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I know the last thing people down south want to hear about is water, but...
My recienly aquired property is bordered by a 7 acre lake between me and one other neighbor. I've been told that there is a high bacteria count in it making it unsafe for the dogs or kids to swim in. Who would I want to take a sample of it to, to confirm this? Also, is there any type of remedy for this problem?
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Your gov. system being a little different than ours, I don't know how accurate or helpful this will be, but here goes.
Water samples can probably be done through your local health dept. / hospital, same as is done for well water testing. Public health don't care if you got sick from swimming in it or drinking it, they want to keep you healthy.
The mere fact that it is unsafe should be a concern, more particularly, what makes it unsafe. Is it getting some raw sewage from somewhere? If it is merely a toxic form of algae or something like that there are fairly easy ways to treat it, but you have to know the exact problem & Cause first.
Best of luck.
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Neighbor said that some cows have gotten stuck in the muck and died in it over the years causing the problem. I didn't know if the well testing people would raise a ruchous if it came back bad and wanted me to do all kinds of wierd water treatment to the well (which is fine).
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Contact your local Agricultural Extension Agent. He or she can help you out with this. If you are not sure who this is; call your local Dept. of Agriculture FSA or NRCS office.
As far as actions to ensure your well and or the pond is free of dangerous bacteria; a jug of pool shock treatment or clorox will address this. Dump it in the well and then immediately draw the water into all of the pipes and water outlets until you smell the chlorine. Then shut of and allow to stand for 8 to 24 hours. The pond will require similar measures but unfortunately this will probably kill most anything else in it like fish or reptiles as well.
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AV8R, Another resource you may want to check out, especially if you have a campus nearby, is the University Of Wisconsin. Give them a call and tell them your concerns. I'm sure they can direct you to the campus or extension that can help you out. I'm quite sure they do that type of testing. Steve
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AV, all the UW extension offices are listed/linked to the page below.
Dave
Link:
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If there is water flow through the lake I would think it would have cleaned up even if the cows died in it. Often people test once and then assume it is forever. At my aunt and uncle's cottage lake there was a spring that was the best water. There were no people on the side of the lake were the spring was. One year in the early summer some one tested it and it came back bad. Likely mice or something had fallen in over the winter. After that they decided not to use the water and trucked drinking water in from town.
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Thanks everyone!
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If you want to keep any info you discover out of the govenment channels, you may be able to contact a local treatment company. Around here, there are water conditioning companies going around knocking on doors at times offering free well tests. We got one and they did test for bacteria. It is just that their results detemine if it is safe to drink, if you get someone with no further knowledge, you will have to interpret the results yourself as far as swimming.
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Be aware that the pan fish can pollute the lake on their own if there is nothing to prey on them. My aunt and uncle's lake near McKeller ON was alway gray green when I was young. The lake was 6 miles long and only a dozen seasonal cottages. The pan fish nipped your toes when swimming. In the 80's the fishery ministry checked the lake and determined it had no preditory fish and was polluting itself. They added a few pike and now lake is clear and clean.
Eric
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03-22-2018, 07:59 
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