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Whitney Lake, Cumberland Island, GA (11NPSWRD_WQX-CUIS_L1_04) site data in the Water Quality Portal

Data Provider: STORET (Learn more about Water Quality Portal Data Providers)

This wetland palustrine-emergent site, maintained by the National Park Service Water Resources Division (identifier 11NPSWRD_WQX), has the name "Whitney Lake, Cumberland Island, GA" and has the identifier 11NPSWRD_WQX-CUIS_L1_04. This site is in the watershed defined by the 8 digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC)03070203.

This site is located in Camden County County, Georgia at 30.8988889000 degrees latitude and -81.4158333000 degrees longitude using the datum NAD83. No horizontal location accuracy metadata is available. This site is at an elevation of 13 ft No vertical location accuracy metadata is available.

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Location Metadata	Value
OrganizationIdentifier	11NPSWRD_WQX
OrganizationFormalName	National Park Service Water Resources Division
MonitoringLocationIdentifier	11NPSWRD_WQX-CUIS_L1_04
MonitoringLocationName	Whitney Lake, Cumberland Island, GA
MonitoringLocationTypeName	Wetland Palustrine-Emergent
MonitoringLocationDescriptionText	Whitney Lake is the largest and most permanent freshwater body on Cumberland Island, and is classified by the NWI as palustrine emergent and palustrine with an unconsolidated bottom. The location of Whitney Lake at the northern end of the Sweetwater Lake Complex and just west of a large system of dunes suggests similar hydrogeomorphology to the Sweetwater Lake Complex. Due to its large size and large amount of open water, however, Whitney Lake is distinctly different from other wetlands and is a unique lentic feature on Cumberland Island. Whitney Lake has about 10 acres of openwater habitat, and the maximum depth approaches 5 ft in some areas near its eastern edge. A dense growth of emergent and floating aquatic vegetation surrounds the openwater portion of this lake. Comparison of photos taken in 1991 to those taken for the present study suggests that the area of floating vegetation on the western side of the lake has grown considerably in recent years. Although Whitney Lake is within 2,000 ft of the ocean, foredunes about 15 ft in height and rear dunes about 30 ft in height partially shield the lake from ocean breezes containing salt aerosols.Seawater and salt aerosols from the ocean have little effect on water quality of the lake. Whitney Lake may be well flushed by groundwater throughflow from uplands toward and into the beach outflows. The hydrochemical facies of shallow ground water near Whitney outflow was more similar to Whitney Lake water than to water collected from the Whitney outflow. This hydrochemical similarity suggests the presence of shallow freshwater near the foredune area adjacent to the beaches on the north end of Cumberland Island, and indicates upgradient source areas for recharge of freshwater that discharges into the beach outflows. The lowest concentrations of SO4 (1.7 to 7.8 mg/L), acid neutralizing capacity (ANC) (12 mg/L), and alkalinity 6.7 mg/L) were measured in Whitney Lake samples. PO4 concentrations measured in Whitney Lake (0.065 to 0.11 mg/L) are within the range expected to result in algal blooms and to support eutrophication if phosphorus existed as the limiting factor in the lake. Traceelement concentrations were low in Whitney Lake with the exception of Fe and Mn. In the March 2000 Whitney Lake sample, the Fe concentration of 760 µg/L was the highest traceelement concentration measured in wetlands sampled on Cumberland Island and exceeded the secondary standard of 300 µg/L. The Mn concentration in this sample was 44 µg/L, which is slightly less than the secondary standard of 50 µg/L. The source of moderately high concentrations of Fe and Mn in Whitney Lake may be ground water. Topographic setting of Whitney Lake and surrounding dunes, hydrochemical facies, and low but relatively consistent pH (5.3 to 5.8) and SC (179 to 240 µS/cm) indicate that in addition to seepage from ground water, rainwater also is a major source of water for Whitney Lake.With 24 taxa of aquatic invertebrates identified from samples collected in April and December 1999, the aquatic invertebrate community at Whitney Lake was the richest taxonomically of all wetlands sampled during this study. Invertebrate communities of Whitney Lake were richer during April when 18 taxa were collected compared to December when only 11 taxa were collected. Most aquatic invertebrates collected from Whitney Lake were associated with floating and emergent aquatic vegetation.Only three species of fishes were collected at Whitney Lake; however, adequate sampling of the openwater areas of Whitney Lake would have required techniques and equipment that were beyond the scope of this study and that would be difficult to implement within a wilderness area. Mosquitofish, bluegill, and warmouth were collected in the shallow, nearshore waters of Whitney Lake.
HUCEightDigitCode	03070203
LatitudeMeasure	30.8988889000
LongitudeMeasure	-81.4158333000
SourceMapScaleNumeric	24000
HorizontalCollectionMethodName	GPS-Unspecified
HorizontalCoordinateReferenceSystemDatumName	NAD83
VerticalMeasure/MeasureValue	13
VerticalMeasure/MeasureUnitCode	ft
VerticalCollectionMethodName	Topographic Map Interpolation
VerticalCoordinateReferenceSystemDatumName	NGVD29
CountryCode	US
StateCode	13
CountyCode	039
ProviderName	STORET