Harveys Lake is situated 17.7 km northwest of Wilkes-Barre, Lake Township, Luzerne County. It is a high quality glacial lake that should be protected against any degradation. The lake has three inflows of minor importance, while groundwater supplies most of the water to the lake basin.

A lake-wide toxic blue-green algae bloom which occurred during the summer of 1981 in Harveys Lake, required the imposition of a warning by the Bureau of Water Quality Management against water contact activities. This warning effectively closed the lake, especially as plankton counts rose and it became obvious to the casual observer that an extensive bloom existed. Bloom concentrations (greater than 500 cells ml-1) were measured in late July and continued until mid-September with counts of blue-greens as high as 3,375 cells ml-1 in mid-August.

A lake monitoring program was instituted in April 1982 in response to what appeared to be a deterioration of the trophic state of the lake, which was determined to be mesotrophic in 1981. Equipment and technical assistance were provided by the Bureau of Water Quality Management and the Bureau of Laboratories to the Harveys Lake Water Quality Management Board, which carried out the majority of the field work.

Harveys Lake should be protected from degradation by diversion of domestic wastes from the basin (Q, 2).