Lake Champlain Basin Program: Monitoring Programs

The Lake Champlain Basin Program helps fund on-going monitoring programs, such as the Vermont Lay Monitoring Program and the Lake Champlain Longterm Water Quality and Biological Monitoring Program. Other supported programs include blue-green algae monitoring by the University of Vermont. Several former monitoring programs that provided baseline data for the management plan were also supported. Although not active today, these former programs could be started again if needed.

The Long-Term Water Quality and Biological Monitoring Project for Lake Champlain began in 1992 and is conducted by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation with funding provided by the LCBP and the two states. This program also conducts zebra mussel monitoring.

The Lay Monitoring Program of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation has used citizen volunteers to monitor eutrophication-related parameters at approximately 20 Lake stations during the summer season each year since 1979. Through use of consistent methods, the Lay Monitoring Program has provided a valuable long-term database with secchi depth readings and levels of total phosphorus and chlorophyll a.

Initiated in 1989 as a joint project between the States of Vermont and New York, the Lake Champlain Diagnostic-Feasibility Study measured phosphorus loadings to Lake Champlain and modeled the Lake's water quality response to those loadings. Through sampling of tributaries, direct wastewater discharges and precipitation, phosphorus loadings to Lake Champlain were measured over two years. Phosphorus levels in the Lake were also sampled during this period to provide baseline measurements for the development of a whole-lake phosphorus model.

Using the data, a phosphorus budget was developed for Lake Champlain that takes into account and ranks the major sources of phosphorus. A model of the phosphorus in the Lake was also developed to analyze the Lake's response to inputs of phosphorus. This model was used to devise phosphorus load reduction strategies to attain the in-lake phosphorus concentration criteria agreed upon by New York, Quebec, and Vermont.

Source: Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. 1997. Lake Champlain Diagnostic-Feasibility Study Final Report A phosphorus budget, model, and load reduction strategy for Lake Champlain. Waterbury, VT and Albany, NY. 129 pp.

The Lake Champlain Sediment Toxic Assessment Program documented in detail the nature and extent of toxic contaminants in the sediments of Lake Champlain. In June, 1991, 30 sites lakewide were analyzed for trace metals and trace organic contaminants. Based upon this survey, nine sites were more intensively studied in 1991-1992. Widely varying patterns of contaminant distribution were found, and three areas of Lake Champlain, Cumberland Bay, Outer Malletts Bay, and Inner Burlington Harbor, were designated as Sites of Concern. Solid phase and sediment pore water toxicity tests performed using sediments taken from these sites revealed acute and chronic impacts to Ceriodaphnia dubia and Daphnia magna. Additional testing showed that Mysis relicta, a freshwater shrimp which is an important link in the Lake's food web, accumulates sediment-associated PCBs.

Since 1987, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation statewide surface water monitoring has been conducted under the RIBS sampling program. The RIBS sampling program rotates among groups of drainage basins so that over a six-year period, all drainage basins in New York have been monitored. Major tributaries to Lake Champlain in New York were sampled in 1987-1988 and 1993-1994 for chemical and biological parameters, including macroinvertebrate communities and tissues, fisheries, water column composition and characteristics, bottom sediment composition, and toxicity testing. Significant findings from the 1993-1994 series of tests are that overall water quality is good, the macroinvertebrate community is nonimpacted, and the fisheries of Lake Champlain are high quality and productive. Iron and lead were found as contaminants of concern in the water column at several of the monitoring sites. Iron and copper were found at higher levels in the sediments of a few sites, and toxicity testing revealed acute effects at two sites and chronic effects occasionally at six sites. It is anticipated that Lake Champlain tributaries will be sampled again as part of the RIBS network in 1999-2000.