Deep Creek Lake gets 'incomplete' on health check

A checkup performed by University of Maryland scientists finds Deep Creek Lake appears to be generally healthy. But researchers say there's not enough monitoring done of the popular western Maryland tourist attraction to tell what shape it's really in - or how much trouble it may be having with harmful aglal blooms, polluted runoff or other symptoms of the growth of vacationers and vacation homes at the mountain resort.

So a year after concerns were voiced about the 3,900-acre manmade lake as it experienced its largest recorded fish kill, the first-ever assessment of the lake comes back with an "incomplete" on its ecological report card.

Basic water quality in the lake seemed to be good, and bacteria levels did not appear to pose a health risk for swimming, according to the report by EcoCheck, a partnership between UM's Center for Environmental Science and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The group was commissioned to produce a report card on the lake last year by Friends of Deep Creek Lake, a citizen's watchdog group. It's raised concerns about water quality being affected by polluted runoff from farms and vacation homes, leaking septic tanks and shoreline erosion. Adding to the anxiety was a prolonged fish kill last summer, in which an estimated 2,000 walleye, perch and a range of other species went belly up from late July into September.

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