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Show 3.0 WATER QUALITY 3.1 Develop a strategy to ensure water quality protection for GSL ecosystem Many individuals supported development of numerical water quality standards for the lake. Very few respondents supported alternatives A and C. Over 27 percent of the respondents had an opinion on this topic. The ability of a terminal basin to maintain consistent water quality is compromised. This is even more evident as anthropogenic influences have affected its movement and chemistry. The bioconcentration of trace elements in an aquatic system might have profound effect. Developing numerical water quality standards requires initiating research now or it will not be reasonable to adopt numerical standards in the future, because there will never be a basis for such standards. It would then become prohibitively expensive or even logistically impossible. Numerical standards delineate compliance standards, limit misinterpretation and ensure against challenges on the judgement of inspectors, inequities of regulation and enforcement. Numerical standards may be more difficult and costly, but over the long run they will be a more effective tool. Data should be collected to establish the " chemical discharge" into the lake from natural and human activities. Sewage treatment plant discharges, ammonia toxicity and total dissolved solids are very high. Water quality and quantity are important variables to maintain a healthy GSL biotic ecosystem. They depend onflow restrictions, diversions, contaminants and sediment loads of the sub- basins entering into the lake. These should be measured where they enter the wetlands within fresh and salt water marshes which provide a protective natural filter as well as essential habitat for birds and wildlife. Gigantic quantities ofmicronutrient inflows, especially nitrogen loading ( from wastewater treatment plants, agricultural, animal feed lots and fossil fuel combustion by automobiles and trucks) are carried into the air and return to this terminal basin. GSL and its wetlands are incredibly productive areas for invertebrates which are essential to many of the birds that use the lake. Yet little is known about the potentially harmful effects of heavy metals and other pollutants on the lake's invertebrates and the rest of the food chain. We should know more about heavy metals and other pollutants in the lake. This is a terminal lake and continual discharge into the lake will lead to an increase in concentration of those constituents in the lake. Fluctuations in lake levels and weakening of the chemocline allows for full mixing of the lake so indefinite storage of potentially harmful constituents in lake bottom sediments is unrealistic. 294 |