Good water at the Hurlingham Club
What makes a ‘good’ lake or pond go ‘bad’? Peter Roberts of Ringwood, Hampshire based water specialists Hydroscape Ltd., provides the answers and solutions
Good water gone bad...
WHAT causes a formerly pristine, ‘good’, healthy lake or pond, to go ‘bad’? Years ago, when the lake was ‘good’,
there weren’t so many shallow areas, and the water was clear enough to see well down into the water column. However, as the lake has aged, the build up of silt and decaying plant matter has occurred and the bottom of the lake has becomes a mucky, smelly mess. This process, known as eutophication (ageing), can takes years, spurred by natural production of plants utilising energy from sunlight mixing with air and water through a process called ‘photosynthesis’. However, even though it’s a natural process, the uncontrolled accumulation of organic matter on a lake bed is the primary cause for a lake
to go bad, and bad water leads to trouble, such as fish kills. Ironically, as organic matter builds up, the problem is compounded. More organic matter feeds more plants which creates more organic matter. It’s a vicious, normal and natural cycle. Another irony revolves around mankind’s modern life style. More cars, more people and more food production, leads to the faster eutrophication of a pond or lake. Sewage treatment plant outflows and runoff from agricultural land discharge into streams and rivers. Rainfall collected from roads, pavements and rooftops is discharged into storm water drain systems, picking up whatever it can on the way, all this being flushed downstream, which often ends up in
our lakes and ponds. Even where lakes and ponds have no obvious surface inflow, fertilisers, grass clippings, tree leaves and septic tank outflows will percolate through the soil, depositing nutrients into your lake or pond.
Nature has many rules, one of these being that, when any kind of nutrient enters a water course, it won’t just sit there. It will grow something, somehow, some time. An increase in nutrient levels in a body of water increase biological productivity, especially algae and aquatic weed growth.
As this buildup occurs, natural
processes work to break down dead organic matter, sucking oxygen from the water in the process, placing
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