Dear Lake Resident,Recently, I have received many questions from Wawasee and Syracuse lake residents regarding lake waterlevels. As the director of Kosciusko Lakes and Streams, a water research center at Grace College, I wanted toprovide you with some answers to those questions. I have created and enclosed a fact sheet. It outlines thefactors that influence lake levels. You will also find a plot that compares the historical lake levels of Wawaseeand Syracuse lakes to the near record low lake levels of this past summer.The first efforts to control lake levels on Wawasee and Syracuse began in 1833 when a grist mill was built toraise the lake level about five feet. 1875 marked the beginning of scientific data collection on these lakes, butit wasn’t until 1943 that this data included lake levels. Several low lake level years were recorded in the 1940sand 1950s, not to be seen again until 2012.What made 2012 special? What caused these very low lake levels? Several factors converged:• Warmer than average temperatures led to more evaporation during the summer and the previouswinter (normally, ice cover would stop evaporation during winter)• Lack of precipitation dried up three of the four inflowing streams, and soils were so dry that theysoaked up the little precipitation that did fall• A lower local water table likely caused groundwater springs in lakes to reverse flow and become drainsout of the lakesWawasee and Syracuse lakes have unique characteristics that increase their potential to be susceptible to lowlake levels. These characteristics include a relatively small watershed compared to lake size, a complexgeology with strong connections to groundwater, and a lake level control structure which purposefully lowerslevels in the winter.In the future, I would like to study the impact of local irrigation and alternative lake level control operations asfunds become available. In the meantime, Kosciusko Lakes and Streams will continue our ongoing and relatedresearch on these two lakes and inflowing streams. If you would like more information on our research or toprovide your own insight on this topic, please feel free to send me an email or give me a call. Thank you foryour interest in our work.Download the study dicument