Back to search

Virginia Tech

An Examination Of Water Quality Impacts On Lake Manassas

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Lake Manassas is a man-made impoundment in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. The lake currently supplies drinking water at an average rate of 10.5 million gallons per day to the City of Manassas, Virginia. The lake discharges, via the Broad Run, a tributary of the Occoquan Reservoir. The Occoquan Reservoir supplies potable water to over 750,000 people in the Northern Virginia area. This thesis presents the results of a limnological analysis of Lake Manassas. The techniques used are established limnological techniques to arrive at a profile which can be compared to accepted scales of ranking. One conclusion from the analysis is that Lake Manassas is eutrophic, which means that the production of biomass in the lake is at a higher than desired rate. The result of this eutrophic condition is that the water quality of the lake will decline rather rapidly. Another conclusion is that Broad Run is the major supplier of nutrients into Lake Manassas, but that conditions are also affected by a point source discharge from a sewage treatment plant. These conclusions are consistent with previous studies done on Lake Manassas. In summary, Lake Manassas is an important water resource in the Northern Virginia area, and it is important to continue to closely monitor and manage runoff practices in the watershed to ensure the lake does not degrade to unacceptable conditions.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Environmental Planning
Department dc:contributor.department
Environmental Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2007

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Gorrie, Jason Robert
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Godrej, Adil N.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Grizzard, Thomas J.
  • Post, Harold E. II

Subjects

dc:subject × 5

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-05152007-173722
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/32815

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Gorrie, Jason Robert. An Examination Of Water Quality Impacts On Lake Manassas. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/32815