WHEN...Hicklin Lake background and timeline

Picture of Hicklin Lake in Fall of 2013 (Hagenah)

Understanding how and why Hicklin Lake has reached such dangerous levels of pollution

I. HISTORY

1870's: First settlers located Hicklin Lake, which was surrounded by old growth timber at the time (Sims)

1880's: Saw mills built adjacent to Hicklin Lake, residents began inhabiting the area (Sims)

1900's: Railway to Lake Hicklin was completed leading to the removal of almost all old growth timber from the Hicklin Lake watershed. At this point, the lake was informally used for recreational activities (Sims).

1930's: Land surrounding Lake Hicklin was purchased and Lakewood golfcourse was developed. Lake hicklin was dredged for to purposes: sediment for development of the golf course and deepening of the lakebed for increased irrigation storage capacity (Sims). 

1950's: King County purchased Lake Hicklin and the neighboring wetlands. This area became Lakewood park (Sims). 

II. CURRENT STATUS

Lake Hicklin now exists in the center of a fully developed urban center, home to residents, businesses, and industry (Abella). Water quality problems accompanied this development. Hicklin Lake is currently too polluted to fill the recreational and ecological roles it did in the past. Current issues with Hicklin Lake and its watershed include:

• 39% of the land in the Hicklin Lake watershed is covered by impervious surface (impenetrable) (Sims)
• PROBLEM: Rather than being absorbed into the water table, water carrying excess nutrients and pollutants runs into Hicklin Lake.  
• The watershed includes multiple water foul attracting grassy fields (Sims)
• PROBLEM: Bird feces is washed into the lake from these grassy fields leading to fecal coliform pollution of the lake
• Hicklin Lake has no natural outlet (Sims)
• PROBLEM: The only way that water can leave is through inundation into the soils or evaporation. Winter and fall provide the most runoff. To prevent flooding during these times, there is a pump that removes water from the bottom of the lake. As of now, there is no natural remedy for high rainfall.   
• Excess nutrients (namely Phosphorous) fill Lake Hicklin (Sims)
• PROBLEM: Eutrophic (excess nutrients) environments lead to large and frequent cyanobacteria blooms. Blooms lead to lake health concerns that make it unlivable for many fish and aquatic plants as well as a dangerous recreational destination.

Hicklin Lake Watershed

This map shows the Hicklin Lake (the bottom lake on this map) watershed and where water entering the lake is coming from. Through investigation of this map it is easy to see where problems with Hicklin Lake arise. Water from the entire watershed eventually ends up in Hicklin Lake, bringing with it, contaminated water from a wide array of urban surfaces (Hagenah).