Long and Farquar Lakes TMDL Implementation Plan Update

The 2009 Long and Farquar Lakes Nutrient Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL determined that significant reductions in nutrients impacting the lakes were needed. The TMDL identified a 76% reduction in total phosphorus loading to Long Lake and a 67% reduction in total phosphorus loading to Farquar Lake were needed in order to meet the State shallow lake phosphorus concentration standard of less than 90 μg/L. Local stakeholders have also shown interest in improving the lakes' quality so the lakes can better serve as community assets. To date, the City has been active in pursuing goals and a number of in-lake and watershed best management practices (BMP) have been implemented in an effort to reach this target. From those previous efforts progress has been made but is still short of meeting the goals. It is estimated that an additional 112 lbs of external phosphorus load reduction and 140 lbs of internal phosphorus load reduction are needed for Long Lake, and an additional 30 lbs of external phosphorus loading and 218 lbs of internal phosphorus load reduction are needed for Farquar Lake to fully meet the TMDL targets. To address the required reductions in external (i.e. watershed) phosphorus loading, a suite of practices have been identified for further consideration by the City. For lake management, upstream watershed sources must be addressed first to cut off the source, before addressing in-lake nutrient releases. Focus was placed on watershed practices that infiltrate or "retain" runoff, since these practices have the potential to have a synergetic impact on any existing practices that are located downstream, thereby increasing the efficiency of the entire system of treatment practices.