Thursday, and notified me that the beaches are ok to stay open. This is the first time in three years that we have been open to swimming in mid-July. Although we originally planned treatments every three weeks through the summer, our DEC permit allows treatments every two weeks. It is the unanimous opinion of the MLID board that we should continue on two week intervals throughout the summer. This will give us our best chance of staying open for swimming through Labor Day.Allied Biological, who is doing the copper sulfate applications, is also taking water samples. A comparison of the sample taken before the first treatment and last week's sample shows that we still have lots of algae growing in the lake, but we have switched from having the water dominated by blue green algae to having healthier green algae species more dominant than the blue green. That's a very positive indication that the copper sulfate application is doing what we want it to do, and is being applied in a small enough dose to minimize the impact on other living organisms in the lake.
Here's a video tribute to being able to swim in Mohegan Lake through July with limited algae (hat tip/Janis Joplin)
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