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**Chapter 6**

**Abstract**

Clean Water Act

**1. Introduction**

Jewels across the Landscape:

the United States

*and Alan T. Herlihy*

Monitoring and Assessing the

*David V. Peck, Steven G. Paulsen, Philip R. Kaufmann* 

physical, and biological integrity of the nation's lakes and reservoirs.

**Keywords:** lakes, reservoirs, monitoring, assessment, National Lakes Assessment, United States, ecological indicators, survey design, National Aquatic Resource Assessments, water quality, trophic state, biological integrity, lakeshore habitat,

The United States' love affair with lakes dates back a long way. In 1896, MacGonigle [1] described lakes in central Florida this way: "Dotting the landscape, like jewels of crystal in a field of green, are numberless lakes, varying in size from a gem-like lakelet to the broad expanse of Okeechobee". Many states, in particular Vermont, New York, Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, have extensive histories and ties with their lakes. In this chapter, we discuss why lake monitoring is important, and what are the essential characteristics of the U.S. National Lakes Assessment (NLA) that allow us to rigorously characterize the status of this pre-

cious lake resource and track how the status is changing over time.

Quality of Lakes and Reservoirs in

An early naturalist described lakes as "jewels" across the landscape and indeed they were…at the end of the nineteenth century. As we settled the country and began to utilize the lake resource for our needs, things changed. Additionally, our needs for water brought about the construction of impoundments from ice ponds to small stock ponds up to mainstem impoundments along our major rivers. The lake resource in the United States now includes natural lakes in our northern tier of states, unique physiographic regions such as Florida and the Sand Hills of Nebraska, and the mountainous regions, and impoundments scattered across the entire landscape. In this chapter, we will describe efforts by an unique partnership between the individual states and tribal nations of the USA and the US Environmental Protection Agency to monitor and assess these systems. These efforts go beyond single water quality (chemistry) issues and include assessments targeting the goal of the Clean Water Act, namely, restoring, maintaining, and protecting the chemical,
