Water has two strange characteristics.
· As it becomes warmer it can dissolve more and more nutrients and salts.
· Also as it becomes warmer it can dissolve less and less gas such as oxygen or carbon dioxide.

So the cold water at the lake bottom is richer in oxygen for trout and if it is not depleted by rotting organic matter, plankton and algae is able to form. Conversely the warm surface water is able to dissolve more nutrients and has the light for the rapidly reproducing plankton which until now, Hotel Creek flushes on an annual basis, to keep the nutrient build-up in balance.

Under the completely natural conditions, before settlement, Hotel Lake receives less than 1.5 metres of water per year from rainfall and drainage. Two thirds of a metre evaporates from the surface - mostly during the summer. The rest, less than a metre (0.82 metre approximately), overflows through Hotel Creek or through seepage, mostly during the winter. The inflow of phosphates, nitrates and other nutrients were lower than they are now because human activity around the lake was insignificant. There were no algae blooms in summer because the creek skimmed layers off the warmer lake surface where nutrient salts and plankton were concentrated. This skimming action acted like a vacuum cleaner preventing the build-up of dead plankton which sinks to the lake bottom during colder months.

Lake draw-down during the summer months when evaporation exceeds rainfall is about 0.12 metre (4.7 inches). Previously, Hotel Creek started to flow in mid to late September when the lake filled and continued to flow until early July supporting fall spawning runs of Coho salmon and Cutthroat trout.

NOW the lake refills from late November to early January and the overflow creek is dry by late May or early June. Today, more than one third of a metre of the best quality water is removed from the bottom of the lake for domestic water supply in Irvines Landing. This diversion has reduced Hotel Lake Creek which performs a vital flushing action of the lake. Meanwhile human activity has increased the inflow of nutrients so that summer algae blooms are common and water quality has been degraded.

When they die, the plankton sink to the bottom and rapidly deplete the water of life-giving oxygen. Eventually the water will become stagnant if the lake is not allowed to refill and flush itself regularly from the surface layers. Eliminating the action performed by Hotel Creek is like deliberately shutting off the circulation pumps and filters that keep Hotel Lake healthy.

THEREFORE any additional draw-downs will be disastrous.