Link to Ice Lake photos

Ice Lake (also known as Crystal) is a small, 16.6 hectare (41 acre) lake situated in the city of Grand Rapids, MN. The lake has a simple bowl-like morphometry with a maximum depth of about 16 m (~53 ft). The shoreline is almost entirely developed with houses on the north shore and city streets running along the south and west shore. The inlet to Ice Lake from McKinney Lake and the outlet to Hale Lake are on the far west end of the lake. The lake receives urban stormwater runoff from five storm sewers that discharge directly into its waters. All of the homes surrounding the lake are sewered. See the lake summary table for additional watershed and water quality information. See data summary-limnology overview for an overview of Ice Lake from 1998-1999.

The water quality of the lake is of importance to the community for recreational use and residential development.

Ice Lake was selected by the Water on the Web project because faculty at Grand Rapids High School (GRHS), Natural Resources Research Institute at the University of Minnesota Duluth (NRRI), and the Itasca Soil and Water Conservation District (ISWCD) have been involved in the assessment and management of this site for a number of years. In 1995, students of Ron Salladay at GRHS performed a water quality study of Ice, Hale, McKinney, and Forest Lakes and in 1996 these lakes were sampled as part of the ISWCD lake assessment program.

When the WOW project was originally conceived in 1996, Hale Lake was selected as a study site because it was the least productive of the Grand Rapids urban lakes and was similar to the more productive Lake Independence in depth and thermal stratification characteristics. Subsequent concerns from lakeshore owners regarding the placement of the RUSS unit in an area with snowmobile and water skiing traffic led to the switch to Ice Lake which discharges to Hale. The WOW website still contains data from Hale Lake which may be useful to specific lesson plans.

In the spring of 1998 a two year project aimed at determining the impact storm water discharge has on McKinney, Ice, Hale and Forest Lakes was begun by ISWCD, the Minnesota DNR, citizen volunteers, and NRRI. Nutrient budgets, suspended solids and fecal coliform bacteria loading for Ice and Forest are being determined as they are the most severely impacted by urban runoff in the city. Mckinney and Hale Lakes are also being monitored because they are situated in the watershed above and below Ice Lake. The data from RUSS is an integral part of this project. See the collaborator page for local staff and contact information.