Chain O’ Lakes Watershed Plan Final Meeting – Mar 2024

Chain O’ Lakes Watershed Plan – Final Meeting (March 13, 2024) – Summary

The Chain O’ Lakes Watershed Plan is a comprehensive watershed planning document that describes the current environmental conditions, water quality challenges, and a prioritized roadmap for improving the health of the Chain O’Lakes system. The plan was developed with community input, field observations, historical data, watershed characterization, and pollutant loading analyses, and was approved in early 2024.

Key findings identify elevated levels of nutrients (especially phosphorus), sediment, and bacteria as major contributors to water quality impairment, and point out shoreline erosion, septic system failures, and inflow sources as primary contributors to pollutant loads. The plan evaluates external and internal nutrient sources and details how the watershed’s interconnected lakes and land uses contribute to water quality issues.