Salinity concentration increases due to seawater inflow... Ongjin County Council begins construction on Baengnyeong Lake utilization plan

Salinity concentration increases due to seawater inflow... Ongjin County Council begins utilization plan service

(Incheon = Yonhap News) Reporter Hwang Jeong-hwan = A plan is being promoted to utilize the freshwater lake, which was created to supply agricultural water on Baengnyeong Island in the northernmost part of the West Sea, but has not been able to function properly for over 30 years due to high salinity, as a tourism and ecological resource.

According to Ongjin-gun, Incheon City, etc. on the 25th, Baengnyeong Island Freshwater Lake (Baengnyeong Lake) was created in the early and mid-1990s as part of the ‘Jinchon District Unfinished Reclamation Development Project’.

Baengnyeong Lake, which has an area of ​​2,200 ha, was created to supply agricultural water to the surrounding agricultural land created through the development of reclaimed land.

However, as the salinity concentration increases due to the inflow of seawater, it cannot be used as agricultural water.

In fact, Ongjin County measured the water quality at six locations in Baengnyeong Lake in 2023 through a service, and the chlorine ion concentration was found to be over 1,000 mg/L, which is four times higher than the standard for agricultural water (250 mg/L).

Accordingly, the Ongjin County Council recently held a briefing session on the launch of a research service to prepare a plan to utilize Baengnyeong Lake as a base for tourism, ecology, and environmental education.

The county council judged that it was necessary to utilize Baekryeong Lake and surrounding sites as tourism resources as an increase in tourists is expected as the construction of Baengnyeong Airport is promoted.

In this service, we plan to prepare a roadmap to improve the water quality of Baengnyeong Lake and discover tourism programs such as waterside tours and water cruises.

The county council plans to use the service results as data that can be linked to government-funded projects such as support projects under the Special Act on Support of the West Sea 5 Islands and local extinction response funds.

Hong Nam-gon, a member of the Ongjin County Council, said, “This service is to find ways to utilize Baengnyeong Lake by dividing it into freshwater and saltwater areas. Once the results of the service are released, we plan to propose policy directions to relevant organizations such as Ongjin County and the Korea Rural Community Corporation.”