In March 2009, Joe Eilers of SolarBee released An Assessment of Circulation Technology Applied to Blue Lake, Oregon. The report was the conclusion of a two-year trial of three Solarbees placed on Blue Lake. Purchase of the three units was contingent on the success of the trial as access by Solarbee, Inc. The report concluded that the units improved water quality and based on the report Metro and the local residents purchased the three Solarbees installed for the trial.
For a more detailed summary of the trial and the specific conclusion read on.
The residents of Blue Lake entered into a non-binding agreement with SolarBee, Inc. to try circulation technology in Blue Lake for the sole purpose of attempting to control the excessive populations of cyanobacteria that had negatively impacted the lake in recent years. SolarBee, Inc. agreed to provide three circulators to operate in Blue Lake free of charge for 2007 upon the condition that the residents and cooperating management agencies would purchase the units if they were successful in controlling the cyanobacteria. Because of mixed result and complicating conditions in 2007, that agreement was extended through 2008.
The report states that the results of the circulation trial in Blue Lake have unequivocally shown a major reduction of cyanobacteria and dramatic improvements in other attributes of water quality, defined as increased transparency, decreased pH, less extreme dissolved oxygen concentrations, reduced chlorophyll, lower phosphorus and nitrogen concentrations, and reduced extent and abundance of the invasive macrophyte, M. spicatum.
