Lake Killarney is a lake in

King County, Washington King County is located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population was 2,269,675 in the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Washington, and the 13th-most populous in the United States. The county seat is Seattle, also the ...

. It is located on the city line of

Federal Way, Washington Federal Way is a city in King County, Washington, United States. One of the most recently incorporated cities in the county, its population was 101,030 at the 2020 census. Federal Way is the tenth-largest city in Washington and the fifth-large ...

and the

Lakeland South, Washington Lakeland South is a census-designated place (CDP) in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 11,574 at the 2010 census. Based on per capita income, one of the more reliable measures of affluence, Lakeland South ranks 65th of 5 ...

census designated place. It is popular for recreation, with fishing opportunities and a public park. The lake has suffered from

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, ...

pollution. Lake Killarney is one of several lakes in Lakeland South, including

Lake Geneva , image = Lake Geneva by Sentinel-2.jpg , caption = Satellite image , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = Switzerland, France , coords = , lake_type = Glacial la ...

Fivemile Lake Fivemile Lake is located in southern King County, Washington in the Lakeland South census-designated place. It has a popular park on its eastern bank. Fivemile Lake is one of several lakes in Lakeland South, including Lake Killarney, Lake Genev ...

, and Trout Lake.

Description

Lake Killarney Open Space Park is a large park located on the lake's western shore. There is also a Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife boat ramp on the northeastern corner, across the road from Lake Geneva. It has many fish species, including bluegill,

brown bullhead The brown bullhead (''Ameiurus nebulosus'') is a fish of the family Ictaluridae that is widely distributed in North America. It is a species of bullhead catfish and is similar to the black bullhead (''Ameiurus melas'') and yellow bullhead (''Am ...

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, bu ...

, pumpkinseed sunfish, rainbow trout, and

yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch, American river perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Sam ...

. Lake Killarney has a watershed. It is a moderately productive,

mesotrophic lake The Trophic State Index (TSI) is a classification system designed to rate water bodies based on the amount of biological productivity they sustain. Although the term "trophic index" is commonly applied to lakes, any surface water body may be inde ...

. Nutrient concentrations have been generally decreasing over time, improving water quality.

Arsenic pollution

Lake Killarney is located downwind of a former

ASARCO Asarco LLC (American Smelting and Refining Company) is a mining, smelting, and refining company based in Tucson, Arizona, which mines and processes primarily copper. The company has been a subsidiary of Grupo México since 1999. Its three la ...

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

smelter in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Pa ...

Arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, ...

and

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

blew downwind, contaminating Lake Killarney and the surrounding area. Researchers at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

have found that shallow lakes, such as Lake Killarney, have higher surface water concentrations of arsenic than deeper lakes, such as Angle Lake. They hypothesize that this occurs due to incomplete

stratification Stratification may refer to: Mathematics * Stratification (mathematics), any consistent assignment of numbers to predicate symbols * Data stratification in statistics Earth sciences * Stable and unstable stratification * Stratification, or st ...

in shallow lakes, preventing arsenic from settling at the bottom. In addition, phytoplankton can absorb arsenic instead of chemically similar

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...

. This then harms other organisms through the effects of

biomagnification Biomagnification, also known as bioamplification or biological magnification, is any concentration of a toxin, such as pesticides, in the tissues of tolerant organisms at successively higher levels in a food chain. This increase can occur as a ...

and bioaccumulation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Killarney Federal Way, Washington Lakes of King County, Washington Parks in King County, Washington Lakes of Washington (state)