The EPA is a good place to get some background information about the watersheds of
Dickinson County. This site shows several different aspects of the watersheds in the county
like location, size, cities located in the watersheds etc. The different watersheds we have in
Dickinson County are the Little Sioux River Watershed (which has the Iowa Great Lakes and
Silver Lake in Iowa and Loon Lake in Minnesota) and the Des Moines River Watershed
(which has Little Swan Lake and Four-Mile Lake). The DNR has specific information on
each lake in Dickinson County that pertains to each lakes watershed. These lakes would
include West Okoboji Lake, East Okoboji Lake, Big Spirit Lake, Center Lake, Silver Lake,
Upper Gar Lake,
The Iowa Lakeside Laboratory has to different testing monitoring programs. The first program
is continuing research done back in the 1970's. The monitoring done by Stephen Fisher at
the Waitt Water Lab tests sites that were done back in the 1970's and compares them to today's
tests. This gives up the scientific answer to the water quality in the lakes they are testing.
The data from Iowa Lakeside Laboratory can be found at the Water Monitoring Site.
The second water monitoring program that is done through Lakeside Laboratory is the
Cooperative Lakes Area Monitoring Program (CLAMP). CLAMP monitors the quality of the
lakes and takes water samples from the lakes. The water samples are tested at the Waitt
Water Testing Lab and then posted on the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory Water Monitoring Site.
CLAMP is a volunteer water-monitoring program and everyone is invited to learn how to
sample out at Lakeside Lab. You can find out more information at the CLAMP are of the Lakeside
Laboratory site.
The Dickinson County Conservation Board (DCCB) does water monitoring with the Iowa DNR
program IOWATER. IOWATER monitors streams, creeks, and rivers and can tell us what is
happening in the water before it gets to the lake. The water testing done by IOWATER looks
at chemical, biological, and physical aspects of the water to determine the quality of the
water. The information that has been collected can be seen on the Dickinson County part of
the IOWATER site.