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Gauging the Health of New England's Lakes and Ponds
Citation:
Gauging the Health of New England's Lakes and Ponds. New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission, Lowell, MA, 2010.
Impact/Purpose:
This New England Lakes and Ponds project report is designed to serve as a useful resource for evaluating the overall health of the region's lakes and ponds and for taking steps to restore water body integrity, where needed. It is intended for use by a broad group of stakeholders, managers, and policy makers throughout the region. The intent of this project is to enhance existing state lake monitoring programs by 1) providing statistically supportable approaches to water body surveys, 2) providing open opportunities for the sharing of technical expertise across state and federal programs, 3) providing for the transfer of new technologies to be applied to current monitoring programs, and 4) allowing for public participation and collaboration through all project stages. The two main goals of this survey are to determine what percentage of the region's lakes are in good, fair, or poor condition, and what are some of the key factors placing stresses on these systems and impacting their ecological integrity.
Description:
The New England Lakes and Ponds Project provides a consistent and first time comprehensive assessment of the ecological and water quality condition of lakes and ponds across the New England region. The project is being conducted by EPA along with the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission, state environmental agencies, and other partners. The New England Lakes and Ponds Project utilizes a probabilistic sampling approach, based on a random site selection design, that allows for statistically valid statements about a population of lakes across a state, across a region, or across the country. This approach to lake monitoring at a regional spatial scale allows us to assess the condition of the region's lakes as a population, and establish a common baseline from which to compare future surveys and identify trends in water body condition.