Other Definitions
clear lake (dest)
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Clear Lake - For other places of this name, see Clear Lake (disambiguation).
Clear Lake is the largest (by area) freshwater lake wholly in California. It is in Lake County, California. Clear Lake is 19 miles (30.6 km) long, 8 mi (12.8 km) wide at widest point, with surface area of 43,785 acres (177 km²). Average depth is 27 ft (8 m), maximum is 60 feet (18 m), lake elevation is 1318 feet (400 m) minimum, average water temp is 40 F (4 C) in winter and 76 F (24 C) in summer. Location 39 deg 03 min north, 122 deg 49 min west (per USGS). The lake has many resorts famous for bass, crappie, and catfish fishing. The residential areas around the lake have a mix of older houses and middle and upper middle class homes as well as some which can only be classified as mansions. There are also a few apartment buildings in Lake County, but not many. The income of residents of the county varies. For more information on demographics of this county, see their web site. Some people in Lake County erred with a lack of future thinking when they sold the lake's water rights to Yolo County, California in the 1920s, not realizing how large the population would grow. The water rights have since been contested, and new injunctions and compromises regarding the lake and creek levels, and the water needed for agriculture in Yolo County, have been put into effect. The lake is not now, and never has been, polluted. Core samples going back many years, taken by the Department of Agriculture in conjunction with the University of Davis, prove that the natural cyanobacteria, which many people mistakenly call blue-green algae, is not only a natural substance, but is a vital part of the food chain in the lake and the riparian zone which surrounds it. Eutrophication is not a pollution problem; it is a scientific term probably from the German Eutroph: eutrophic, or from the Greek eutrophos, meaning well-nourished, nourishing. The alternate terms are mesotrophic, like Lake Tahoe, or oligatrophic, like Crater Lake. The problem with the cyanobacteria occurs when there is too much of it due to long, hot days and the relative shallowness and warmth of the lake, and in those rare times the cyanobacteria blooms and when the blooms die they form a mat which can cause a smell which lasts until they either blow off, under, or get past the decomposition stage. There is a sewage treatment plant in the city of Clearlake's northern regions as well as the diversion of some sewage to the geothermal areas on Cobb Mountain. Neither of these have to do with water directly from the lake. This practice has allegedly caused hundreds of earthquakes in the Anderson Springs/Cobb Mountain area (south of the lake) since 1996. The matter is being investigated to see if the increase in microquakes is a natural ebb and flow for quakes in the area. The Clear Lake area also has many problems with various drug abuse issues, as do many cities large and small. The county and city law enforcement agencies are aggressive in their efforts to eradicate the problem. See also: Lake Tahoe, Cache Creek.
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