Page 15 - VLA Newsletter Fall 2022

AWater Quality of Lake Vermilion
s a follow-up to the summer Newslet- ter, we’re happy to share the results of the VLA’s extensive water chemistry
analysis completed in June and presented at the August 6 Annual Meeting. At the risk of oversimplification, it’s fairly safe to say that Lake Vermilion is a picture of good lake health from an elemental and chemistry standpoint (keep in mind that this study did not include
biological sampling of aquat- ics or bacteria).
Of the seven EPA priority pollutants that we tested for, all seven were well below the EPA concern limits (arsenic, cadmium, copper, mercury, nickel, lead, and zinc). Of the other nineteen elements and compounds evaluated, we saw
slightly elevated amounts of aluminum (Bre- itung culvert, Black Bay) and iron (Breitung culvert, Pike River below the dam, West Two River under the Hwy. 169 bridge). We will be monitoring these locations going forward.
Before we raise the champagne glasses to the
health of Vermilion, we should note that there
are two “hot spots” which have been known
for years—one for calcium as it pertains to
possible zebra mussel growth, and the other
for sulphates as it pertains to wild rice growth. East Two River has been known for years to be a major calcium contributor to Pike Bay. The good news is that the calcium appears to get diluted to almost acceptable limits before it reaches the mouth of Pike Bay at the east end. Our sulphate issue is at the other end of Pike Bay as the Pike River flows over the
dam and into the lake. For everyday recreation and aquatic health, the sulphate levels are fine lake-wide; however, for wild rice growth, Vermilion is listed
by the EPA as impaired (impairment being sulphate levels greater than ten parts per million, ppm). We saw levels of 94 ppm at the Breitung culvert, 19 ppm just below the Pike River Dam, and 13 ppm in Big, Cable, and Stuntz bays on the east side. As we know
Craig Beveroth VLA Board
Member and Water Quality
Team Leader
wild rice is Minnesota’s state grain and it is culturally important to native tribes in the state. We will con- tinue to monitor these locations.
If you have family or friends in the Rainy Lake water- shed, you may have them thank you for the quality of water Vermilion is sending their way. Our analysis near the Vermilion dam in Wolf Bay (where Vermil- ion begins its journey to Hudson Bay) showed no elevated levels of anything that we tested for exiting the lake.
Our complete analysis is available on the VLA website under the Water Quality section, at https://www.vermilionlakeassociation.org/. It’s a rather large spreadsheet, so having a large display screen will be helpful.
www.VermilionLakeAssociation.org 15