The City has participated in this partnership with the Metropolitan Council since 2002 to complete lake water quality monitoring of Lake O’Dowd. The Metropolitan Council and City staff will provide instruction and oversight to the volunteers.

The Citizen Assisted Monitoring Program involves the use of citizen volunteers to collect in-lake samples from approximately 185 plus lakes in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. The volunteers will collect surface water samples to be analyzed for total phosphorous (TP), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), and chlorophyll-a (CLA). In addition, the volunteers will measure surface water temperature, water transparency, and fill out a lake sampling form to help describe the lake and weather conditions at the time of sampling. Lakes are scheduled to be visited bi-weekly for a period determined by the Metropolitan Council and weather conditions.

This will be the second year that our volunteer Maxine Hughes has helped collect samples at Lake O'Dowd and will collect fourteen samples between April and October.

The cost associated with participating in the program in 2021 is $760. The Metropolitan Council charges the City for the analysis of the samples collected by the volunteers. The City does receive a final report from the Metropolitan Council for all lakes monitored as part of the program that is available for review.