Lake Whatcom (from the Lummi word for "loud water") is located in Whatcom County, Washington. It is the drinking water source for approximately 85,000 residents in the City of Bellingham as well as Whatcom County. It is approximately 10 miles total in length and 1 mile in width at its widest. Lake Whatcom is located and managed within 3 political jurisdictions, the City Of Bellingham, Whatcom County and Lake Whatcom Water and Sewer District. The lake is a popular source of motor boating, swimming, fishing and other recreational activities.
The lake is divided into three basins. Basin 1, the Silver Beach Basin is the furthest north, and has a maximum depth of 100 feet (30 m). Land use in Basin 1 is primarily residential development, with one large park and several small parks. Basin 2, the Geneva Basin is the central basin where the drinking water for the city of Bellingham is withdrawn. This basin is the shallowest, with a maximum depth of just 40–60 feet (12–18 m). Land use is still primarily residential with a mix of lake protection program properties and some rural forestry. Basin 3 is the southernmost basin, and is the most remote. At its greatest depth basin 3 is 328 feet (100 m) deep, and is estimated to contain 96% of the lake's total water volume. Land use in Basin 3 is composed of scattered residential development, mostly in the community of Sudden Valley, as well as rural and commercial forestry. The total area of the Lake Whatcom Watershed is 142 square kilometers (or 56 square miles).
There are 9 annual streams and approximately 25 additional small creeks and tributaries that flow into Lake Whatcom. Accounting for 23 sub-watersheds in all. Lake Whatcom drains into Bellingham Bay by way of Whatcom Creek.
The lake has only one island, the 3-acre (12,000 m2) Reveille Island, owned by Camp Firwood, which is believed to be the site of past ceremonies by Native Americans, due to the presence of pictographs and a zoomorphic stone bowl found on the island.
Read more about Lake Whatcom: Brief History, Water Quality, Pollution, Hydrology, Invasive Species, Climate Change, Fish, Watershed Land Use
Famous quotes containing the word lake:
“What a wilderness walk for a man to take alone! None of your half-mile swamps, none of your mile-wide woods merely, as on the skirts of our towns, without hotels, only a dark mountain or a lake for guide-board and station, over ground much of it impassable in summer!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)