Limnological Conditions and Occurrence of Taste-And-Odor Compounds in Lake William C. Bowen and Municipal Reservoir #1, Spartanburg County, South Caro

Limnological conditions and the occurrence of taste-and- odor compounds were studied in two reservoirs in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, from May 2006 to June 2009. Lake William C. Bowen and Municipal Reservoir #1 are rela- tively shallow, meso-eutrophic, warm monomictic, cascading impoundments on the South Pacolet River. Overall, water- quality conditions and phytoplankton community assem- blages were similar between the two reservoirs but differed seasonally. Median dissolved geosmin concentrations in the reservoirs ranged from 0.004 to 0.006 microgram per liter. Annual maximum dissolved geosmin concentrations tended to occur between March and May. In this study, peak dissolved geosmin production occurred in April and May 2008, ranging from 0.050 to 0.100 microgram per liter at the deeper reservoir sites. Peak dissolved geosmin production was not concurrent with maximum cyanobacterial biovolumes, which tended to occur in the summer (July to August), but was concurrent with a peak in the fraction of genera with known geosmin- producing strains in the cyanobacteria group. Nonetheless, annual maximum cyanobacterial biovolumes rarely resulted in cyanobacteria dominance of the phytoplankton community.