Blue Mountain
Lake
Watershed & Water Quality Modeling GIS
About Blue Mountain Lake
Blue Mountain Lake is located in the hamlet of Blue Mountain Lake within the township of Indian Lake, Hamilton County, New York, at an approximate latitude and longitude of 43 51' 09" N, 74 28' 16" W. The surface area of Blue Mountain Lake is 1,334 acres. The elevation of Blue Mountain Lake is 1,662 feet (545.3 m) above mean sea level. Blue Mountain Lake has a maximum depth of approximately 100 feet (32.8 m), and a mean depth of approximately 46 feet (14.1 m).
Blue Mountain Lake's small watershed (7,130 acres) is the headwaters of the Raquette River. The outlet of Blue Mountain Lake flows unrestricted through Eagle Lake, over the dam at Utowana Lake, and to Raquette Lake as the Marion River. From there, the Raquette River flows through Forked Lake, Long Lake, Raquette Pond/Tupper Lake, the Carry Falls Reservoir and a number of smaller reservoirs. The Raquette River eventually enters the Saint Lawrence River at the Canadian border in upper Franklin County.
Water Quality Modeling using Watershed GIS
Although the lake had excellent water quality, local concern over the potential damaging effects of development within the watershed and the lack of available scientific information on water quality led to the initiation of this project. The project had two main goals: 1) to establish the current water quality status of Blue Mountain Lake, and 2) to develop a computer model for use in managing growth within the watershed. A watershed geographic information system was developed to facilitate our modeling efforts.
The figures below illustrate some aspects of the watershed GIS and modeling output (click on the images to "zoom in" and use back button to return to this page). The chapters on the modeling effort from the final report are available as a PDF document. You can also view the full final report (PDF), which includes a summary of water quality, or just read the Executive Summary (PDF).
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This figures illustrates the APA land use catagories in the Blue Mountain Lake watershed, which were used to calculate the potential for development within the watershed |
This figure illustrates the predicted impact on in-lake total phosphorus based on several modeling scenarios.* |
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This figure illustrates the predicted impact on in-lake chlorophyll a based on several modeling scenarios.* |
This figure illustrates the predicted impact on in-lake transparency based on several modeling scenarios.* |
*The first two dots show actual lake values, the second two dots show model-predicted current conditions, the fifth dot shows the effect of complete watershed development, and the last dot shows the effect of allowing watershed development up to a target in-lake chlorophyll a level of 2 micrograms per liter or less.