Bear Lake Water-Quality Data Visualizations
Bear Lake water quality data visualizations are monitored and plotted with depth over time for two locations on Bear Lake each season.
Water-quality instrumentation has been deployed on Bear Lake every spring since 2018. The instrumentation is housed on two floating platforms that are anchored at specific locations until late fall, when they must be removed before freezing air temperatures are reached. One platform has remained at a permanent location, while the other platform has rotated to various locations on the lake. Platform locations are shown above.
Seven water-quality parameters (temperature, specific conductance, pH, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, phycocyanin, and turbidity) are measured from each platform every 4 hours at 1-meter intervals from 1 meter below the lake’s surface to a location near the bottom of the lake.
The data is then sent through cellular service to the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS). After being reviewed and consolidated, the data is uploaded into the interactive data visualizations accessible from this page.
Water quality monitoring at Bear Lake tends to be done on a seasonal or more sporadic basis, which makes it difficult to identify short and long term water quality changes related to the issues described above, and build a robust baseline dataset that will be necessary for assessing future impacts to the lake. In addition, there are few weather stations in the vicinity of Bear Lake, which makes it difficult to interpret physical and chemical water data (e.g., water temperature and dissolved oxygen variability in response to net short and longwave radiation) or to compute lake energy budgets that are needed for evaporation estimates. To enhance water quality and weather monitoring at Bear Lake and address concerns about lake water quality and water budgets, the USGS, in cooperation with several local and state organizations/agencies, proposes to install two automated water quality profiling and weather monitoring platforms.
PARTNERS
Bear Lake Watch
Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Water Quality
PacifiCorp
Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Quality
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
This brilliant photo of an iconic aqua-marine Bear Lake on the Utah-Idaho state line was taken by Jake Seawolf on a chilly day in November 2022.
