State deploys water mixers in Jordan Lake

State officials began deploying solar-powered water circulators in Jordan Lake on Monday in the latest attempt to battle pollution in the lake.

2014-07-21

Lawmakers last year approved testing the SolarBee machines when they issued a three-year moratorium on the Jordan Lake Rules, a set of upstream development regulations designed to limit runoff into the lake.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has designated Jordan Lake as impaired under the federal Clean Water Act because excessive amounts of algae that formed in the lake due to the gradual buildup of nutrients from stormwater runoff, wastewater and other sources.

Twelve SolarBees will be spaced 1,300 feet apart in the Haw River arm in the southern part of Jordan Lake, and 24 other machines will be similarly spaced in the Morgan Creek arm at the northern end of the lake. State environmental officials said these arms have demonstrated high levels of chlorophyll-a due to the amount of nutrients coming into the lake.

The Division of Water Resources has performed baseline sampling in the lake and will test the water once a month for 18 months with the SolarBees in place. The agency will report its findings to the General Assembly by Oct. 1, 2015.