Annual Secchi Day is special this year for one Beaver Lake resident

ROGERS, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — This year’s annual Secchi Day at Beaver Lake is Saturday, and it’s a very special one for one Beaver Lake resident.

Robert Lewis turns 90 years old on Saturday and how is he celebrating? A birthday party as well as partaking in Secchi Day, an annual tradition he’s taken part in since its inception 19 years ago.

I got the chance to sit down with Lewis and find out why he keeps coming back. “I think it’s important for the water department which of course is definitely for us,” Lewis said. about why he keeps coming back.

He also feels that it must be done.

Matt Rich is the environmental specialist for the Beaver Water District. He said Secchi Day got started when a retired environmental quality manager and a couple of people at Beaver Water District started implementing this idea.

“We’ve been taking Secchi depth readings on this lake for 40 years, and they thought about this idea where we could get people involved to come out and do this,” Rich said.

Without the help of many volunteers, a community science engagement this big would be tough.

“It would be impossible, I think, for them to be able to do this kind of thing, manpower-wise”, Lewis said.

Volunteers will be spread out across 35 sites and Rich said each side is done in duplicate.

“So we’ll have essentially 70 sites with two bottles per site,” Rich said. This means they’ll have 140 bottles to process.

Secchi Day is important for Beaver Lake. It helps measure the clarity as well as the chlorophyll-a,
total phosphorus, and total nitrogen content to determine the density of algal growth and nutrient concentration across the lake.

“But you don’t want too much nutrients because then that becomes eutrophic waters. It takes oxygen out of the water column, and we then tend to see fish kill things like that,” Rich said.

Finding that balance between quality water and nutrient-rich water is important so we can enjoy drinking water and the fish population can flourish.

Secchi Day is a great science project that brings the community together and for Lewis, this one will be special.

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