Water Quality Management of Indian Lake Basin Surrounded Agricultural Lands.

Water quality of Indian Lake has transformed from an oligotrphic to a mesotrphic in 1970’s and 1980’s to a eutrophic in 1990’s and to a hypereutrophic in 2004 through the input of agricultural and storm water runoff. Restoration of Indian Lake was conducted in 2005- 2008 using mechanical aeration and application of bacterial consortium to remove excess nutrients (N and P) from the lake basin to improve water quality. Samples of water were collected monthly from five sites around the lake to monitor for chemical and physical characteristics: dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll-a, ammonium and nitrate nitrogen, total phosphorus and transparency. Water quality has improved significantly after three applications of bacterial consortium in summer of 2006, dissolved oxygen increased while NH4 +-N and NO3 — N, chlorophyll-a, and phosphorus concentrations decreased significantly in 2007 and 2008. It is concluded that mechanical aeration and bacterial consortium augmentation has improved water greatly of Indian Lake.