The 1995 and 1996
Great American Secchi Dip-In
A Report To The Volunteers
The Dip-In Goes National!
The Great American Secchi Dip-In began on the July 4th weekend, 1994, when more than 800 volunteers in six Midwest states participated in a demonstration of the data-gathering power of volunteer lake monitors. The Great American Secchi Dip-In was designed to increase our knowledge of the condition of our nation's waters, to increase awareness of the importance of clean lakes and the role of volunteer monitoring, and to instill a sense of national purpose in volunteer monitors.
In 1995 and 1996, continued funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through a grant to the North American Lake Management Society allowed the Great American Secchi Dip-In to expand to all types of water bodies in the United States that monitor transparency. The Dip-In is directed by Kent State University biologists, Dr. Robert Carlson and David Waller, and geographer, Dr. Jay Lee.
Volunteers went to extraordinary lengths to participate in the Great American Secchi Dip-In
The Dip-In is a coordinated effort in which volunteers produce a "snapshot" of transparency in lakes, reservoirs, estuaries, and rivers throughout the United States. During a brief period in both 1995 and 1996 volunteers from monitoring programs in thirty-eight states measured transparency using an instrument called a "Secchi disk," a flat, horizontal, white or black and white disk that is lowered from a rope into the water until it disappears from view.
The disk itself is named after the Jesuit priest, Pietro Angelo Secchi, who experimented with the disk in 1865. The depth of disappearance is a measure of the transparency of the water. Transparency is affected by the color of the water and by suspended particles of silt, clay, or algae and, therefore, is a measure of some forms of pollution.
Who are Dip-In Volunteers?
More than 4,000 Secchi Dippers from 100 monitoring programs participated in the 1995 and 1996 Dip-Ins. Minnesota, with the largest and oldest volunteer monitoring program in the United States, also had the largest volunteer representation in the Dip-In with more than 500 volunteers participating each year.
Most of the water bodies monitored were lakes, followed in number by reservoirs. Twenty-eight percent of the volunteers have participated in more than one year of the Dip-In. The volunteers themselves are relatively new at monitoring, about fifty percent of the respondents had monitored for three years or less. Of course, there are a few real experts among these monitors; eighteen have monitored for over twenty years and one person for thirty years!
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Natural lakes were the type of water body most monitored. |
Transparency in the United States
It is not the purpose of the Dip-In to emphasize or to promote the search for extreme transparencies, however, the range of values that volunteers found was remarkable. Most Secchi depths were between four and twelve feet, with an average of ten feet, but there was a wide geographical range of transparencies reported. Alaskans can claim the largest transparency (54 ft.) in Takahula Lake, but the honor of the smallest goes to Buckley Lake in Nebraska, where the disk disappeared at one-half inch! Imagine how much particulate matter must be in that water.
The maximum reading found in the Dip-In of 54 feet is still nowhere near the record Secchi found in the United States. That distinction goes to Crater Lake, Oregon. In that ultra-clear lake with only its rocky slopes as its watershed, the transparency was found to be 128 feet. Few lakes have transparencies like that because most lakes have larger watersheds, and people live in those watersheds. The primary factor governing a lake's transparency is the land use and geology of the lake's watershed. The reality is that water bodies with agricultural watersheds or in watersheds having easily erodible soils will have lower transparencies. Lakes in urban areas receiving runoff from extensive concrete surfaces or having septic tank or sewage inputs will also experience decreased transparency, but in these cases the particulate matter may be algae, not eroded soil.
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There were some exceptionally clear and turbid lakes in the Dip-In. |
Problems in Our Water bodies
The volunteers were asked what they considered to be the major problems of their water bodies. The list that they provided is long and varied. Biological problems related to algae and weeds were common, but swimmer's itch, beavers, geese, and even moose and bears caused problems for some volunteers.
Limnologists tend to think of water quality in terms of the amount of algae, weeds, and silt and clay turbidity. When the volunteers are given a chance to say what they think is important, people-related activities such as boat congestion, water skiers, high powered boats, and jetskis rival traditional water quality problems for the top position.
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Algae, personal watercraft, and weeds dominated problems |
The Dip-In volunteers may be alerting us to shifts in perception of water-related problems. Increased use of motorized watercraft with the attendant increase in noise, waves, and congestion may be intruding more into the lives of other users. It may also be that volunteers do not see the problems of water bodies in the same light as others on the same water body.
Are Our Nation's Waters Changing?
