Turnover and Sulphur Smell from the Lake bottom

I was out driving around Bluegrass Fish and Wildlife area today. I noticed a rather obnoxious H2S smell while driving down St. Johns Road. The smell was very pronounced in the valley between to of the larger pits. Goldeneye and Shoveler Pits seemed to be the most likely source of this H2S smell. H2S smells like Rotten Eggs. Co. Rd. 1100 West just South of where Welte Rd crosses was the worst. At first I though it was long range transport of flue gases from one of the power plant's smoke stacks but then today I realized that this smell was evident no matter which way the winds were blowing. Yesterday the wind was out of the NW. Today the winds were out of the SW. And the smell was only present when I drove near these two pits.

I noticed that NO ONE was fishing these two pits today! LOL

Turnover occurs when the surface water's temperature cools down to the same temperature as the lower waters or the hypolimnion. The water density of the bottom waters is then the same as the surface water and the entire water column is allowed to mix. This brings up waters from the bottom that have not had much oxygen in them all summer long and were in a hypoxia state. Bacteria still can live in the hypolimnion waters but these are the type of bacteria that survive without oxygen. They are anaerobic type bacteria and they eat the organic matter that sinks to the lake bottom during the summer moths. During turnover these H2S gases are no longer trapped below the thermocline and are fee to come to the surface. A very small concentration of H2S gas is noticeable to the human nose. The gas companies use a form of sulfur called Mercaptan that's easily noticed by the human nose. This is added to natural gas to help us detect any leaks in the gas lines. Without it we could not detect the gas leaks as easily.

[url]http://www.columbiagaspamd.com/community_outreach/mercaptan.htm[/url]