The 2022 water quality monitoring results are in. A big thank you to Dwight Baldwin for summarizing the results for us, and a huge thank you to all of last year’s and this year’s water quality monitors!
2022 Chocorua Lake Water Quality Monitoring Results: Excellent!
by Dwight Baldwin
As can be seen in the accompanying data sheet entitled, “Chocorua Lake, 2022 Sampling Highlights, Station1 South, Tamworth, NH,” the water quality of Chocorua Lake continues to be excellent. Mean values for water transparency (5.3 m), chlorophyl a (1.6 ppb), and total phosphorus (7.5 ppb) are all indicative of a pristine water body containing minimal nutrients to support unwanted algal growth in the water column.
Most encouraging are the plots shown in Figures 6 and 7 of the data sheet. They show the yearly median values for water transparency (Secchi Disk) and algal concentrations (Chlorophyll a) in the water column before (1982-1999) and after (2000-2022) the implementation of “best management practices” along the eastern lakeshore. [Learn more about this project HERE.] The 2022 yearly median values continue to reflect the reduced total phosphorus input into the lake because of the construction of the best management practices in 1999.
It is interesting to see a plot of water temperature versus depth from June to October, 2022 (Figure 8). Such data has been collected each year but never shown before in the yearly sampling highlights. The lake had clearly become stratified as early as mid-June. But by early October, the stratification had been lost and the water column throughly homogenized because of cooling water temperatures and wave action.
In summary, the quality of Chocorua Lake continues to be excellent thanks to the ongoing effort of many to minimize sediment and nutrient input.