Lincoln City: Devil’s Lake still improving
From Paul Robertson – Devil’s Lake Water Improvement District
The water quality of Devils Lake has made tremendous improvements in the last few days. The Harmful Algal Bloom which turned the lake shades of gray, blue-gray, green, blue-green, and even white only a week ago has crashed throughout much of the lake. Much of the lake you can see right to the bottom with clarity upwards of 8′.
The bloom that we did have was dominated by a type of Anabaena, which was, as of Friday, all but non-existent in the mid lake sample we had analyzed. The improvements are seemingly continuing as the clarity increased from basically 3 feet on Friday to over 8 feet for the entire south half of the lake as reported Monday. The north half of the lake was still blue-green as of last report, so there is still recovery to be had, but the scums have dissipated which shows recovery is happening. Dissolved oxygen has also rebounded considerably, but lags behind in both arms of the lake to the north.