WATER QUALITY AFTER IT RAINS

Is it generally unsafe (as pertaining to water quality) to use small lakes after a light to moderate rainfall?

yes, normally after the rain the water is very smooth & glassy. u dont want to ride on the water when its like this because its smoothness makes it very slick. its incredibly hard to land anything and will frustrate u to no end.

He means like chemicals in runoff and stuff yo.

However, I was pretty close to posting what you just said...

I would say don't worry about it Patrick. Nowadays everything gives you cancer, so a little bit of time in water after a heavy rain isn't going to be a big deal at all, much less light to moderate rain. Just take a shower afterwords if you're that worried about it and anything that was in the water is now gone.

My older Brother had to be the first one in the shower after lake trips... so he could "wash all the fish pee off"

the first rain of the season washes a ton of bad stuff into the waterways. after that its not too bad.

I think about stuff like that sometimes, but then after a hard rain, I'll ditch skimboard or ditch wakeskate if someone has a car no problem. Weird mental blocks I guess.

we ride the delta and river, not sure what clean water really is.

from Nate Martin, Seinior Water Quality Scientist, Jones & Stokes:

The first flush is always the worst, especially in the lower reaches of rivers primarily due to the combination of the runoff collecting contaminants, and because of agricultural return flows. However, because agricultural operations generally don't exist above most lakes (small or large), pesticides are not much concern in Lakes. The primary concern in my opinion, would be heavy metals from acid mine drainages such as mercury or even worse methyl mercury since it is dissolved into the water column. In high concentrations heavy metals can impact the central nervous system etc.... However, most heavy metals will tend to stay attached to sediment and not be directly in the water column. Plus, since dilution is the solution to pollution, the amount of polluted runoff would have to be pretty incredible to have an impact.

In a nutshell, don't go board on a lake after the first flush event if you know that there are present or historic mining operations upstream. The Squaw Creek arm of Lake Shasta is supposed to be pretty bad but Shasta is such a large lake with such a large retention time that it can assimilate a lot of bad runoff without having too much impact. I know of others as well.

There is clean water out there? Not where we ride! I love not seeing my hand 3 inches under water!

In Portland, Or after HEAVY rainfall the city will issue an advisory to stay out of the Willamette for potential sewage contamination. A fix is in the works. I'm not sure about a moderate rainfall though. It probably depends on your location.

You should always wait 72 to go in the water after a rain storm. All of the oil runoff from the roads and ag chemicals that get washed into the water are not good for you.