Please do not hesitate to contact the Worcester Police Department if you see illegal activities happening at the parks surrounding the lake and the Environmental Police in regards to reckless driving and improper use of boats or personal watercraft on the lake. In these times of limited resources, it is critical that we all play a part in ensuring our lake is as safe as it can be.

• Worcester Police Department

Main number: 508-799-8606 (any time)

Operations: 508-799-8669 (someone is usually only at this phone during the day)

Massachusetts Environmental Police

Dispatch: 800-632-8075

Office: 978-630-3748

CYANOBACTERIA MONITORING COLLABORATIVE

STATE OF OUR LAKES

WEED IDENTIFICATION

SHARING RESOURCES

REPRESENTATIVE MAHONEY $40k

STUDIES

CYANOBACTERIA DISCOVERED IN INDIAN LAKE

In early July 2014, a cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae) bloom was discovered in Indian Lake. When the bloom was confirmed, numbers were already well above the guidelines set by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Cyanobacteria can product toxins that may be harmful to humans and pets. The toxins are often produced when the cyanobacteria is dying. While the toxin levels remained below the guidelines for the majority of the summer, the conditions can change quickly and there is currently no field test available.

As per the MDPH guidelines, an advisory was issued for Indian Lake from July to October 2014.

CONSULTANT COMPLETES PHOSPHOROUS STUDY OF INDIAN LAKE

The City of Worcester hired the environmental engineering firm of Brown and Caldwell to study Indian Lake and the surrounding watershed to help evaluate nutrients entering the lake and the impact on water quality. The goal is to help the City develop a long term plan for managing the nutrient flow in Indian Lake and the adjoining Blackstone River.

The ILWA has conducted a myriad of studies around this very subject for many years and therefore was able to share resources for the benefit of this work.

Brown and Caldwell presented their findings to members of the Association in June 2013. The presentation and report can be found below:

Indian Lake Phospherous Reduction Study Presentation

Indian Lake Phospherous Reduction Study Report

PRELIMINARY DREDGING REPORT

There is little disagreement that sediment that has washed into Indian Lake over the years has contributed to many problems including weed growth and water clarity. Dredging is a very complicated and expensive process. As monies and time allow, we have taken steps which move us in that direction. We have made huge efforts in reducing the amount of sediment entering the lake (see 319 grant below) which is a critical piece. We have also characterized the sediment at the 4 locations in which it has entered the lake most heavily. Characterization is determining how much there is and what is in the sediment, again very important should we get to the point of removal.

Dredging Report

WPI PROJECTS 

WPI IQP  #4

Our 4th Independent Qualifying Project with students from WPI and their knowledgeable professors wrapped up in the spring of 2016. The project began in September 2015.

Over the past 50 years, development within the Indian Lake watershed has increased dramatically which has caused increased water quality problems at Indian Lake and its tributaries and inlets. This development has attributed to increased sedimentation and unwanted nutrients entering the lake from both upstream development and urban runoff. The water impairment has led to an increase in nuisance aquatic plants. Nonnative, invasive plants that are impossible to eradicate have created an ongoing challenge for lake management.

Thus there are two major components to this IQP which are extremely valuable: In Depth Plant Survey and Developing an Online System to Track Stenciling of Storm Drains leading to Indian Lake.

Plant Survey

Without a way to completely eradicate the nonnative, invasive weeds, monitoring the weed growth is an essential management tool. The ILWA’s greatest success in managing the weed growth has been an annual drawdown. This has allowed us to move away from costly chemical treatments which is a huge environmental win. Yet there are many factors that can impact its success including water level changes and weather. A freeze is essential for drawdown success.

In 2013, a plant survey was completed by three WPI students for their Interactive Qualifying Project. It was the first time a plant survey was documented in an interactive format that could be viewed by the public via the ILWA website.

- Mirror the plant collection process and data points used in the 2013 survey. 

- Develop maps and reports which show new plant coverage. Due to the large size of the Indian Lake, the point intercept method is recommended as the primary data collection technique. This method allows for analysis of many points, providing an accurate representation of species’ composition, distribution, and abundance throughout the water body.

- Highlight non-native and in particular, invasive weeds with detailed information on any new species found.

- Develop a process for putting new data into the Google Earth maps including ability to show past and new surveys comparatively. 

- Make detailed comparison with the 2013 survey and incorporate weather and changes in the water drawdown into the comparison. 

- Create a weed survey for Little Indian and develop appropriate maps and data to incorporate into the website. This smaller portion of Indian Lake has challenges that are separate from the main body of water.

