NEW LONDON — At summer’s end, "David Buoy" might have the answers for the problem that has long vexed the community of New London: How to put an end to the rotten-egg smell of hydrogen sulfide from the waters of the Mill Pond. “That is what people in this beautiful town smell, especially after the ice melt,” said Miki Hondzo, a professor of civil, environment, and geo-engineering in the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering. Hondzo was in New London on May 23 with a team from the University’s St.
Anthony Falls Laboratory, along with staff from the Middle Fork of the Crow River Watershed District. They anchored a buoy loaded with scientific instruments in the Mill Pond upstream of the dam. They’ve dubbed the buoy “David Buoy,” a play on the name of rock star David Bowie, but it’s not anything like its namesake.
It will quietly and unassumingly collect a trove of data from the waters of the Mill Pond. A sophisticated probe suspended 25 centimeters, or about one foot, above the pond’s bottom sediment will record the level of hydrogen sulfide every five minutes. Its equipment will also monitor and record the level of dissolved oxygen in the water every five minutes, as well as the temperature, the turbidity, the pH, the water’s conductivity, and the concentration of blue green algae.
Meteorological gear atop the solar-powered buoy will record the air temperature, wind speeds and other information, all of which will also be recorded every.
