Mirror Lake Chloride
Mirror Lake is part of our Adirondack Lake Assessment Program and has been the subject of intensive research by AWI and the Ausable River Association. This knitted and woven piece is a representation of the chloride levels recorded in the lake between 2015 and 2020, data collected as part of long-term monitoring efforts and which has been used to inform important road salt management efforts in Lake Placid. Road salt is a primary pollutant in some Adirondack lakes, with consequences for aquatic ecosystems and human health. The red sections in this piece tell the story of high chloride concentrations, which interfered with lake turnover during 2017, 2019, and 2019. Read here about the history of identifying this problem, the importance of long-term monitoring efforts like this, and the observed improvements in chloride levels that are resulting from management efforts informed by this work.