Lakeshore Nutrient and Contaminant Loading: Buzzard's Roost Dam Sampling Station

A project currently underway will help us 'close the loop' in research that examines the amounts of nutrients in Lake Greenwood and their effects on its water quality.

Previous and current water-quality research in the Saluda-Reedy Watershed has focused on nutrient loading into Lake Greenwood from the Reedy and Saluda basins -- that is the amounts of nutrients that enter the lake from the rivers themselves -- as well as the nutrients that enter as a result of land use along the shores of the lake. However, in order to fully understand the nutrient dynamics within Lake Greenwood scientists need to know how much nutrients are being exported over the dam.

In March 2006, an automatic sampling station was installed on the Buzzard's Roost dam at the base of Lake Greenwood. Powered by solar panels, the station collects daily water samples via a long tube that runs down the face of the dam. Dr. Steven Klaine and John Smink, scientists from Clemson University's Environmental Toxicology Institute, and a team of graduate students will analyze these samples, taking into account the rate of water flow at the time of sampling, in order to calculate the quantity of nutrients being exported through the dam. The researchers will then be able to compute the quantity of nutrients being retained within the lake either in biomass (algae) or through sedimentation.

In the near term, these data will be incorporated into the nutrient-dynamics model currently under development with the goal of making the model more accurate. Ultimately, the sum of all these efforts will help decision-makers and regulators prioritize where we place our nutrient reduction practices and may suggest better reservoir management strategies.