Long Meadow Lake is in Hennepin County and is part of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The lake is in the floodplain of the Minnesota River. Floodplain lakes, with their complex hydrology and ecosystems, are subject to periodic flooding that introduces water, sediment, and aquatic life. 

Water quality monitoring activities for floodplain lakes have been either eliminated or reduced because of the regular intrusion of water from the Minnesota River. Sediment and paleolimnological assessments have been periodically completed to understand the quantity and quality of sediment deposition in some of the floodplain lakes from the Minnesota River. Information about the depth, water chemistry, or vegetation was not found for Long Meadow Lake. 

Monitoring Data

Transparency

Measurements of transparency (a measure of water clarity) and other indicators of lake productivity were taken from 2017 to 2020 and are provided by the University of Minnesota's LakeBrowser tool (UofMN, 2021). The transparency of Long Meadow Lake hovers around the 1.0 meter (3.3 feet) shallow lake criteria for Minnesota (Statutes, 2021). The transparency occasionally exceeds the criteria for aquatic life and recreation attributed to larger lakes.