Blue Lake (

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

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 east of the town of

Sitka russian: Ситка , native_name_lang = tli , settlement_type = Consolidated city-borough , image_skyline = File:Sitka 84 Elev 135.jpg , image_caption = Downtown Sitka in 1984 , image_size ...

, on the west side of

Baranof Island Baranof Island is an island in the northern Alexander Archipelago in the Alaska Panhandle, in Alaska. The name Baranof was given in 1805 by Imperial Russian Navy captain U. F. Lisianski to honor Alexander Andreyevich Baranov. It was called Sh ...

, in the

Alexander Archipelago The Alexander Archipelago (russian: Архипелаг Александра) is a long archipelago (group of islands) in North America lying off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, the tops of submerged coastal m ...

of Southeast Alaska.

Name and geology

The local descriptive name was reported in 1910 by Knopf (1912, fig 4), in

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

. Blue Lake, as its name suggests, possesses a deep blue hue to its water. Blue Lake's water sources are partially from snowpack and small

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...

s from the glacially carved, U-shaped, Blue Lake valley in which it lies.

Dam

Blue lake was first dammed in 1913 by Sitka Wharf and Power Company. It sold its operation to the city in 1942. Floods damaged the infrastructure in 1943 and 1947. Blue Lake was dammed again in 1958, greatly expanding the lake's size from to and increasing its height from to . Dam fluctuations allow the lake elevation to vary up to . The Blue Lake dam, along with the Green Lake Dam, combine to make Sitka's mainstream power sources exclusively hydroelectric. Blue Lake Road is used to reach the lake from Sawmill Cove, allowing residents to use kayaks and

canoe A canoe is a lightweight narrow water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle. In British English, the ter ...

s to more easily access peaks further up the Blue Lake valley, like Clarence Kramer Peak. Blue Lake Campground lies along this road. The road itself is very dangerous, often winding above cliff ledges. There are also many

avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and eart ...

chutes located along the road which can pose a hazard or block it completely in winter.

Water rights

Currently, at the Sawmill Cove Industrial Park, there is a small water bottling operation utilizing the water that originates from the watershed. Two other companies retain rights to export of the water in the future. In 2010 a Texas company S2C Global Systems announced that it was moving forward with a plan to ship of fresh lake water a year from Blue Lake to the west coast of India."S2C Global Announces India World Water Hub"
, July 7, 2010. The deal would represent the world's first regular, bulk exports of water via tanker."Alaska City Set to Ship Water to India, U.S. Company Announces"
Circle of Blue, July 11, 2010 The water would be redistributed to places in India, southeast Asia and the Middle East. The town of Sitka could earn up to $90 million a year in revenue. Between 2009 and 2021, the city of Sitka made about $1.4 million selling water rights. However, none of the efforts to export water from Blue Lake have been very successful. Alaska permits allow Sitka to export approximately 9.5 billion gallons of raw water annually. Currently, Sitka has only one active water purchase agreement for around 1 percent of that total allotment. This agreement has allowed Eckert Fine Beverages to export a few thousand gallons of Blue Lake water to a California subsidiary, Reigncane Vodka.

References

{{authority control Reservoirs in Alaska Lakes of Sitka, Alaska Buildings and structures in Sitka, Alaska Protected areas of Sitka, Alaska