The Indian Lake Watershed Project has released its latest round of water-quality testing for Indian Lake.
All the Harmful Algae Bloom (HAB) test results for the microcystin toxin are in for 2019.
Due to the abundance of rain in the spring and a gang of geese at one of the test beaches, the microcystin levels are slightly higher than last year.
More rain equals more runoff, which makes for more available nutrients — resulting in more food for Blue Green Algae and higher microcystin levels.
All the tested samples fell under the safe levels the Environmental Protection Agency sets for drinking water.
The watershed project does not recommend using the lake as a primary source of drinking water, but for most people the microcystin won’t cause illness.
The highest level tested was 1.544 micro gram/Liter. This falls well below the EPA Recreation Advisory of 6.0 micro grams/Liter. Indian Lake is still considered healthy when it comes to the Blue Green Algae. No worry needed.
In 2020 the Indian Lake Watershed Project will continue to monitor for microcystin and if the funds allow, a monitoring program will start to sample the tributaries that feed the lake to see where nutrient are coming from and sample at the spillway to see what nutrients the lake is sending downstream to the Great Miami River.