Monitoring Buoy Pilot Concludes for the Season

Earlier this summer, Friends of Lake Winnecook launched a pilot program with Subtidal Inc. to evaluate technology designed to continuously monitor lake conditions and provide early warning of changes associated with cyanobacteria found in Algal blooms.

Lake Winnecook has not experienced a bloom so far this year, limiting our ability to evaluate the buoy under the conditions it was primarily intended to monitor. The pilot also encountered technical challenges, including sensor fouling on the original buoy and a cellular communications failure on its replacement.

FOLW has concluded the pilot for this season, and the buoy was removed last month. Throughout these challenges, Subtidal has been extremely responsive and has worked closely with FOLW to address each issue. As a result, FOLW will incur no cost for this year’s pilot, and Subtidal will provide us with the data collected during the deployment.

Despite the technical challenges, the pilot provided useful information and firsthand experience that will help guide future monitoring decisions. FOLW remains interested in establishing reliable, 24-hour real-time monitoring on Lake Winnecook and will continue to evaluate opportunities as the technology develops.

Trying emerging technology carries some uncertainty, but this pilot allowed FOLW to evaluate its potential without financial cost while gaining knowledge that can help shape our future water-quality monitoring efforts.