WINONA LAKE - Discussion on the water quality of Winona Lake continued during a special meeting Wednesday night.
More than 20 people, including Winona Lake town council members and residents, and Warsaw City Council members Joe Thallemer and Charlie Smith, attended a meeting at the Winona Lake Senior Center to learn more about water quality.
Representatives from Department of Natural Resources Conservation Services, Tippecanoe Environmental Lake & Watershed Foundation and Kosciusko County Soil and Water Conservation District also discussed water quality issues.The Winona Lake Town Council previously discussed Winona Lake's water quality at its Feb. 27 meeting.
Council member Joy Lohse informed council members during the council's February meeting that an oil spill had occurred in Winona Lake Feb. 20, and 21 coots, three Canadian Geese and two ducks were found dead on the lake.
Lohse requested the representatives attend Wednesday's meeting and discuss water quality issues in Winona Lake.
Sam St.Clair, district conservationist for DNR, addressed agricultural issues with Winona Lake.
He spoke about the watershed of a lake, and defined it as an amount of land from which water runs off into the lake.
"A lake is a reflection of its watershed and anything that happens in a watershed of a lake has some effect on the lake," St.Clair said.
He presented a watershed map of Winona Lake.
The map showed Walnut Creek's watershed where it flows into the Tippecanoe River, and areas that drain into Winona Lake that included sites beyond Ind. 13, south of Pierceton.
He said in 1991 there was a design study conducted on Winona Lake that found 18,700 acres of land drained into Winona Lake, or a 33:1 ratio.
"Those results tell me there is a potential for Winona Lake to have water quality problems because of the amount of land that is drained into the lake," St.Clair said.
Darci Zolman, program administrator for Kosciusko County SWCD, said SWCD conducts training every year for volunteers who are interested in learning how to conduct physical, chemical and biological tests of streams that run into lakes.
Holly LaSalle, water shed coordinator for the Upper Tippecanoe River Water Shed, discussed educational ways to keep lake water clean.
"The single most important thing that can be done to preserve a lake is to not fertilize with phosphorous," LaSalle said.
She also said homeowners can prevent harmful water elements from being deposited into lakes by limiting the number of gutters and downspouts by their homes.
The Winona Lake Preservation Association's annual meeting will be held April 24 at 7 p.m. at the Ramada Inn in Warsaw to discuss water quality and other issues in Winona Lake.
Lohse encouraged people to attend, and meet a month after the annual meeting to again discuss the water quality issue.
