About Watersheds
Within each of the large river basins, water drains into creeks, streams and lakes. The nature of a particular lake depends not only on its physical setting, but also on what enters it from its surroundings. Water enters a lake from its drainage basin carrying tiny particles of soil and organic matter and dissolved substances including nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen. Water also enters the lake underground. As well, lakes receive precipitation from the atmosphere. Each lake's water quality reflects the contribution of all these materials and of sunlight and wind energy. Skeleton Lake has a very small drainage basin consisting of a ratio of 4:1 land mass compared to water surface area. In contrast, other lakes in the area will have a ratio of 30:1 or 40:1. The result is that Skeleton Lake is very clear as there are fewer nutrients flowing into the lake from the land, but at the same time, it is also very susceptible to increased outflow because its inflow is so limited. We believe that Skeleton Lake cannot support the current outflow of 48 million gallons of water per year from the Town of Boyle.
With such a fragile watershed ratio (4:1), the lake cannot support substantial manmade outflow diversions without upsetting the water balance equation and putting the lake into continuous decline.
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