In 1996 we asked the volunteers if, over the past five years, the transparency and water quality had changed. Most volunteers felt that the transparency had not changed. Of those that thought that transparency had changed, slightly more thought that it had become more turbid. Surprisingly, a small percentage thought that the water quality had remained constant. Again, slightly more felt that the water quality had worsened than improved.
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| Most volunteers thought that the transparency had not changed. | Few volunteers thought the water quality had remained the same. |
What might have changed the water quality but didn't affect the transparency? In 1997 we will ask the volunteers this question. At present, we can only speculate that volunteers are weighing factors other than transparency when they determine water quality.
The Dip-In as an "Event"
A major purpose of the Dip-In is to aid local monitoring programs in focusing publicity on their volunteer efforts. Several individuals used the event plus their own ingenuity to increase public awareness.
In Kansas, Jerry Pitt has been working with an urban youth program. When he found out about the Dip-In, he got a local paint manufacturer to donate paint can lids. He had the kids paint black and white quadrants on the lids and then take their disks out to a lake for their first experience in volunteer monitoring.
| In Kansas City, kids made their disks out of paint can lids. |
The Coastal Wetlands Institute for Educators at the Costal Studies and Technology Center in Oregon's Necanicum Estuary immerses teachers each summer in wetlands ecology and the tools for monitoring wetlands. According to Neal Maine, director of the Institute, they used the 1996 Dip-In as a part of the opening activities for the Institute.
Nebraska did not have an active volunteer lake monitoring program. Dr. John Shalles of Creighton University used the Dip-In to encourage Nebraskans to monitor their lakes. He put articles in the Nebraska newspapers and appeared on local television, explaining about the Secchi disk and what it measured. Efforts such as his may someday result in a permanent monitoring program. Until then people in the state are being made more aware of their lakes and are given a chance to participate in a scientific study.
We hope more volunteers will plan an "event" in 1997, perhaps in conjunction with an established event such as a Fourth of July "Lake Day." There are some basic steps you can take to encourage media coverage of your Dip-In: see your program coordinator or the Dip-In website for more information. You don't have to attract a television crew to make an impact. Take a neighbor along who has never seen you sample, and tell them about what you are doing and why it is important to you. Use the Dip-In to recruit a new volunteer or inspire a youngster.
For More Information...
If you want to know more about lakes or volunteer monitoring, here are some sources of information.
The North American Lake Management Society (NALMS) is dedicated to the protection and restoration of lakes. They have available a number of publications, including manuals on how to monitor and restore lakes. For more information, contact them at 608-233-2836 or view their homepage on the World Wide Web at http://www.nalms.org/.
Many states have a local chapter of NALMS. The Chapters have newsletters and annual meetings where you can ask questions of the experts. See the NALMS web page for the address of your state's chapter.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water encourages all citizens to learn about their water resources. It supports volunteer monitoring as a way to build awareness of water issues, train citizens in pollution prevention, provide data for otherwise unassessed waters, and increase the amount of water quality information available to decision makers at all levels of government.
The EPA supports volunteer monitoring through national and regional conferences, a national newsletter for volunteer monitors, a directory of volunteer monitoring programs, guidance on volunteer monitoring methods and quality assurance issues, technical assistance, and special events such as the Great American Secchi Dip-In. Come visit the volunteer monitoring homepage at: http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/monitoring
The EPA also provides support to address lake water quality issues including continuing to manage existing section 314 Clean Lakes Program projects, encouraging the use of the section 319 Nonpoint Source Program for lake projects, and supporting a variety of lake projects, such as the Dip-In. For more information on EPA's lakes activities, visit EPA's Clean Lakes homepage at: http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/lakes/lakes.html.
One of the newest and most exciting sites on the Web is the Surf Your Watershed site, sponsored by the U.S. EPA (http://www.epa.gov/surf/). Use it to obtain and share important information about water quality and partnerships in your own watershed.
The Great American Secchi Dip-In staff would also like your feedback. If you have questions or comments, please write, FAX (330-672-3713), or telephone (330-672-3849). We would enjoy hearing from you. If you have access to the World Wide Web, please visit our site at: http://dipin.kent.edu/. The site has a complete summary report of the 1995 Dip-In, a page on the history of the Secchi disk, addresses of participating programs, and information on how to get media coverage of your Dip-In. We will be putting the 1997 questionnaire on the site so that you can enter your data directly to the database.
We would like to know about your participation in the Dip-In. If you used the Dip-In as a part of an event, please let us know about it.
For more information on the Great American Secchi Dip-In, contact Bob Carlson at: DipIn@kent.edu or write
Great American Secchi Dip-InUpdated: June 19, 2006