What's the story behind the blue pond at Franklin Parker?

Gibbs

New Member
Jan 22, 2016
8
0
NJ.
Theres a pond in the Franklin Parker Preserve that has unaturally light blue color to it. The water is very clear and looks nothing like the water in the surrounding bogs. Is this water pure or has some pollutant caused the strange color?

Any ideas?
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,692
4,863
Pines; Bamber area
I've likely been to that one (off 532, right?). They dug the sand out to build dikes or use it for something else. Therefore it is like any gravel pit you see that was man made. It is really the upper ground water level they have reached by their digging.

Why the blue color? I'm not sure without researching it, but it may be the clean bottom helping provide some reflection for the suns rays.
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,678
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millville nj
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The water is pure with very little vegetable matter or tannins in it,no mud on bottom which is why many barrens streams appear black or reddish if the bottom is sandy and the water full of tannins. Blue comes from the fact that blue light scatters more easily then other colors of the spectrum because the wave length is shorter,this is why the sky is blue and the water is just reflecting the color of the sky.The ponds will not be blue when the sky is nasty.
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,678
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millville nj
www.youtube.com
Whoops,just read Spung mans post.Algae? Really? I know algae can make some ponds green and so can suspended clay particles such as the Buffalo River with it's greenish blue water from suspended clay.
 

Gibbs

New Member
Jan 22, 2016
8
0
NJ.
I've likely been to that one (off 532, right?). They dug the sand out to build dikes or use it for something else. Therefore it is like any gravel pit you see that was man made. It is really the upper ground water level they have reached by their digging.

Why the blue color? I'm not sure without researching it, but it may be the clean bottom helping provide some reflection for the suns rays.

Yes that's the one. It's not far from 532 in the Franklin Parker Preserve. I saw it and wondered if the color was due to purity or pollutants. It sure looked clear.
 

amf

Explorer
May 20, 2006
155
50
Swedesboro
Might be limestone deposits in the water.
No limestone in this neck o' the woods. One theory I always heard was a lack of nutrients limiting growth of algae and micro-organizms. Look at an aerial photo of sand pits and newer ones will tend to be sky-blue.
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,678
2,593
60
millville nj
www.youtube.com
I think the newer ones are sky blue from blue light being scattered by the suspended silica particles in the water whereas the older ones have less suspended matter in them but yes I"ve noticed that as well and it's apparent on a sunny day on the ground as well. The newer lakes down here in haleyville look sky blue when driving past them and they are still being used today .A newer hole also burns your eyes when you swim in it.I have heard it's from Hydrochloric acid they use to clean the sand.I never get that burn from swimming in a hole thats been abandoned for awhile.
 

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
2,144
Coastal NJ
No limestone in this neck o' the woods. One theory I always heard was a lack of nutrients limiting growth of algae and micro-organizms. Look at an aerial photo of sand pits and newer ones will tend to be sky-blue.

But, but, the NJCF may have thrown some bags of it in that pond during their restoration work :)
 

Trailwalker

Scout
Sep 5, 2023
51
34
(ex-piney) in Florida
I think the newer ones are sky blue from blue light being scattered by the suspended silica particles in the water whereas the older ones have less suspended matter in them but yes I"ve noticed that as well and it's apparent on a sunny day on the ground as well. The newer lakes down here in haleyville look sky blue when driving past them and they are still being used today .A newer hole also burns your eyes when you swim in it.I have heard it's from Hydrochloric acid they use to clean the sand.I never get that burn from swimming in a hole thats been abandoned for awhile.
we used to refer to the green colored ones as "dioxyn ponds". Growing up near Ciba Geigy it paid to be cautious.
 
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