science

Lake Hico

Lake Hico is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lake Hico rather than just read about it. In short: Lake Hico was a cooling pond reservoir built on 16th section school land in Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1950s. Its primary purpose was to provide water for the adjacent Rex Brown Plant, which generates electricity with steam.

Key takeaways

Lake Hico belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lake Hico to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lake Hico from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Lake Hico was a cooling pond reservoir built on 16th section school land in Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1950s. Its primary purpose was to provide water for the adjacent Rex Brown Plant, which generates electricity with steam. Initially, Lake Hico was open to the public for recreation. The lake was closed to the public in the late 1960s, along with the public swimming pools in Jackson, due to racial prejudices preventing peaceful integration of public swimming holes. Lake Hico was built as a cooling lake for the Rex Brown Electric Generating complex. Part of the agreement with the Hinds County board of supervisors was to have a public recreation lake and a lake for the intake and the exhaust of water for cooling for the generators. Thus the two lakes. It was originally built as a fuel oil based generating system but was later converted to natural gas when oil got so expensive in the 1970’s. The reasons why it was finally closed to the public were 1- the Barnett Reservoir opened and most people who had formerly used the lake went there and 2- the liability costs to MP&L skyrocketed after there was a couple of drownings. The fact that integration of such public spaces was being attempted by some and resisted by others in Jackson, Mississippi at the time is possibly pertinent. The adjacent Hico Park was closed after a lawsuit to integrate that park was filed as late as 1975. The Rex Brown plant was just recently totally dismantled. Water is supplied to Lake Hico by a 5 miles (8.0 km) long pipeline from the Pearl River. The vast majority of water supply to keep the lake full comes from the pipeline. Lake Hico is near the headwaters of Eubanks Creek, but the creek does not flow through the lake. Hico is an abbreviation for Hinds County, the county in which the lake is situated. The lake is leased to Entergy, the operator of the Rex Brown Plant, by its owner, the State of Mississippi via its trust for 16th section lands. The lease is overseen by Mississippi's Secretary of State, Entergy pays $258,000 per year for the lease on Lake Hico. Lake Hico covers over 500 acres (200 ha), including a 100+- acre island. The island divides the warmed water coming out of the plant from the cooler main lake. The island has a concrete boat ramp. The lake was home to the Jackson Yacht Club, until the much larger Ross Barnett Reservoir was built in early 1960s.

Lake Hico is encircled completely by a six-foot chain-link fence with "no trespassing" signs. The lake is adjoined on the northeast by a city park, however the fence encircling the lake separates the two. In 2020 Entergy closed the Rex Brown plant, and soon thereafter relinquished their lease on Lake Hico. Management of the lake property was reverted to its owner - the Jackson Public School District (JPS). According to Mississippi Today, in September 2020, JPS directed Entergy to drain the lake and breach the levee between the "hot" and "cold" sides. https://mississippitoday.org/2020/11/27/entergy-to-drain-lake-hico-jps-moving-forward-with-development/

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lake Hico

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lake Hico claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lake Hico before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lake Hico ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lake Hico

In research: Lake Hico appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lake Hico in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lake Hico is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1950s establishments in Mississippi, Cooling ponds, Entergy, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lake Hico outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lake Hico in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lake Hico means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lake Hico out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lake Hico in simple terms?

Why does Lake Hico matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lake Hico?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lake Hico.