First Glen Lake water quality tests since '92 yield positive results

GOFFSTOWN - Results from the first comprehensive water quality tests conducted at Glen Lake since 1992 have yielded positive results across all nine tests. 

Local resident Rebecca Caron, who lives on Goffstown's Glen Lake and recently joined the state's Volunteer Lake Assessment Program (VLPA), a New Hampshire DES program aimed at promoting local involvement in testing water quality throughout the state's rivers and lakes, conducted her first assessment of Glen Lake's water quality on June 15th.  She received the results of those tests late last week. 

The test results showed Glen Lake's water quality is comfortably within state-set acceptable levels.

"I'm happy that the results are within acceptable levels," she said."  "But what I'd really like to do next is find out how to help make those results come in above average."

Five of the nine tests Caron conducts at the lake each month include costs assessed by various independent testing labs used by DES.  To cover the cost of those tests, Caron is being sponsored by the Goffstown Residents Association.

Caron's June 15th tests were the first comprehensive assessment of the lake's water quality to be conducted at Glen Lake since 1992, and only the second since 1979.  According to the NH DES, Glen Lake had a history of nuisance blue-green algae problems due to a treated sewage discharge from the Town of Goffstown into the lake's inlet channel for several years.  But in September of 1991, this sewage discharge was diverted out of Glen Lake, and the result has been a vastly improved level of water quality since that diversion, improving year after year.

In 2006, the town of Goffstown tested for E. coli at the lake's public beach area and found elevated levels which resulted in a closure of the lake for several weeks.  As a direct result, the town started testing Glen Lake water quality at the lake's public beach area on a monthly basis beginning in May 2007.

But unlike the tests being conducted by the town, Caron's tests are more comprehensive.  In addition to testing for E. coli in numerous locations around the lake, she is also sampling the water at various depths and many areas around the lake for other potential contaminants.  Caron's samplings include tests for pH levels (important to the survival and reproduction of fish and other aquatic life), turbidity (suspended matter in the water), conductivity (levels of road salt, septic  and waste and other runoff), chlorophyll-A (another algae test), water clarity, phytoplankton (microscopic algae) and chloride (toxic to aquatic life), as well as total phosphorus (an indicator of levels of septic and animal waste, lawn fertilizer, road and construction erosion effects and more).

Caron, a native of San Diego, moved to Glen Lake three years ago.  She and her husband, Guy Caron, whose family has owned various properties on the lake since 1948, had often vacationed on Glen Lake during the summers prior to their permanent relocation to Goffstown in 2004.  

Caron said she became concerned about the water quality on Glen Lake after an E. coli breakout last summer closed the lake for a number of weeks. "There needs to be people who are going to look out for the lake," she said.  "There are many old camps on this lake, with some of them having nothing more than 50 gallon drums just buried in the ground being used like septic systems.  Someone has to check the water quality because so many people - especially children - swim here every day."

The Volunteer Lake Assessment Program is a cooperative program between the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) and lake residents and lake associations around the state. 

Volunteer monitors are trained by DES to sample the lake itself, and are also trained to survey the surrounding watershed and sample the streams and rivers that are tributaries to the lake. Sampling frequency is flexible, with most sampling being conducted monthly throughout the summer (June through August).  Participating lakes must be sampled in the presence of a DES biologist at least once during the summer.  This meeting is an important annual event in which the volunteer monitors have an opportunity to express any watershed concerns.  Also, the event allows DES biologists to evaluate the quality assurance of the volunteer sampling techniques.

During the off-season, DES biologists interpret the water quality data and compile the results into an annual report for each lake.  The biologists produce an annual newsletter, provide technical and educational materials, and notify volunteer monitors of regional workshops and important legislation. In addition, DES biologists give presentations at lake association meetings, upon request. 

Once the volunteer monitors receive the data and the annual report for their lake, DES encourages the volunteer monitors to relay the information to their respective associations.  In addition, when the volunteer monitors observe possible violations around the lake, they report their findings to DES.  The volunteer monitors are proactive lake stewards who are concerned for the well-being of their lakes.


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