Dell Creek is a warm

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

that lies in northeastern

Sauk County Sauk County is a county in Wisconsin. It is named after a large village of the Sauk people. As of the 2020 census, the population was 65,763. Its county seat and largest city is Baraboo. The county was created in 1840 from Wisconsin Territory a ...

and southern Juneau County in central

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. Dell Creek was named from the dells which occur along its course. Dell Creek is a warm water sport fishery for the lower 1.5 miles and a Class II trout stream for the upper 10.5 miles of its length. The creek is classified as an exceptional resource water. Much of Dell Creek's length in Sauk County is publicly owned. The main problems on the creek are sediment and nutrient loading from agricultural sources and a lack of in-stream habitat. Surveys conducted in 1995 found low numbers of trout and determined the water quality to be from fair to poor in some locations. This indicates that the stream has experienced some severe environmental damage. It is thought that the limited habitat is one of the limiting factors for aquatic life. There are also two large

impoundment Impoundment may refer to: Water control * The result of a dam, creating a body of water ** A reservoir, formed by a dam ** Coal slurry impoundment, a specialized form of such a reservoir used for coal mining and processing * Impounded dock, an enc ...

s on Dell Creek. One creates Lake Delton and the other creates Mirror Lake. Silt and sediment from farm fields are thought to be a problem in the stream and are causing a sediment problem in the upper end of Mirror Lake. Suspected high nutrient inputs to Mirror Lake from Dell Creek are thought to be fueling the excessive aquatic plant and algae growth in the lake.Dell Creek (LW26) Watershed Map

References

{{authority control Bodies of water of Juneau County, Wisconsin Rivers of Sauk County, Wisconsin Rivers of Wisconsin