LACAMAS LAKE

'Lacamas Lake' is a small lake in Clark County, Washington. It is a popular place to fish and water ski for locals from Vancouver, Camas and Washougal. In the 1990s many high tech manufacturing plants and expensive housing developments began to appear in the area around the lake. The lake is very warm compared to other lakes in the area. As it is now, the 60 foot deep lake cannot support life below about 18 feet.(see "Dead Zone" below)

Contents

Water quality

"Dead Zone"

External links

Water quality

At the lake's south-east side it connects with Round Lake at the SR 500 bridge. The 43,000 acres (174 km²) around these lakes collect precipitation and form the Lacamas Creek which feeds into both lakes. This area is mostly large open fields and private farm or ranch land. The resulting runoff contains high levels of fertilizers which leads to nutrient abundance in both lakes. This nutrient abundance has caused plant overgrowth and algae problems. Consequently only a few fish species are able to live in either lake ( brown trout, rainbow trout, largemouth bass, bluegill, crappie, yellow perch,catfish and sturgeon). The government considers the lake to be eutrophic.

"Dead Zone"

One of the reasons the lake cannot support many fish is because of severe pollution from phosphorus, nitrogen and ammonia. The phosphorus, nitrogen and ammonia collect in the lake water and the lake bed from polluted streams that run into the lake after passing through farm fields, barnyards and subdivisions.
As it is now, the 12.5-mile-long lake is murky and gives off a foul odor in the summer. The sun warms the top layer of lake water and makes it suitable for warm-water fish such as bass, bluegill and perch. The plants clog the surface of the lake to a depth of about 18 feet, so no oxygen from the air can penetrate to the deep, cold water at the bottom. The visibility of the lake is usually less than 1 foot. It is a very green murky water.
As the undesirable plants die, their leaves sink to the bottom, where they decay, using up still more oxygen, making the colder depths barren and lifeless. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife makes the lake more fishable by planting brown or rainbow trout, but few survive year to year.

External links

★ Information on government monitoring of the lake