physics

Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area

Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area is a physics 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 Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area rather than just read about it. In short: Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area is a 1,426-acre (577 ha) area of semi-protected habitat on the Illinois River southwest of to the city of Pekin, Illinois within Tazewell County in the U.S. state of Illinois. The parcel is a cooling reservoir owned by NRG Energy, an electric power generating firm, and is operated by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR).

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area is a 1,426-acre (577 ha) area of semi-protected habitat on the Illinois River southwest of to the city of Pekin, Illinois within Tazewell County in the U.S. state of Illinois. The parcel is a cooling reservoir owned by NRG Energy, an electric power generating firm, and is operated by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR). The lake is used for fishing, with an emphasis on blue catfish. In addition, IDNR states that approximately 60% of the cooling pond is used for duck and goose hunting during legal hunting seasons. The remaining 40% of the pond is maintained as a waterfowl refuge on a year-round basis.

Description Powerton Lake is adjacent to the Illinois River. The low-lying Illinois River's wetland bed is only partly suitable (at best) for agriculture, and large strips of the riverbank have been used for other purposes. The lake is heavily engineered to protect the power plant and other stretches of lake shoreline. Three causeway strips extend from the mainland out into the lake. The causeways divide the lake into four separate segments, preventing conditions of wind and storm from building up lake waves and eroding the shoreline. The Wildlife Area is managed as a disjunct site of the Spring Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area, a separate hunting preserve located near Manito, Illinois.

History The lake was constructed and filled in 1971 by Commonwealth Edison Company as a cooling pond. The Powerton cooling pond is an engineering element of Powerton Station, a 1,538-megawatt coal-fired plant sited adjacent to the southeast shore of the lake. Powerton Station was constructed in the 1930s, but expanded in 1971. The power station uses large quantities of water as part of its turbine operations, and due to water quality laws, needed a way to cool the heat exchanger instead of using the Illinois River. The lake was built in an extended rectangle shape with a maximum depths of 18 feet and an average depth of approximately 8 feet. It has 1,426 acres (577 ha) of water. Water flows from the plant to the east through a series of baffles and turns over approximately every 48 hours. It is a "perched" reservoir, surrounded by levees and built high to catch the wind to cool the water. In 1983, the IDNR signed an agreement to lease the site for fishing and waterfowl hunting. The site opened to the public in September 1984, with a dedication ceremony on September 18, 1984.

Fauna

Fish Due to the warm water created by the power plant, fish grow quickly but reproduction is negatively affected. Extreme summer temperatures have also negatively affected fish, killing so many fish in the summer of 2012 that the dead fish clogged an intake screen that it lowered the water level and the Powerton plant had to be shut down temporarily. In winter, water temperatures can range from 40 °F (4 °C) to 60 °F (16 °C). In 2001, blue catfish from Arkansas were stocked into Powerton Lake. By 2011, some fish had grown to 50 lb (23 kg). The alligator gar stocked in 2011 have grown up to 60 in (1,500 mm) and 60 lb (27 kg). It is one of the top sites in Illinois for smallmouth fishing. Other fish species include: striped bass hybrids, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, white bass, gizzard shad, threadfin shad, bigmouth buffalo, bluegill, redear sunfish, carp, smallmouth buffalo, freshwater drum, brook silversides silver carp, green sunfish, pirate perch, shortnose gar, walleyes, crappies, and bighead carp.

Birds Peoria Audubon Society has spotted over 179 species of birds at Powerton Lake. The most common species include: diving ducks, mallards, bald eagles, mergansers, buffleheads, and goldeneyes.

Facilities Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area has a parking area, a boat ramp, fencing, and toilets. There are no food, fuel, or services on site. There is no horsepower restriction.

References

External links U.S. Geological Survey Map at the U.S. Geological Survey Map Website. Retrieved January 12, 2023.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, 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 Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area 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 Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area 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 Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area

In research: Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area appears in physics 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 Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area 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: Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cooling ponds, IUCN Category V, Illinois River, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area 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 Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area in 20 minutes

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Frequently asked questions

What is Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area in simple terms?

Why does Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area matter?

Because it connects several physics 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 Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area?

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 Powerton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area.