Jewels Across the Landscape: Monitoring and Assessing the Quality of Lakes & Reservoirs in the United States
An early naturalist described lakes as “jewels” across the landscape and indeed they were…early on. As we settled the country and began to tap the lake resource for our needs, things changed. Additionally, our thirst for water brought about the construction of impoundments from ice ponds to small stock ponds up to mainstem impoundments along our major rivers. So rather than just natural lakes in our northern tier of states, unique physiographic regions such as Florida and the Sand Hills of Nebraska, and the mountainous regions, we have lakes (impoundments) scattered across the entire landscape. In this chapter, we will describe efforts by an unique partnership between the States and the US Environmental Protection Agency to monitor and assess these system which go beyond single water quality (chemistry) issues and include their assessment toward the goal of the Clean Water Act…restoring, maintaining, and protecting the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the nation’s lakes and reservoirs.