Deep Creek Lake Maps

This is a brief overview of the things I have done with respect to keeping Deep Creek Lake a healthy environment.

For those interested in details, I suggest reading the article entitled “Understanding Lake Data” by Byron Shaw, Christine Mechenich, and Lowell Klessig. It provides an excellent overview of all the things one must consider about the science of a lake. The article includes a glossary of terms related the physical and chemical characteristics. The science of a lake is called “lymnology” and a person knowlegable of this area is a limnologist.

The University of Wisconsin has an excellent program to deal with lakes. We should learn from them.

In this context, Deep Creek Lake is an “impoundment.” According to the above reference, an impoundment is drained by a stream. In our case, however, the impoundment is drained by letting water run through two hydroelectric turbines. There are several articles on this website that deal with the Hydro Electric Facility, namely here, here, and here.

There are several factors that can help in assessing the needs of a lake:

1. Retention Time - the length of time the water remains in the lake
2. Drainage basin/lake area ratio - the size of the watershed feeding the lake relative to the size of the lake
3. Lake water levels - these fluctuate as a function of precipitation and the operations of the hydroelectric facility
4. Water clarity - clarity is an indicator or measure of water quality
5. The trophic state - another indicator of water quality that mostly reflects the nutrient concentrations in the water.
6. Chemical Properties - there are a whole bunch of chemicals that affect the well being of the lake. The “Understanding Lake Data” reference discusses these in detail.

Retention Time

The water levels are kept within a range of lake levels specified in the MDE issued permit. This means that the turbines operate at a capacity factor of around 18%. The lake level remains essentially the same within a small range of elevations. Hence an estimate of residence time is effectively about 80% of a year, or roughly 290 days.

Drainage Basin/Lake Area Ratio

The surface area of the lake at full pool is about 3,900 acres. The area of the watershed is about 64 square miles. Hence the drainage basin area to lake area ratio is about (1 square mile is 640 acres) 10.5, which is a relatively small number.

Lake Water Levels

The hydro-electric turbines are operated in such a way that the lake levels remain within a permit-specified ruleband. The difference between full pool and lowest level during the year is about 7 ft.