My family spent today at the Jones Lake state park in Elizabeth, NC. The water was fairly clear ... but it had a very red tint to it. It almost looked like rust or rootbeer at the boat propoller spun through it. It didn't look like the lake had any clay ... the bottom looked sandy. What would make the water red there?
Is there a lot of leaf debri? Sometimes it can look stained from the tannins in some leaves, just like tea.
I didn't notice lots of leaf debris. There was a yellow layer of pollen. It was neat watching the water bugs flitter across the top of the water. It looked like the bugs were drawing a picture in the layer of yellow coating as the skimmed through the pollen. I'm sure the lake was safe because there were folks swimming in the roped off area and park rangers were on site. I doubt the rangers would let kids swim if the color of the water seemed unusual for that particular lake. It just seemed unusual to me.
Sometimes in the spring and summer months a Red Algal growth can occur prior to the normal Green algae we are all familiar with. The red color is typically due a variety of different constituents in the surrounding soil and vegetation and sometimes higher quantities of CO2 than normal can cause this phenomena. I have a wastewater lagoon system and have experienced this a few times. It does not normally last long and is not harmful nor toxic to the surrounding environments plants or animal life.
