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.