Indiana Lake Water Quality

By The GeoWhiz (GeoFact of the Day Blog)

The trophic state index (TSI) is a mechanism to determine the amount of nutrients and other substances in water. A higher trophic state index is usually not a good thing. Nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen (usually from fertilizer runoff) causes phytoplankton to thrive in a process called eutrophication; this depletes oxygen (hypoxia) and possibly threatens aquatic life. In the Indiana Clean Lakes Program's latest Lake Water Quality Assessment Report, Jones, Clark, Bond, and Powers (see citation below) studied hundreds of lakes to research water quality. They found that almost half of all Indiana lakes in 2009 experienced eutrophication or hypereutrophication (Jones et al. 2012, pg. 20).

18 of the studied lakes are hypereutrophic; these lakes have water transparency less than 1 meter, high nutrient concentrations, thick algal scum, and plenty of weeds, according to the study. The trophic state index value in hypereutrophic lakes is 65 or greater. Below are the hypereutrophic lakes grouped by county (pgs. 47-50) and are embedded in a Google Map:

Fulton: King Lake (TSI: 67)
Hamilton: Morse Reservoir (66)
Jennings: Brush Creek Reservoir (65)
Kosciusko: McClures Lake (66)
Lake: Lake George (67)
LaPorte: Tamarack Lake (74)
Marshall: Lake of the Woods (65)
Monroe: Lake Lemon (69)
Newton: J.C. Murphy Lake (74)
Noble: Mud Lake in the Chain O' Lakes State Park (65)
Putnam: Glenn Flint Lake (65)
Ripley: Bischoff Reservoir (67) and Versailles Lake (74)
Spencer: Dale Reservoir (71)
Steuben: Fish Lake (65)
Sullivan: Lake Sullivan (67)
White: Lake Shafer (69)
Whitley: Troy Cedar Lake (66)


Lake location markers might not appear in Internet Explorer (they do appear in Google Chrome); you can also access this link to view the map in the regular-sized Google Maps window.

Reference Cited
Jones, William, Melissa Clark, Julia Bond, and Sarah Powers. January 2012. "Indiana Lake Water Quality Assessment Report for 2009-2011." Indiana Department of Environmental Management Clean Lakes Program, Indianapolis, Indiana.