Little Gaynor Lake

March 3, 2008

With another cold winter, Little Gaynor Lake was covered with a thick layer of ice for the majority of the winter. As of February 22, that ice cover was still two to four inches thick across the lake. With warm weather and winds the last week of February, the ice melted off rapidly.

Given the thick ice cover, hydrogen sulfide accumulated in the lake during the winter. The presence of the two SolarBee units kept some small portion of lake unfrozen for most of the winter. With those units operating, water was circulated allowing some of the hydrogen sulfide to dissipate.

Parks and Open Space staff and consultants anticipate that the lake will release this gas over the next couple of days to weeks and produce noticeable odors. The SolarBee units will help to force oxygen back into the system, which will overtake the hydrogen sulfide and produce a cap on the lake and reduce the odors.

We will continue to monitor this situation and post updates to this site.