Water Quality Monitoring - Recent Reports

MPCA's Lake Assessment Program Report  [2000]

The Minnesota PCA describes its Lake Assessment Program (LAP) as a

(C)ooperative study of a lake involving MPCA staff and local citizens. ... LAP studies serve to characterize a lake's condition and provide some basic information regarding the interaction of the lake and its watershed.

A comprehensive LAP study report on Lake Vermilion was published in 2000. It discusses watershed characteristics, reviews past studies and historical data, presents water quality trends, and makes recommendations for lake management. To read the full report, including its summary and recommendations, please click here.

 

An Elemental  Analysis of Lake Sediment Core Samples  [2005]

During 2004, U.S. Steel was developing a proposal to discharge up to 7.2 million gallons per day from their Minntac tailings basin northward into the Dark River, a State designated trout stream, and the Sandy River, a tributary to Lake Vermilion. The major concern with the discharge into Lake Vermilion is that the high sulfate content in the tailings basin water could trigger increased mercury methylation leading to mercury accumulation in fish.

To capture baseline data on Lake Vermilion's sediments and to understand the sensitivity of the lake to further inflows, the Sportsmen's Club contacted Dr. Euan D. Reavie, Director of the Center for Water and the Environment, Natural Resources Research Institute, Univ of Minnesota Duluth. During the fall of 2004, Dr. Reavie took sediment core samples along the potential inflow path at three locations: the Pike River Flowage basin, the outlet of Pike Bay, and in Big Bay. He presented his analysis of these samples and his conclusions to the Sportsmen's Club board in January 2005.

Dr. Reavie's written report Lake Vermilion Elemental Paleoecology, dated 4/22/05, is available here. Detailed chemical analyses of sediments from the top and bottom of each core were performed. Bottom sediments reflect conditions prior to European settlement of the region, and top sediments reflect the current, non-pristine condition.

Comparison of bottom and top sediment revealed that local factors, such as watershed development, road salt application and other human activities, have been the dominant factors in changing Lake Vermilion's ecology over the last 150 years. There was no detectable evidence that any seepage from Minntac's tailings pond has had an effect on Lake Vermilion at the time of the study.

In early 2006, U.S. Steel revised their tailing pond discharge proposal. Under the revised plan, this water would now be pumped into the West Two Rivers Reservoir and subsequently released to flow south toward Lake Superior via the St. Louis River. This is good news for those concerned about Lake Vermilion water quality. However, U.S. Steel's current proposal has not been fully approved and significant revisions are possible.

Read more on potential for tailings pond water discharge into Lake Vermilion's watershed here in the May 2006 issue of The Vermilion Sportsman.