Governor Bond Lake, constructed 1968-1970, is the principal drinking water supply for the City of Greenville, Bond County, Illinois. The lake is also a major recreational resource for Bond and surrounding counties. The lake provides drinking water for over 7,600 people in the City of Greenville and its service area. At 775 acres, the lake surface area receives inflow from a total watershed area of 22,080 acres. Over 80% of the watershed is cropland, with the remaining 20% composed of pasture, forest, urban and other land uses. The lake is entirely owned by the municipality of Greenville, and there are no known point source discharges into the lake or within the watershed.

Use of the lake (for drinking water and recreation) has been significantly impaired by heavy sedimentation within the lake, as well as by high inflows of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus compounds). Extensive planning and review has been conducted by the local office of the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and its Resource Planning Committee, as well as other local interested parties, and there is evidence which points to use impairment and shortened life span of the lake due to sedimentation. It is estimated that one-third of total lake volume has been lost to sedimentation.

Data collection by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) by way of its Ambient Lake Monitoring Program (ALMP), as well as data available from the local Water Treatment Plant (WTP), indicate elevated levels of nutrients and hyper-eutrophication as an additional source of concern for use of the lake as a drinking water supply and recreational resource.

The City of Greenville, in partnership with the Zahniser Institute for Environmental Studies at Greenville College, is implementing a comprehensive lake study, funded in part by the Illinois Clean Lakes Program. The study includes in-lake water sampling for chemical and bacteriological analyses, sediment and fish sampling for chemical analyses, sediment cores, storm surge sampling on in-flowing streams, daily staff gauge readings, and a host of other data collected to provide the basis for a detailed plan to restore / enhance Governor Bond Lake (see photos).