CAMP Lake Monitoring
The City of St. Louis Park participates in a Metropolitan Council sponsored lake monitoring program called the Community Assisted Monitoring Program (CAMP). Through this program, the city can have volunteers monitor the water quality in up to ten bodies of water. Water bodies that qualify for the CAMP program need to be listed on the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Public Waters Inventory.
Each volunteer regularly monitors a specific site on a lake from mid-April through mid-October. Volunteers collect a surface water sample, measure water temperature and clarity, observe weather and provide their perception about the lake’s physical and recreational conditions. With help from the city, volunteers provide the data samples to Metropolitan Council Environmental Services (MCES). MCES analyzes the samples, reviews and analyzes data, assesses and reports on current lake conditions, and manages the CAMP program.
Get involved – become a CAMP volunteer
The city depends on volunteers to collect the data for the CAMP program and encourages residents to participate in this fun and important task. One volunteer does all the monitoring for a lake for an entire season.
City staff and the Metropolitan Council provide all sampling equipment and training; volunteers need to supply their own boats.
If you would like to volunteer, contact Erick Francis, water resources manager, at efrancis@stlouisparkmn.gov.
Assessment of current lake conditions
The Metropolitan Council Environmental Services assesses and reports on current lake conditions based on the samples and information supplied to them by the volunteers. Each lake is given a grade, much like grades given in school, based on total phosphorus, chlorophyll-a (trichromatic) and Secchi depth (water clarity). Most lakes in St. Louis Park did not receive a grade because of insufficient data during the summertime period of May through September.
Lake water quality can vary greatly from year to year, depending on weather conditions. Amount of rainfall, intensity of storms, cloudiness and air temperatures can all affect water quality. Because of this natural variation, lake sampling must be done over long periods of time before trends can be positively established.