Water Quality Monitoring
“No water no life. No blue, no green.”
Monitoring was initiated on Lake Sunapee in the 1950's when LSPA conducted water sampling and testing for the presence of E. coli. Those early monitoring results indicated that, at the time, Lake Sunapee had “Class A” water quality - which meant that the lake water was adequate as drinking water.
In the 1980s, LSPA established water sampling protocols that continue today:
LSPA volunteer water quality monitors take regular water samples from Lake Sunapee at cove sites and tributary streams.
LSPA staff take routine in-lake measurements at four deep basin sites in Lake Sunapee.
All water samples are analyzed in LSPA’s Water Quality Laboratory at Colby-Sawyer College.
Click here to learn more about our Water Quality monitoring.
The LSPA Lab at Colby-Sawyer College also processes water samples for more than twenty five area lakes as part of the statewide Volunteer Lake Assessment Program (VLAP). The NH Department of Environmental Services provides an annual water quality report based on its analysis of the VLAP data.