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New WQX 3.0 profiles are available at waterqualitydata.us/beta/. These profiles will contain recent USGS data added since March 11, 2024, which marks the beginning of limited accessibility for USGS data. Read more about the 3.0 profiles and associated changes here. This user interface only serves WQX2.2 profiles, which do NOT contain USGS data added after March 11, 2024.

WQP Home >  Providers >  STORET >  11NPSWRD_WQX >  11NPSWRD_WQX-CUIS_L1_15

Lake Retta, Cumberland Island, GA (11NPSWRD_WQX-CUIS_L1_15) 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 "Lake Retta, Cumberland Island, GA" and has the identifier 11NPSWRD_WQX-CUIS_L1_15. 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 30.8313889000 degrees latitude and -81.4358333000 degrees longitude using the datum NAD83. No horizontal location accuracy metadata is available. This site is at an elevation of 7.5 ft No vertical location accuracy metadata is available.

To download the metadata about this site along with water quality data, go to the Portal Page and enter "11NPSWRD_WQX-CUIS_L1_15" into the "Site ID" box under Site Parameters

What other monitoring locations are upstream or downstream from this one?

Upstream and downstream locations

This map shows all Water Quality Portal stations that are 10 miles upstream (dashed dark blue) and 10 miles downstream (solid light blue) of this monitoring location (indicated by the large blue circle). The upstream and downstream functionality is provided by the Network Linked Data Index.

When were data collected at this location?

Periods of record for data characteristic groups

For a more detailed breakdown of data, go to the Monitoring Report at the EPA How's My Waterway Application
Characteristic Group Date Range*
Biological, Counts 1999 - 1999
*Date ranges may contain gap years

What other information is available for this location?

Detailed Metadata

For the definitions of the metadata elements, please go to the Water Quality Portal user guide

Location Metadata Value
OrganizationIdentifier 11NPSWRD_WQX
OrganizationFormalName National Park Service Water Resources Division
MonitoringLocationIdentifier 11NPSWRD_WQX-CUIS_L1_15
MonitoringLocationName Lake Retta, Cumberland Island, GA
MonitoringLocationTypeName Wetland Palustrine-Emergent
MonitoringLocationDescriptionText Lake Retta is a palustrine scrubshrub wetland. This wetland type comprises about 4 percent of the freshwater wetlands on Cumberland Island. Lake Retta formed within or adjacent to foredunes that have impeded the natural drainage of surface water and shallow ground water from surrounding areas. Lake Retta is less than 10 ft above sea level and less than 1,500 ft west of the mean high tide, and may be susceptible to the influence of salt aerosols blown by the wind. Hillestad and others (1975, p. 56) stated that open water in Lake Retta probably is maintained by the occasional inundation of seawater that would kill emergent and floating vegetation.Wetlands within the Lake Retta complex are semipermanent. Although the surface area of these wetlands varies from year to year, the wetlands are largest during the spring before the period of maximum evapotranspiration and when precipitation is greatest. During this study, the aerial extent of many of the sampled and unsampled wetlands decreased from spring to late summer with some areas becoming completely dry with no open areas of surface water and remained so throughout the winter. The extent and hydroperiod of these wetlands was greatly diminished during spring and fall sampling in 1999, probably because of drought conditions in the southeastern U.S., before and throughout this study.The watersurface height of Lake Retta decreased from 0.64 ft in April 1999 to 0.24 ft in October 1999 to below the zero datum by December 1999; the watersurface height was also below the zero datum in March 2000. The wetted area of Lake Retta was similar in December 1999 and March 2000 but smaller than observed in April 1999; possibly because of the longterm rainfall deficit rather than the most recent monthly rainfall.Concentrations of many constituents (hardness, Ca, Mg, Na, Br, Cl, PO4, and tannin and lignin) were lowest in the April 1999 sample when the water level was highest. In December 1999, low water levels, a high rainfall
HUCEightDigitCode 03070203
LatitudeMeasure 30.8313889000
LongitudeMeasure -81.4358333000
SourceMapScaleNumeric 24000
HorizontalCollectionMethodName GPS-Unspecified
HorizontalCoordinateReferenceSystemDatumName NAD83
VerticalMeasure/MeasureValue 7.5
VerticalMeasure/MeasureUnitCode ft
VerticalCollectionMethodName Topographic Map Interpolation
VerticalCoordinateReferenceSystemDatumName NGVD29
CountryCode US
StateCode 13
CountyCode 039
ProviderName STORET