Hydrology, water quality, and nutrient loads to the Bauman Park Lake, Cherry Valley, Winnebago County, Illinois, May 1996–April 1997

The Bauman Park Lake occupies a former sand and gravel quarry in the Village of Cherry Valley, Illinois. The lake is eutrophic, and nuisance growths of algae and aquatic macrophytes are supported by nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) that are derived primarily from ground-water inflow, the main source of water for the lake. The lake has an average depth of about 18 feet, a maximum depth of about 28 feet, and a volume of 466 acre-feet at a stage of about 717 feet above sea level. The lake also is subject to thermal stratification, and although most of the lake is well oxidized, nearly anoxic conditions were present at the lake bottom during part of the summer of 1996.

About 734 pounds phosphorus and 4,575 pounds of nitrogen compounds were added to the Bauman Park Lake from May 1996 through April 1997. Phosphorus compounds were derived primarily from inflow from ground water (68.7 percent), sediments derived from shoreline erosion (15.6 percent), internal regeneration (11.7 percent), waterfowl excrement (1.6 percent), direct precipitation and overland runoff (1.2 percent), and particulate matter deposited from the atmosphere (1.2 percent). Nitrogen compounds were derived from inflow from ground water (62.1 percent), internal regeneration (19.6 percent), direct precipitation and overland runoff (10.1 percent), particulate matter deposited from the atmosphere (3.5 percent), sediments derived from shoreline erosion (4.4 percent), and waterfowl excrement (0.3 percent). About 13 pounds of phosphorus and 318 pounds of nitrogen compounds flow out of the lake to ground water. About 28 pounds of nitrogen is removed by denitrification.

Algae and aquatic macrophytes utilize nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and dissolved phosphorus. The availability of dissolved phosphorus in the lake water controls algal growth. Uptake of the nutrients, by aquatic macrophytes and algae, temporarily removes nutrients from the water column but not from the lake basin. Because the amount of nutrients entering the lake greatly exceeds the amount leaving, the nutrients are concentrated in the sediments at the lake bottom, where they can be used by the rooted aquatic macrophytes and released to the water column when the proper geochemical conditions are present.