AN INVESTIGATION OF LAKES AND PONDS IN ST. LAWRENCE AND FRANKLIN COUNTIES IN NORTHERN NEW YORK STATE: INFLUENCE OF SHORELINE DEVELOPMENT AND GEOLOGY ON WATER QUALITY

Northern New York possesses a large number of lakes and ponds which are spread throughout geographically and geologically different areas and have differing susceptibility to shoreline development. This project investigated both the influence of residential shoreline development, as well as, geology of watersheds on the water quality of lakes and ponds in St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, NY. The relationship between shoreline development and water quality degradation in water bodies was investigated in two phases. The first phase involved the construction of a geo-spatial model which ranked the susceptibility of water to water quality degradation. ESRI ArcGIS 9.2 software was used to spatially analyze data within a 200 meter buffer around the water body shorelines. Analyses within this buffer were conducted using the following parameters: degree of residential shore line development, degree of total development, water body area, surficial geologic material, impervious surface area, slope, and aspect. The water bodies were ranked by susceptibility as low medium or high.

The second phase utilized the model results to select 12 representative water bodies for water quality testing. Each selected water body was tested by measuring biological and chemical parameters which included depth, dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, specific conductivity, total dissolved solids, chlorophyll, secchi disk transparency, levels of nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, sulfate, and total chlorine. In addition, water samples from each water body were analyzed by ICP-MS for seventy two elements. These geochemical data were compared with other data gathered from water bodies elsewhere in the Adirondack Region of New York and used to evaluate the influence of geologic materials on lake water geochemistry.

In general, the impact of residential shoreline development on water quality was determined to be minimal in the tested water bodies; however, a number of interesting fluctuations of certain parameters in water column profiles were identified including pH, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll concentrations. The geochemical results also demonstrated relationships between the underling bedrock on the water quality; especially when comparing water bodies in the Adirondack Highlands and St. Lawrence Lowlands.