
Turning your biggest headache into your biggest asset
Lakes and ponds captivate us due to our innate attraction to water, making them popular focal points in HOAs, residential communities, parks, resorts, and golf courses. Unfortunately, weeds, algae, muck, and erosion can make your waterbody noticeable for the wrong reasons, potentially leading to complaints, safety hazards, infrastructure damage, and a bruised reputation. Healthy waterbodies contribute to happy communities and managing them should never be a headache.
For most communities, the ideal waterbody is balanced, functional, and beautiful—and achieving this trifecta can be challenging. However, proactive, environmentally-responsible management solutions can help stakeholders amplify its benefits and maximize the value that it adds to their property.
Promoting Ecological Balance
Nuisance weed and algae growth, bottom muck, and foul odors may signify nutrient imbalances in the water. Excess nutrients can enter the water through runoff from construction sites, fertilized lawns and gardens, agricultural land, dog parks, or polluted areas. Water quality imbalances jeopardize the health of aquatic ecosystems and can create prime conditions for cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), which produce toxins that are harmful to humans and potentially deadly to wildlife, livestock, and dogs.
If water quality testing reveals significant imbalances, several eco-friendly solutions are available to help counteract and prevent them.
Nutrient remediation
Nutrient remediation can help communities achieve cleaner water that’s less hospitable to weeds and algae. Several eco-friendly products are available to remove excess nutrients from both the water column and sediments, leading to long-lasting improvements in water quality. To recommend the right solution, experts assess waterbody size, function, and degree of water movement.
Biologicals
Biological bacteria help make the decomposition of nutrient-rich bottom muck more efficient, which can help alleviate foul odors, improve water clarity, and prevent imbalances. More importantly, depth and volume may be restored as muck decomposes, reducing flood risks and allowing stakeholders to prolong the need for physical removal via dredging, which most communities need at least a decade to budget for.
Dissolved oxygen
Dissolved oxygen (DO) aids bacteria in the breakdown of muck and is crucial to support aquatic life. DO-rich waterbodies often provide fantastic fishing and beautiful views. However, DO can become depleted due to high temperatures, abundant sunlight, or stagnation. Submersed aerators are one of the more common solutions to promote DO, but other new technologies are showing promise by producing higher DO concentrations with longer-lasting results.
Promoting Functionality
One of the most important functions of waterbodies is the collection of water during rainstorms. Failure to do so can result in dangerous consequences like flooding in the community. It’s important to conduct regular inspections to help stakeholders identify potential impediments and develop a plan to repair or restore them.
Shoreline restoration
Erosion is natural, but it can be accelerated by human activities. Beyond being an eyesore, eroded shorelines can collapse and injure residents, guests, or landscapers, leading to potential lawsuits. Professionals utilize bioengineering techniques to rebuild eroded shorelines by filling geotextile mesh with sediment, shaping it to natural contours, and anchoring it securely. Native vegetation or sod is then planted over the material, creating a living shoreline that restores waterfront land, helps improve water quality and enhances property values.
Muck removal
Eroded sediment progresses into muck that may clog stormwater equipment, reduce depth, and impede drainage. During storms, floodwater can damage building foundations, roads, and other infrastructure. Muck and debris removal are key to preventing this. A hydro-rake, similar to a floating backhoe, can restore depth to areas with high sediment accumulation. This may help prolong or prevent the need for more costly dredging, allowing communities to divert funds to more urgent projects.
Promoting Beauty
While naturally breathtaking, lakes and ponds can be enhanced through color, movement, and lighting to fulfill different aesthetic needs. Goals can vary significantly among stakeholders, and a wide range of options are available to customize waterbodies of all shapes and sizes.
Fountains
Often placed in high visibility areas like community entrances, fountains provide eye-catching beauty and intrigue that may make a community more desirable to new residents and help increase property values. With intricate water patterns, graceful silhouettes, and night-time lighting elements, they can be highly customized. Fountains also provide added benefits of circulation and adding oxygen near the surface of the water.
Vegetative buffers
Though native vegetation is primarily recommended to help stabilize shorelines and prevent erosion, they can also serve as a beautiful accent by framing a waterbody with colorful plants and flowers. Moreover, buffer vegetation helps filter stormwater runoff, reducing the influx of excess nutrients and promoting clean water that is less prone to weeds and algae.

Pond dye
Few things are as beautiful as the reflection of a sunset on glistening water. For communities that wish to maintain a vibrant look throughout the day, eco-friendly pond dyes are a great option. Customizable shades of blue can create a welcoming, pristine appearance while still looking natural. Pond dyes may also help limit the penetration of sunlight, slowing the process of photosynthesis and the subsequent weed and algae growth and DO depletion.
Be Proactive with Pond Maintenance
Overseeing a waterbody may seem like a blessing and a curse at times. As aquatic experts, we view it as an amazing opportunity to not only improve the appearance and value of a property, but most importantly, enhance lives. By focusing on proactive, sustainable management strategies, you can better sidestep the headaches and instead help your community enjoy the long-term financial, physical, and spiritual rewards.
Experience Worry-Free Water Management
SOLitude Lake Management is a nationwide environmental firm committed to providing sustainable solutions that improve water quality, enhance beauty and preserve natural resources.
SOLitude’s team of aquatic scientists specializes in the development and execution of customized lake, stormwater pond, wetland and fisheries management programs. Services include water quality testing and restoration, algae and aquatic weed control, installation and maintenance of fountains and aeration systems, shoreline erosion control, muck and sediment removal and invasive species management. SOLitude partners with homeowners associations, golf courses, private landowners, businesses and municipalities. SOLitude Lake Management is part of Rentokil, a leading business services company, operating across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
For more information, visit SOLitude Lake Management at solitudelakemanagement.com, and connect on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.