Little Seneca Lake is a
reservoir
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
located near the
Boyds community in
Montgomery County,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
.
Overview
The surface area of the lake is 505 acres (2.04 km
2). The average depth is 24.7 feet (7.5 m) with a maximum depth of 68 feet (21 m). The capacity of the lake is 4.5 billion gallons (17 million m
3).
The lake was created by the construction of a
dam
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...
on
Little Seneca Creek
Little Seneca Creek is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 15, 2011 stream in Montgomery County, Maryland, roughly northwest of Washington, D.C.
Geography
The ...
. It was built to provide an emergency water supply for the metropolitan
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
area, and it also provides a recreational amenity for the public.
Drinking water supply
The lake was completed in 1984 and the water supply dam is operated by the
Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC Water) is a bi-county political subdivision of the State of Maryland that provides safe drinking water and wastewater treatment for Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Maryland excep ...
(WSSC).
WSSC shares the drinking water resource with two adjacent public water suppliers, the
Washington Aqueduct
The Washington Aqueduct is an aqueduct that provides the public water supply system serving Washington, D.C., and parts of its suburbs, using water from the Potomac River. One of the first major aqueduct projects in the United States, the Aquedu ...
and the
Fairfax County Water Authority Fairfax County Water Authority (FCWA or more recently Fairfax Water for short) is the main water company in the Northern Virginia region of the United States, and one of the four major water providers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area (the ...
.
Recreational facilities
The lake is located in Black Hill Regional Park. Fishing and boating facilities are available at the park. The lake is stocked for recreational fishing. Fish species found in the lake include
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 ...
,
tiger muskie
The tiger muskellunge (''Esox masquinongy × lucius'' or ''Esox lucius × masquinongy''), commonly called tiger muskie, is a carnivorous fish, and is the usually-sterile, hybrid offspring of the true muskellunge (''Esox masquinongy'') and the no ...
,
channel catfish,
sunfish,
perch
Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Per ...
and
crappie.
See also
*
Seneca Creek
References
External links
Seneca Creek Watershed Partners- Volunteer stewardship organization
Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission
{{authority control
Chesapeake Bay watershed
Reservoirs in Maryland
Lakes of Montgomery County, Maryland
Potomac River watershed