According to Dr. Todd D. Stong, a U.S. engineer and volunteer advisor to several Lake Chapala government agencies, it is cleaner than many think.
When Stong fills a bottle with water from 100 meters or more from shore, the water appears surprisingly clear.
Six years of bacterial testing of samples about 10-15 meters from the edge at 20 locations around the lake confirm that the lake is safe for full body recreation, including water skiing and swimming. The data shows levels of bacterial that are less than half the Mexican and international standards for recreation.
“In fact,” said Stong, “there is much less bacteria in Lake Chapala than in the water at the average beach in California. Regrettably more than 95% of those who visit the area never enter the water. Most people are convinced the lake is dirty, due to the debris at the lake’s edge.” He continued, “The very shallow water at the shoreline appears muddy due to the waves constantly stirring the silt on the lake bottom.”
Stong looks for ways to change the perception of a dirty lake. He notes that only about 20 km of the 220 km perimeter of the lake is observed by the public. That smaller percentage of shore lies near the 25 major villages about the lake and that’s where the litter collects. He estimates that if each village recruited volunteers it would only take 30 minutes for three of the volunteers to clean one kilometer of the shoreline. Placing trash barrels at 50-meter intervals along the beach near the villages would help.
According to Stong, one solution to clear the muddy water at the edge would be the installation of crushed rock covered with sand. When sand is stirred by waves it settles in seconds. Eventually some villages might construct a wall along the lake edge to maintain a water depth of about 50 cm deep so that the waves could no longer stir up the mud at the lake’s edge.