Cynos Activity June 14

Water is clean for recreation.

Disclaimer: The information presented below reflects conditions throughout the lake and may differ from conditions on specific shorelines. For information regarding beach closings please contact the Torrington Area Health District or local town officials.

Water clarity continued to increase at all sites with 7 of 14 sites having clarity readings of 4 meters or better, remaining sites had clarity readings between 3.5 and 4 meters.  Center Lake station had clarity of 4.8 meters, the best clarity reading recorded at Bantam since monitoring started in 1972 (see chart at end that shows the last 10 years of clarity readings).  Cyanobacteria were at very low levels, similar to last week.  However, there were considerable numbers of larger flakes in the water that were cyanobacteria clusters.  These cells were not included in the samples we collected (and hence the cyanobacteria cell numbers reported above) because even though the flakes were large (couple of mm across) there was enough scatter to be missed by our algae sampler.  These clusters appeared to be buoyant suggesting that clusters could continue to float up to the surface with scum formation possible.  The water temperature at the surface warmed significantly since last time to 24 - 25oC, more in line with where it normally would be at this time of year.  Dissolved oxygen was supersaturated in the top 10 feet of the lake with highest saturation value of 117%.  Oxygen saturation over 100% is due to photosynthesis of algae in the water column.  Dissolved oxygen was depressed in deeper water but no station had anoxic water.