Storm Drain Mapping

There are approximately 1200 storm drains that lead to Indian Lake or its tributaries throughout the surrounding watershed. Anything that goes into these drains is carried into Indian Lake. A storm drain stenciling program was introduced by the City of Worcester many years ago as a public education initiative. The intent was to stencil each storm drain throughout the city with information that indicates where it leads to such as ‘Don’t dump… Leads to Indian Lake’.

The first storm drain stenciling effort in the Indian Lake watershed took place about 15-20 years ago as an Eagle Scout project lead by a local Boy Scout. Since that time, various efforts have been made to track and update the stenciling. The challenge is really how to know if they are all stenciled and which ones need to be re-painted.

The project would include locating all storm drains leading to Indian Lake, assessing their stenciling condition and developing a way to track their stenciling status so we can maintain this and plan projects to update as needed.

Congratulations to our students!

Worcester Magazine Article by Tom Quinn

Telegram Article by Steve Foskett

MassLive Article by Michael Kane

Telegram Article by Nick Kotsopoulos

WPI IQP #3: 

Watershed Survey

We are happy to sponsor our 3rd Independent Qualifying Project with students at WPI in the 2014-2015 school year! This project will be especially important considering what we experienced this summer!

Our students this year are Aaron and Dylan.

Aaron is from Marshfield, Massachusetts. He is a Junior at WPI studying Management Engineering with a concentration in Operations. He is also a part of the WPI Varsity Men's Basketball Team.

Dylan is from Portland, Oregon. Also a Junior, he is studying Aerospace Engineering Concentration Astronautics. He also participates in WPI Theatre, is a member of the honor society AYO and has helped with nature restoration back home in Oregon.

The first part of their project took place October 18th in which volunteers were asked to help collect valuable data throughout the entire watershed! The goal of tracking nonpoint source pollution ... in other words... things you may not be able to see easily but could affect the lake water quality. We did this in 2002 and it will be great to get an update!

Aaron and Dylan will also be working with a science teacher and class at Bancroft School to collect data on a separate day.

Next step will be organizing it, prioritizing and determining who the correct agency or persons are that can take action.

As an organization, we are thrilled to once again have the opportunity to work with students and professors at WPI for the benefit of Indian Lake.

2002 Survey Results

2nd WPI INDEPENDENT QUALIFYING PROJECT COMPLETED

The ILWA has had the distinct honor of working with students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) on a second project. This project involved conducting a survey of invasive weeds at Indian Lake and creating a system of tracking the findings online. Students Eric Plante, Chase Cheston and Alan Gribble began the project in September 2012. A project presentation took place in March 2013. WPI project advisors are Reeta Rao and Chick Kasouf. The weed tracking system can now be acessed through the main page of this website. This is anticipated to be an annual project for WPI which will be invaluable for the future management of Indian Lake.

Final Weed Survey Presentation

Final Weed Survey Report

Link to online project: Weed Survey

WPI PROJECT PUTS FOCUS ON LITTLE INDIAN

Little Indian Lake is located on the south side of Route 122A near Indian Lake in Worcester. The small water body was cut off from the larger main body of Indian Lake many years ago when the state reconstructed Route 122A without installing the proper pass through for the water to transition between the large and small body of water. Without a continuous flow of water, the lake becomes stagnant and has endured an ongoing problem with weeds such as Duckweed, Watermeal and algae.

The lake is half on City of Worcester land and half on the abutter properties. From 1979 to 2008, abutters contributed more than $47,000 for weed treatments in which chemicals such as ACT, Diquat, Copper Sulphate and Sonar were used for weed and algae control. The Indian Lake Watershed Association (ILWA) contributes a share as an abutter each time treatment is required to help offset the cost.

The ILWA and Little Indian abutters have employed companies such as Aquatic Control Technologies and Lycott Environmental for treatments over the years however the problems appear to be getting worse. In the past two years Lycott Environmental used a containment boom to provide more targeted treatment which has helped but still not a long term solution.

Little Indian Lake was in need of a current diagnostic/feasibility study that characterized the existing conditions of the water body, wildlife and surrounding watershed that may be impacting the lake conditions and recommendations for future management and options for the long term health of this water body.

We were very fortunate, under the direction of Professor Chickery Kasouf, to have three enthusiastic and professional WPI juniors choose Little Indian for their Interative Qualifying Project which is designed to link technology and society. Victoria Mason, Evan Costa and Christian Waller spent nearly 6 months researching Little Indian and submitted a full report on the data they collected and recommendations for improvements to the water body. While their purpose was educational, not scientific, it is an excellent resource for future lake management.

Their presentation can be found here.

The full study can be found here.

