About Lake Superior

The Lake Superior basin encompasses portions of northern Minnesota, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Ontario and parts of five Wisconsin counties. Lake Superior is a special resource, the largest and cleanest of the Great Lakes, with large stretches of shoreline that maintains its wild character. Among fresh water lakes, only Siberia's Lake Baikal has more volume, while Superior has the largest surface area of fresh water in the world. See watersheds of the Superior Basin

This vast resource of fresh water has not experienced the same levels of development, urbanization and pollution as the other Great Lakes. Because of this unique, relatively pristine nature, the Lake Superior basin became the focus of the Lake Superior Binational Program. The program includes a lakewide management plan that will address the virtual elimination of point source discharges of certain persistent, bioaccumulating toxic substances; cleanup and restoration efforts that will target such things as habitat; special regulatory efforts such as protective designations; and pollution prevention. The effort isn't merely focusing on the waters in the lake, but ecosystem integrity. This includes the air, the land, the wildlife, vegetation and humans in the basin. The project pulls together the resources of numerous agencies, civic, environmental and business groups, tribal authorities and individual citizens.

Lake Superior Basin Stats

• Lake Length 350 Miles
• Lake Width 160 Miles
• Average Depth 483 Feet
• Deepest Point 1,330 Feet
• Lake Surface Area 31,700 Sq. Miles
• Sq. Miles of Land Drained: 49,300
• Shoreline Miles 2,726
• Tributaries: 336
• Largest Tributaries: Nipigon River (Ontario), St. Louis River (WI)
• Basin Population: 650,540 (1990 estimate)