Indiana Clean Lakes monitoring program from 1988-2010

The Indiana Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program was created in 1989 as a component of the Indiana Clean Lakes Program (CLP) administered through the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) implements the program through a grant from IDEM. The Indiana Clean Lakes Program is a comprehensive, statewide public lake management program with five components: public information and education, technical assistance, volunteer lake monitoring, lake water quality assessment, and coordination with other state and federal lake programs. The Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program component of the Clean Lakes Program was created to accomplish four main objectives: 1. Collect water quality data that will contribute to the understanding of how Indiana lakes function; 2. Monitor water quality changes to provide an early warning for problems that may be occurring in lakes; 3. Encourage citizen involvement in the protection and management of their lakes; 4. Provide the means whereby Indiana citizens can learn more about lake ecology and management. All volunteers in the Program take Secchi disk transparency measurements on their lakes. A subset of volunteers also collects water samples for total phosphorus and chlorophyll a analyses through our Expanded Program. Phosphorus is the primary limiting nutrient required for growth by algae and aquatic plants; therefore most lake management programs measure phosphorus concentrations. Chlorophyll a is the primary green pigment in algae and is a direct measure of algal production. Dissolved oxygen and temperature meters are also available to volunteers throughout the state. Given that dissolved oxygen and temperature profiles change throughout the season, volunteers are encouraged to take several profiles, ideally once each month.