This was the view from my office window

Harbor Bay Isle Lagoon Information
Harbor Bay Isle Lagoon Information

The lagoon that meanders its way throughout Harbor Bay can be looked upon as the Community's backbone from which the rest of Harbor Bay emanates. It is the Community's key design feature that provides both residents and visitors not only a sense of natural beauty but also a feeling of tranquility. Great enjoyment is derived from watching the antics of the wildlife that call the lagoon its home.

While the lagoon's attributes provide us with great benefits, it must also be looked upon as a living organism with its own life cycle. Part of this life cycle involves the birth, growth and death of vegetation. The two most prolific plants that re-generate themselves in the lagoon are algae and widgeon grass. Both have incredibly fast growing cycles. Under the right conditions algae can double in size in less than 24 hours, widgeon grass even faster. The right conditions include an abundance of nutrients, clear water with a temperature higher than 65 degrees Fahrenheit and long sunny days. As the water warms above 65 degrees the growth becomes even faster.

These conditions annually occur between the months of April and June. The winter rains have come to an end. These rains have promoted the leaching of nutrients, primarily from fertilizers used in landscape maintenance, into the lagoon. The lagoon's functional purpose as the Community's central storm drain means that the water from all of the private property and streets ends up in the lagoon. This water runoff in turn brings the added yet unwanted nutrients.

With the end of the rains and winds, lagoon turbulence subsides causing sediment in the water to settle to the bottom of the lagoon. This in turn creates greater clarity through the water column. And, while this creates a more aesthetically pleasing lagoon, it also means that sunlight can more easily penetrate to the lagoon bottom, the beginning point of the vegetation's growth cycle.

The longer days with clear skies, intensifies the light patterns in the lagoon, which has the secondary effect of warming the lagoon's water. Thus, the perfect stage or medium is set for algae to begin to grow and grow rapidly.

The Community staff has maintained the lagoon since 1991 under the regulatory purview of the regional Water Quality Control Board. This Board is very concerned with improving the water quality of the San Francisco bay. Since our lagoon is directly linked to the bay via control gates, this Board regulates the means whereby the lagoon can be maintained. Prior to 1991 and outside company maintained the lagoon primarily by monthly abatement applications. While these applications killed off plant life, they did little to neither address the source of the plant life nor remove the dead material, which was left to decay in the lagoon. In addition, the chemical product used to control vegetation was removed from the market, leaving the Community staff to turn to the next level of somewhat more toxic products.

The convergence of these two actions moved the Community to adopt an integrated pest management policy. This policy means that the Community endeavors to reduce its reliance on chemicals to control unwanted vegetation in both the lagoon and landscape. Alternative methods were introduced and used to achieve the same control. In terms of the lagoon these include, weekly monitoring of the lagoon's vital characteristics such as water clarity, temperature, ph balance and oxygen content, more aggressive manual harvesting, introduction of aeration units, use of natural enzyme products, and, dredging of anaerobic material. In the past, the Community has experimented with the use of surface booms to keep surface debris in the lagoon's main current channel. Currently, the staff is looking at developing a program to use barley hay in the lagoon. This hay releases a natural algaecide.

All of the above techniques has resulted in the use of only one chemical abatement treatment for each of the last three years and only two treatments four years ago.

Unfortunately, staff cannot always predict the exact timing in which the climatic conditions will activate the vegetation growth cycle. This year is a case in point. In early May staff observed plant growth but in limited locations. It was believed that these could be controlled through spot or localized abatement. However, the climatic conditions changed very quickly and by the end of May, algae were growing quickly throughout the lagoon. This in turn required a full abatement treatment, followed by a flushing of the lagoon water into the bay. The treatment takes a minimum of three days to apply in order to prevent a rapid depletion of oxygen in the water column, thereby avoiding a large-scale kill of fish and shellfish. The lagoon must then be locked down for another four days to insure that the abatement treatment is effective. Following flushing, Community staff will undertake more aggressive manual harvesting to remove the remaining algae mats.

To bring the lagoon back to an alga controlled state takes a minimum of three, on average, four weeks. During this period, we will all experience floating mats of algae in various colors from bright green to black, depending upon their point in the plant's life cycle. Be assured that the Community staff is committed to maintaining the lagoon to the highest possible water quality standards. However, please do not forget that we are all living with a unique organic system with its own unique life cycle.

The draw bridges leading to Harbor Bay Isle
You had to drive across two draw bridges to reach The Community of Harbor Bay in the San Francisco Bay. This map shows how the lagoon system wove around the twenty homeowner associations we managed.

Click on the map:
http://www.harborbay.org/homepage/index3.html

I lived in Baywood Village, and my home was the 50th built in the first development constructed in the late 1970s. In all, 3,000 homes were built. The last homes were finished in 1998.

Click on "Baywood Village" from the left on the left side of the screen:
http://www.harborbay.org/homepage/index3.html

Many homeowners took the ferry from Harbor Bay to San Francisco every day to work. Some lived close enough that they could walk to the ferry dock.

BBB

How beautiful.

That's beautiful, BBB.

Having lived for so long close to the ocean, I can see that you miss it,
especially in a hot, dry place like New Mexico.

Bumblebeeboogie, those are beautiful pictures. You're an architect?

I see you're located in Albuquerque, NM. I've been wondering if any A2K member lives there. My brother and his wife moved there just a few months ago, recently had a little baby girl too. I've been wondering about life in that part of the country (can't ask him, don't talk too much - but do wonder about their life there). Is it very hot by you these days?

Heatwave


No, I'm not an architect, but I've learned a lot about construction and design. I did the design work on the building's appearance, interior offices and rooms layout, kitchen design, finish materials, etc. and chose the interior and exterior colors. I also designed the exterior landscaping. The Board of Directors liked my designs so much, they hired a contractor to prepare the construction specs and blue prints as I don't have the skills to do that part of the work.

A2Kers living in New Mexico: Dyslexia and Diane, Osso Bucco, Roger, Asherman, Foxfyre.

Albuquerque is 5,000 and up above sea level in the high desert. It's called "The Land of Enchantment" for good reason. It's scenery in some parts of the state are breathtakingly beautiful. Albuquerque is a university city and is rich in the arts and culture. I've enjoyed university classes and classical concerts. I still have not made it to the Georgia O'Keeffe museum in Santa Fe, which is about a 70 mile drive.

It gets hot in August and September (today it is 96), but the heat is dry and it cools at night. We are in the middle of the "monsoon" season right now so we get a few thunder-lightening-rain storms in the late day and night time, which refreshes the air and the ground. I had to relearn landscaping in Albuquerque from what I knew in the San Francisco Bay Area climate.

When I moved to Albuquerque in 2002, I didn't know anyone, but have made new friends and enjoy my new home in a middle class neighborhood with nice neighbors who look out for me. One of my children and his family has followed me to Albuquerque from California, which is a comfort.

A lot of people have discovered Albuquerque and new houses are being built everywhere, especially on the west side of the Rio Grande river where I live. The cost of living in New Mexico is a lot less than in most of California---except for the Sante Fe area where the rich live.

BBB

Yours sounds like a very creative and fun sort of occupation. You must be very talented.

Thank you for the Albuquerque snapshot. It sounds like a beautiful place. I do hope to visit some day.