WATER QUALITY MONITORING

The Indian Lake Watershed Association began monthly water quality monitoring as part of the requirements for the 319 grant combined with our efforts with the Blackstone Headwaters Monitoring Team several years ago. This combined with our watershed wide survey allowed us to document key things that may be negatively impacting the lake quality and helped us to develop a long term plan for water improvements. Testing has included temperature, Ph, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, phosphates and nitrates.

While these terms may not make you want to run out and get involved, let me explain to you some of the important reasons why these things are important:

Oxygen is necessary for all forms of life. If the dissolved oxygen (DO) level is too low in a water body, the aquatic life is put under stress. Low DO levels have been known to cause massive fish kills in a matter of hours!

There is a saying that ’green lawns mean green lakes’. High levels of nitrates and phosphates from fertilizers applied within the watershed can enter the water system, accelerate the plant growth and contribute to algae blooms. While aquatic plants are an important component of lake systems, providing food and shelter for bugs, fish and other organisms as well as providing shoreline erosion control, any conditions that harm such a balanced environment can potentially destroy thousands of organisms and aquatic life that lives there.

Indian Lake is also the headwaters of the Blackstone Canal whose ongoing revival has been celebrated from Worcester to Providence. The improvements we make will ultimately have an impact on these efforts too!

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 319 NON POINT SOURCE POLLUTION PROGRAM

In the fall of 2001, the Indian Lake Watershed Association, working in cooperation with the City of Worcester Department of Public Works (DPW), was awarded a Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Section 319 Nonpoint Source Pollution Program grant. The goal of this grant was to substantially reduce sediment, phosphorus and other contaminants from entering Indian Lake through the implementation of watershed Best Management Practices (BMPs). A form of sedimentation basin was designed and scheduled to be installed at four locations determined to be the most critical points of contaminant loading around the lake. The total project budget of $437,900 also included monitoring the water quality pre and post installation of the BMPs, repairs to the dam impounding Indian Lake, educational outreach and implementation of an innovative weed replacement program to combat invasive weeds in the water body. $253,000 of these monies came from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). $184,900 were to be in the form of monies raised, in-kind services and volunteer work.

Michael Zylich, the ILWAs Special Projects Manager, took the initiative in preparing and coordinating the majority of this grant which took the better part of a ream of paper for each copy!

On March 26th, 2002, Jane Pierce, Program Coordinator for DEP and Matt Labovites, then Director of Sewer Operations for DPW, finalized the required paperwork for the grant process to begin. After this time, all monies received through memberships and grants, volunteer work and in kind services received pertaining to the project started counting as a dollar value towards our match until the completion of the grant.

This grant is especially important because it paves the road for significant opportunity at Indian Lake. Over the past 50 years, development within the watershed has increased dramatically which has caused increased water quality problems. Six to seven foot deltas of sedimentation can be seen at some of the most critical inlets to the lake. By reducing the flow of sediment, we can begin to look at removal of the built up material, thereby significantly improving water quality and increasing both wildlife and recreational opportunities.

As part of the 319 Nonpoint Source Pollution Grant Program, the high volume underground sedimentation catch basins (also known as BMP's) were installed near Nelson Place, Huntington Avenue and Sherbourne Avenue in the fall of 2005. These devices will begin trapping much of the sediment and foreign runoff that is entering Indian Lake.

Unfortunately, when the bids came in on these systems, the cost was more than was expected. Even with a shuffle of some of our 319 funds and the elimination of one, we were not able to adequately fund the remaining three.

Matt Labovites, Assistant DPW Commissioner, and his staff did a lot of fancy footwork and were able to come up with the difference through the City's stormwater management budget. We are very fortunate to have these folks working on our side!

Once we are able to measure the success of the systems, it should open the door for additional funding for installation of more BMP systems and in the long term, dredging of excessive sediment that has accumulated and deteriorated the quality of the lake.

Some of the other notable items which we accomplished during the 3 year grant cycle are noted on the Watershed Protection page of this website. Our ILWA volunteers worked tirelessly behind the scenes attending monthly status meetings and preparing quarterly reports in addition to all the grant objectives. This website is a important piece of our educational outreach inspired by the grant.

Our group is honored and privileged to work with Matt Labovites and his staff at the City of Worcester Department of Public Works. They really went above and beyond to ensure the success of this project. Together, we demonstrated a significant cooperative partnership between the city and a non profit organization which should be commended.

And, to Jane Pierce and the Department of Environmental Protection, our sincere thanks for having the confidence in our organization and ideas. This opportunity has been so significant for Indian Lake as well as our association and the City of Worcester. We applaud the efforts of this DEP for their vision and hard work.