Lake Assessment Program - Lake Henderson, Kandiyohi County

Henderson Lake is located in Kandiyohi County near the city of Spicer. The lake has a surface area of 73 acres. The total watershed is about 219 acres. Land use in the watershed is characterized primarily by residential (21 percent), pasture/open (24 percent), and water and marsh (42 percent) uses. These land-use percentages are higher than most lake watersheds in this ecoregion of the state, the North Central Hardwood Forests ecoregion, except for cultivated use which is lower than comparable watersheds. Total phosphorus, chlorophyll a and Secchi transparency help to characterize the trophic status of a lake. In the summer of 1996, to determine the trophic status of Henderson Lake, it was sampled and monitored by Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) staff and citizens from the Henderson Lake Association (the Association). Water quality data collected during the study revealed a summer-mean total phosphorus (TP) concentration of 19 pa, a mean chlorophyll a of 4.6 pgL and a Secchi transparency of 11.2 feet. These measures indicate mesotrophic conditions for Henderson Lake but all three measures for Henderson Lake are lower than the range of values exhibited by reference lakes in the NCHF ecoregion.