The City has participated in this partnership with the Metropolitan Council since 2002 to complete 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 165 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 fourth year that our volunteer Maxine Hughes has helped collect samples at Lake O'Dowd. There will be fourteen samples collected between April and October.

The cost to participate in the 2023 CAMP program is $760. The Metropolitan Council charges the City for the analysis of the samples collected by the volunteers. The City receives a final report from the Metropolitan Council for all the lakes monitored as part of the program.