Relationship of Recreational Use to Bacterial Densities of Forrest Lake

Abstract

Forrest Lake, Missouri, with its surrounding Thousand Hills State Park, provided an excellent opportunity for studying the comparability of the recreational use of water and the watershed with the use of water for human consumption. The area is used extensively for recreational purposes and the lake supplies water to the city of Kirksville, Missouri, population 13,300. The membrane filter method was used to determine the coliform organisms and enterococcus bacterial densities at areas of high recreational use and areas of low recreational use. Sampling from seven individual stations were analyzed, and the mean counts of the coliform organisms during the summer of 1958 are provided. The surface waters exhibited low coliform‐organism counts, and the bacterial counts increased under most conditions with the increase in depth of water. Three major conclusions were drawn from the pollution studies at Forrest Lake: the high recreational use of the lake and watershed was not reflected by the bacterial counts at the intake tower; the pollution study of Forrest Lake has been of importance to the city of Kirksville through better management of raw waters for the water filtration plant; and, the pollution of Forrest Lake would need to increase considerably before there would be additional costs for filtration and treatment of the waters for the municipal water supply.