Posey Lake Watershed

Posey Lake’s water quality is affected primarily by the watersheds that feed into it. Posey Lake is unique in that our watershed-to-lake ratio (measured by surface area of watershed to surface area of lake) is 28.7 to 1, while most Michigan lakes are between 3 and 8 to 1 . That means that contamination of watersheds feeding into our lake have a much larger effect on our lake than is normal. Posey Lake has five (5) inlets. Little Posey Lake, the Seeley Drain, the channel at the South end of the lake, a drainage culvert between XXX and XXX Valentine Lane, and a drainage culvert between 690 and 694 Valentine Lane.

The largest watershed affecting our lake is from the Seeley Drain Watershed, which begins in the North just South of Devil’s Lake and continues South into Posey Lake. The Seeley Drain Watershed runs through fertile farmland and has been a water quality issue for the lake in the past. It was found that a drain from a farm within the Seeley Drain Watershed was dumping into the Seeley Drain, as well as certain sewerage from several houses that did not have septic tanks or leach fields. These issues have been corrected, and no longer pose a hazard to our watershed, however, continued monitoring of the Seeley Drain Watershed seems prudent since it represents such a large portion of the Posey Lake water inflow.

In 20xx, the Posey Lake Water Quality Task Force began investigating the possibility of having the Seeley Drain re-routed to help to both reduce lake flooding in the Spring and to lessen the amount of farm run-off that makes it way into Posey Lake. In 20xx, the Seeley Drain was xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx, and xx xx xx xx. Prior to any such diversion, the Seeley Drain represented over 50% in Posey Lakes inflow.

Although a smaller volume of water comes from the two culverts on Valentine Lane, they are of immeasurable concern to Posey Lake Water Quality as run-off from the farmland property on the other side of Valentine Lane feeds these two inlets. Water quality entering the lake via these two inlets has been a problem in the past and continued attention is necessary to avoid contamination entering Posey Lake.

Very little water volume flows from either the Little Posey Lake channel nor the channel at the South end of the lake and, therefore, are deemed to represent a relatively low risk to our water quality. Despite their current low impact, the association should revisit the assessment of their impact periodically.

See "Water Quality Monitoring" for information on what the PLHA is doing to protect our water.