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Skaneateles Lake is the second of the Finger Lakes moving from east to west.
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Skaneateles Lake
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maximum depth
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90 m
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mean depth
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43.5 m
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surface area
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36 km2
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volume
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1563x106 m3
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watershed area
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154 km2
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length
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24.2 km
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average elevation
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263 m
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monitoring site
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42º 55’ 42” N
76º 25’ 12” W
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Morphometric features of the lake are presented in the table on the right. Skaneateles Lake has the fifth largest surface area, the forth largest volume, the third largest mean depth of the Finger Lakes. A bathymetric map of the lake appears along the right side of this page.
Skaneateles Lake has numerous small tributaries and a single outlet that forms Skaneateles Creek. The lake has a relatively small watershed, with an area of 154 km2. The ratio of the watershed area to lake surface area (4.3) is the smallest of the Finger Lakes. The lake flushes, on average, approximately once every seven years. 
Skaneateles Lake has multiple resource uses, including recreation and as a water supply. The shoreline is largely developed with cottages and year-round homes. Boating and swimming are popular activities, and the lake serves as a water supply for Syracuse. This water supply is one of a limited number of lakes and reservoirs in New York that are not filtered before distribution to users (another example is the New York City water supply reservoirs). Such water supplies must maintain very high quality, and operate under system-specific Filtration Avoidance Determinations (FAD). Water taken from this lake routinely has a turbidity value less than the 1 NTU limit. Exceptions are rare, and are attributable to rare meteorological conditions.
Skaneateles Lake is oligotrophic, supporting a low level of biological production. This is reflected in several common measures of water quality. Concentrations of phytoplankton biomass (e.g., chlorophyll a) are low. The lake has the highest clarity of the Finger Lakes. Dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations remain relatively high throughout the lake’s water column through the summer, with only modest decreases over the stratification season. These features are commonly observed in oligatrophic systems.
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