Water Quality Testing During the first week of September, PLWF volunteers completed our summer 2024 water quality monitoring activities as part of the Michigan Clean Water Corps (MiCorps). MiCorps is a network of volunteer water quality monitoring programs administered by MSU Extension under the direction of EGLE and in partnership with the Huron River Watershed Council and the Michigan Lakes and Streams Association.
This year we collected data on 3 water quality parameters: chlorophyll-a, phosphorus, and water clarity. Over time the changes in these measurements can tell us a lot about the health of our lake. Chlorophyll-a is a measure of the amount of algae growing in a waterbody. One of the symptoms of degraded water quality is the increase of algae biomass as measured by the concentration of chlorophyll-a. Phosphorus is an important nutrient for plant growth but too much phosphorus in a lake can stimulate excess growth of algae. This can lead to low dissolved oxygen levels, harmful algal blooms and blockage of sunlight in the water column.
Measuring water clarity is important because it controls how far light penetrates into the water column. This determines where and how well aquatic plants can grow, with implications for animals that depend on those plants for oxygen – like fish.
Our volunteers report their measurements to MiCorps and the results are published in individual lake reports that are available through the micorps.net website. You can see how our lake is doing over time and how it compares to other Michigan lakes.
We could really use some more volunteers to monitor the health of our lake. Each of these activities only involves a few hours over the course the summer. In 2025 we would like to add another MiCorps monitoring activity called Score the Shore to evaluate the health of our lakeshore habitat. If you think you may be interested in helping us with MiCorps activities this coming summer, please contact us at portagelakewatershed.com by clicking on About Us, then How to Get Involved to let us know of your interest.