Lake Assessment Program - Siseebakwet Lake, Itasca County, Minnesota

Lake Assessment Program - Siseebakwet Lake, Itasca County, Minnesota

2001

This report and the work upon which it is based goes beyond the traditional scope of a Lake Assessment Project led by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. One of the primary reasons for expanding beyond a typical Lake Assessment Project was the need expressed by the Itasca Soil and Water Conservation District to better understand the processes at work in many of the atypical lakes in the Itasca County region. Many of these atypical lakes exhibit characteristics that are similar to those of Siseebakwet Lake. A characteristic shared among these lakes may be that portions of their source waters travel through calcium-rich sediments. These calcium-rich source waters or calciumrich lake bed materials could have significant impacts on lake water transparency and user perceptions of lake water quality. In the mid to late 1990s, concerns began to grow that the clarity of water in Siseebakwet Lake might be getting progressively worse. The concerns intensified when, in 1997, the summer mean of Secchi disk transparency measurements was only 6.9 ft. compared to a (recent) historical average summer mean of about 12 ft. In contrast to 1997 conditions, summer mean Secchi disk transparencies as high as 16.1 ft. had been reported as recently as 1989 and 1990. Field work and study to better understand Siseebakwet Lake and the surrounding area were stepped up in 1998 and 1999 to address the concerns.

Thurnblad, Tim

MPCA

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Itasca County Soil and Water Conservation District
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Siseebakwet Lake Association

205

Surface Water
Water Quality & Pollutants
Water Use & Availability
Water Conveyance & Hydraulics

water quality
water qualities
water-quality
water-qualities
water quality indicator
water quality indicators
water quality parameter
water quality parameters
land use
land uses
land-use
land-uses
water quality assessment
water quality assessments
water-quality assessment
water-quality assessments
water quality data
water quality protection
water quality & pollutants
water quality and pollutants
water quality restoration
lake assess
lake assessed
lake assesses
lake assessing
surface water quality
lake assessment program
lake assessment
Itasca County
Siseebakwet Lake

2000-2009

No

Public Domain

Minnesota Water Research Digital Library