The history of the clean lakes program in tennessee

Abstract

The Clean Lakes staff of the Tennessee Division of Water Management have undertaken three separate projects since the inception of the Federal 314 program. The first project was the creation of a Trophic State Index and Priority Ranking System for the publicly owned lakes of Tennessee. This project was completed in 1979. During this inventory of public lakes, attention was drawn to Acorn Lake, a highly eutrophic, highly used public lake located in Montgomery Bell State Park. In 1980, it was decided that the second Clean Lakes project would be a diagnostic/feasibility study of Acorn Lake. The lake was monitored for 23 months in an attempt to discover the source or sources of the nutrients causing the eutrophic conditions at the lake. The Acorn Lake study revealed that a variety of problems within the watershed had created a nutrient sink in the sediments of the lake. Watershed management and lake drawdown were recommended as restoration techniques. While researching this project, the Clean Lakes staff discovered that a significant number of similar public lakes were being routinely artificially fertilized for a variety of reasons. In response to this problem, the Acorn Lake Report contained not only recommendations for Acorn Lake, but also a new Division of Water Management policy against the application of artificial fertilizers in lakes. The third Clean Lakes project, begun in 1982, is a diagnostic/feasibility study with major emphasis on sedimentation and macrophytes of the Upper Buck Basin of Reelfoot Lake. The multiple problems at Reelfoot Lake of siltation, excess macrophyte encroachment, heavy metal and pesticide pollution, and eutrophication have been highly documented, but no one has yet been able to accurately predict the rate of sedimentation in the lake, although it is known to be filling rapidly. The Clean Lakes staff, assisting Dr. J. Roger McHenry of the Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, will use cesium-137 dating techniques in an attempt to determine this rate. © 1984 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.