Phosphorus Stressor in Lake Champlain Basin

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Phosphorus Stressor in Lake Champlain Basin

• Alison Nord, Anna Speed, Ashley Murphy

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Classifying types of Phosphorus

• The 1993 Water Quality Agreement established
  in-lake total phosphorus concentration goals
  ranging from 0.010-0.025 mg/l for 13 segments of
  Lake Champlain

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Phosphorus concentrations criteria for various
Lake segments
Missisquoi Bay (0.025)
Isle LaMotte (0.014)
St. Albans Bay (0.017)
Cumberland Bay (0.014)
Northeast Arm (0.014)

• LCBP recommended a 0.010 mg/L phosphorus
  criterion in the Main Lake and Malletts
  Bay segments
• For the rest of the lake (except for St. Albans
  Bay, Missisquoi Bay, and the South Lake), an
  alternative phosphorus criterion of 0.014 mg/L
  was suggested
• Missisquoi Bay and the South Lake segments
  phosphorus criterion of 0.025 mg/l (naturally
  eutrophic)

Malletts Bay (0.010)
Burlington Bay (0.014)
Main Lake (0.010)
Shelburne Bay (0.014)
Otter Creek (0.014)
Port Henry (0.014)
South Lake A (0.025)
South Lake B (0.054)
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SourcesW/ Rankings

• Non-Point Sources
• Agricultural land (4)
• Urban (4)
• Point sources
• Waste Water treatment plants (1)
• Fisheries (.5)
• Industry (?)

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Non-Point Sources

• Non point sources runoff from roads and
  developed areas, lawns, farmlands, and other
  rural areas 
• Runoff from non-point sources contribute to more
  than 90 of the phosphorus in Lake Champlain

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Agriculture

• Rank 4 in effects filter
• Agriculture 14 of the Basins land area
• contributes about 38 of the total nonpoint
  source phosphorus load to the Lake
• Major sources of agricultural phosphorus

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Urban

• Rank 4 in the effects filter
• Urban and suburban land contribute up to 4x the
  phosphorus per unit area than either agricultural
  or forested land
• Urban land constitutes 5 of the land use, yet it
  is estimated to contribute about 46 of the total
  phosphorus! 
• 46 of nonpoint source phosphorus load is from
  urban land uses 

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Point Sources of Phosphorus

• Point Sources are wastewater treatment plants and
  industrial discharges
• Due to reduction efforts, less than 10 of the
  phosphorus in the Lake comes from point sources 

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Wastewater Treatment Plants

• Rank 1 
• In general, maintained WWTP 
• Since 1996, over 28 million has been spent in
  the Lake Champlain Basin to upgrade phosphorus
  removal technologies at wastewater treatment
  plants.
•                   

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Fisheries

• Rank 0.5
• has some effect, but not extremely important
• Little literature found regarding fisheries and
  input of phosphorus into lake

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Industry

• Not sure what is included in industry - WWTP and
  Fisheries already counted for
• Other industries could be paper mills...

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Discussion on Sources

• Matrix/Effects filter
• How do we show that, while Ag and Urban are
  critical (4), urban has more of an impact per
  area?
• LCBP considers roads under urban sources all
  data sets include roads under urban so it will be
  difficult to differentiate
• Need to weigh non-point more than point
• Would like to have data of watersheds broken down
  by land use
• How do we incorporate land use differences?
• Much less urban land, but huge impact

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Habitats

• Lake Champlain
• lt6 - algal blooms occur
• gt6 - diluted enough that dont see big impacts? 
• Lakes/Ponds other than Lake Champlain
• Rivers/Streams
• Wetlands

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Lake Champlain

• High impact by phosphorus
• Phosphorus encourages blue-green algae growth
• Some types of blue-green algae contain natural
  toxins that are released when these algae die and
  break down
• Toxins are then released into the water creating
  a health concern
• Bacteria consume dissolved oxygen and kill off
  zooplankton, altering the food chain and
  eventually killing off fish species
• Recreation ceased during blue-green algae blooms

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Rivers/Streams

• High impact by phosphorus
• Non-point sources account for 76 of the total
  phosphorus load to watershed streams
• Surface erosion contributes to increased
  phosphorus loading into streams
• Change in stream channels increased stream bank
  erosion
• Phosphorus in surface run off from agricultural
  fields 41 of total load to streams in St.
  Albans

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Lakes/Ponds

• Medium impact by phosphorus
• Examples Mirror Lake, Lake George, Saranac Lake
• In general, water consists of 7 of land cover
  within the basin
• Lakes contribute greatly to tourism, recreation,
  and as a water source for residents

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Wetlands

• Rank 0.5 
• Consume P, act as sink - but very dependent upon
  vegetation type, water flow
• Can release phosphorus during storm events if too
  much phosphorus enters wetland

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Discussion on Habitats

• Several of the habitats are also sources of
  phosphorus
• For our purposes, only considered habitats where
  phosphorus did not originate
• Need more work on Impacts filter

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Questions? Comments?

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