A struggling lake #4
The LBT lake committee met with Bent Tree Country Club to continue discussions on the management of the 6th hole lake. BTCC will be setting aside an additional $100,000 to manually dredge water traps in 2021 and 2022.This is in addition to the $15,000 already set aside for the Lake this year. LBT is contributing $10,000 toward this effort.
Waiting until the lake is covered in algae before treating has not worked well in the past. The focus in 2021 is to take preventative action.
All articles on this topic are located here.
Update on actions:
Dredging. Dredging has begun starting with the irrigation lakes so that the club will have enough water to irrigate the course. Hole #6 is not an irrigation lake. It is on the schedule for 2021.The dredging is going to be done manually with divers and hand held pumps. The course will not be shut down or torn up.
Mechanical aeration or surface turbulence: Should be online in the next few weeks. The LBT committee is working with American Underwater and is funding this for hole #6.
Beneficial bacteria: Beneficial bacteria will soon be added to the lack to work with the the aeration to decompose organic matter and deepen the lake.
Systemic aquatic herbicide (SAH). One application for busy pond weed was administered in June. Bushy pond weed supports the growth of algae. SAH will kill all the living bushy pond weed. This needs to be done when the weed comes out of its dormancy. While the herbicide kills all of the living weed, and reduces seed production, it does not kill the seeds that are produced. For this reason, there will be 3 treatments this year. Each will kill pond weed and reduce seed production and increasingly reduce weed growth in the lake.
Dying the water: Black dye has been added and re-added because of the rainfall dilution. Black dye will to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the lake floor thus reducing the photosynthesis where the algae and bushy pond weed initiate. This will be an ongoing effort as the dye will be diluted after every major rainstorm and as some dye will runs over the dam.
Using a phosphate inhibitor: Phoslock has been added to the lake. Phoslock is a chemical that binds to phosphorus, the key ingredient in fertilizer that washes from the golf course into the lake and fertilizes aquatic plant growth. Reducing the phosphorus will reduce aquatic growth. A target phosphorus level will be maintained through the growing season. This also will be an ongoing process as the phosphorus increases every time there are significant rains.
Tilapia: 100 pounds of yellow Tilapia, an algae eater, were stocked on May 3rd.
Algae herbicide: The above tactics will reduce but not fully eliminate algae. Algae herbicide can used late in the season to manage the algae that is does manage to grow. BTCC has added staff and tools to spray treat the algae. In 2021, BTCC will be more nimble in its reaction to algae as it will not be dependent on large third party engagements for the whole course.
Mechanical aeration or surface turbulence: Should be online in the next few weeks. The LBT committee is working with American Underwater and is funding this for hole #6.
Beneficial bacteria: Beneficial bacteria will soon be added to the lack to work with the the aeration to decompose organic matter and deepen the lake.
Systemic aquatic herbicide (SAH). One application for busy pond weed was administered in June. Bushy pond weed supports the growth of algae. SAH will kill all the living bushy pond weed. This needs to be done when the weed comes out of its dormancy. While the herbicide kills all of the living weed, and reduces seed production, it does not kill the seeds that are produced. For this reason, there will be 3 treatments this year. Each will kill pond weed and reduce seed production and increasingly reduce weed growth in the lake.
Dying the water: Black dye has been added and re-added because of the rainfall dilution. Black dye will to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the lake floor thus reducing the photosynthesis where the algae and bushy pond weed initiate. This will be an ongoing effort as the dye will be diluted after every major rainstorm and as some dye will runs over the dam.
Using a phosphate inhibitor: Phoslock has been added to the lake. Phoslock is a chemical that binds to phosphorus, the key ingredient in fertilizer that washes from the golf course into the lake and fertilizes aquatic plant growth. Reducing the phosphorus will reduce aquatic growth. A target phosphorus level will be maintained through the growing season. This also will be an ongoing process as the phosphorus increases every time there are significant rains.
Tilapia: 100 pounds of yellow Tilapia, an algae eater, were stocked on May 3rd.
Algae herbicide: The above tactics will reduce but not fully eliminate algae. Algae herbicide can used late in the season to manage the algae that is does manage to grow. BTCC has added staff and tools to spray treat the algae. In 2021, BTCC will be more nimble in its reaction to algae as it will not be dependent on large third party engagements for the whole course.
Will this make a difference? It's hard to say at this point. Last year at this time the #6 hole water trap was full of algae shore to shore on the north end and heavy throughout. Excessive rain has repeatedly washed any surface growth si far this year. More will be known as the temperatures rise and the rain tappers off.
Does the lake have a device to control the current of the water? It’s pushing all the ugly stuff to the north. Is that something we have control over it? Thank you.
ReplyDeleteHi Mercy,
ReplyDeleteI apologize for not getting back to you sooner but I have been out of town at a family reunion for the past 5 days without access to the internet.
We have met several times with the Grounds and Greens Superintendent at Bent Tree Country Club to discuss and decide what to do to mitigate the problem with algae on # 6 behind our homes. The manager of the lake management company that the club uses was present at one of the meetings and told us what they were going to do. They have already applied a biologic called Sonar to the lake and have also been putting black dye into the water to prevent too much sunlight to penetrate. We believe that the excessive rains have impacted some of this treatment and we are setting up another meeting to discuss what to do. The G&G Superintendent told us that the club approved funding to start dredging some of the lakes and were starting with # 4 this year since it is one of the lakes used to irrigate the golf course. They will dredge # 6 in 2022. The cost of this is approximately $100,000 per lake.
We also discussed ordering what is called "bubblers or aerators" to add needed oxygen to the water that helps the biologic work more effectively as well as helping the wildlife in the ponds. The LOBT Board has set aside approximately $10,000 to help pay for this process.
We are doing everything that is in our control to address this but it is a very complex problem that we are dealing with.
You know the old saying, "Don't mess with Mother Nature". This is a good example.