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Case Study for Customer Location
SD78:
Reservoir or Lake Use:
The lake, located in the heart of the scenic Black Hills, is a
high-value freshwater reservoir formed by a dam, and is used
exclusively for recreational swimming, paddle boating, and
fishing.
System Overview and Reservoir:
The lake has a surface area of 17.3 acres and an estimated
volume of 222 acre-feet. Maximum depth is 30 ft near the face of
the dam; average depth is about 13 feet.
Reported Problem Before SolarBee Installation:
The lake, supplied by high nutrient water from natural drainage,
has a long history of algae blooms. Consequently, lake sediments
have a high dissolved oxygen (DO) demand that causes bottom
waters to become anoxic almost immediately after the thermocline
forms in April. The anoxic condition moves upward in the water
column and reaches to within 5-9 feet of the surface by late
summer during most years. By August, poor water quality can
negatively impact swimmers.
SolarBee Installation:
Date: In November 2000, one of PSI’s original circulators (equal
to the SB2500) was installed. It proved to be undersized for
this lake, and was replaced with a solar-only SB10000 in Sept.
2002. Deployed in 20 feet of water with the intake set at 16
feet deep, the unit circulated the upper 70% of the lake volume.
Shadows of nearby mountains reduce amount of available solar
energy by approximately 30%-40%.
Results:
Results from 2003 were very positive. SolarBee-induced mixing
maintained consistently high DOs from the surface down to near
the 16 ft intake depth. At 16 feet deep, DOs usually ranged from
about 1 - 4 mg/L until fall turnover. Based on the lake’s
bathymetric map, about 75% of the lake bottom was kept oxic
during the summer, presumably preventing the release of soluble
phosphorus, H2S, and other inorganic chemicals. Furthermore,
green algae predominated rather than blue-green algae. In June
2004 the SolarBee was moved to a point in lake with water depth
of 24 ft and the hose repositioned to 18 ft. The unit continues
to maintain control of deep-water anoxia, prevent blue-green
algae blooms, and provide good water clarity.
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