Urinating In The Lake

[ApS]

Originally Posted by Lakegeezer

While gross and possibly illegal, a single pee is diluting into 625 billion gallons of water that is refreshed every three years.

• A "single pee" doesn't seem to be the issue at question.

• I question that excreted salts ever leave a lake with significant depths—and we're discussing gallons—and years—of weekenders' urine.

"Beer is rented".

Originally Posted by Lakegeezer

Even the concentration, local to the pee'er is quickly diluted. An area 20x20 by 20 feet deep, has about 60,000 gallons of water and a pint of urine would dilute to 2 parts/million. Consider what the ducks, loons, geese and fish excrement are adding to the soup you are swimming in.

• One pint? Each pee-er is adding several liters daily to Mother Nature's "soup".

• Geese and ducks are drawn to the lake by feeding: grassy lawns and expansive golf courses have added geese to "the soup".

• Urine is 20 degrees warmer than the surrounding fresh water, so it is added at the surface. Braun Bay then becomes a particularly toxic environment to those entering into it. (Although there is a certain unkind irony in watching such polluters slipping into the lake).

• Owners of oversized boats invariably advertise, "Sale includes porta-potty—never used".

Originally Posted by Lakegeezer

Add algae, small bugs and cyanobacteria, and a bit of pee is not your main concern, especially in Green's Basin. That said, the concentration of human excrement in Braun Bay is probably higher than the rest of the lake after a sunny weekend.

• Bacteria and "small bugs" work 24/7 to convert pollutants; however, algae in surface waters benefit immediately from the elements in excretions.

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