Peat deposit water quality in Lake Istokpoga,Florida, U.S.A.

In 1983 water quality monitoring was conducted on peat deposits in Highlands County, Florida, U.S.A. The monitoring objective was to provide initial data on the water quality in the area in order to identify potential problems with environmental licensing of peat harvesting operations on these deposits. The investigation included sampling for in situ and laboratory water analyses, peat core analyses, elutriate tests, and interstitial water quality analyses. The general trends evident from the data are that BOD and COD (and the resulting DO) may change from the control and harvest peatlands, but not consistently. In addition, total suspended solids, organic color, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus concentrations appear to be elevated under disturbed conditions. For metals, the major cations (Ca, Mg, K, Fe) may show an increase under disturbed conditions vs. control. For the remaining metals, some increases may occur, but the changes are essentially unpredictable.