A limnological study was performed out, over 8 years from 1979 to 1986, in a shallow recently created sand-pit lake, Lake Créteil (Paris suburb, France). The lake is mainly supplied by phreatic waters. Typical of shallow waters, thermal stratification which occurred from May to October was intermittently broken by wind, leading to high seasonal fluctuations and allowing a reoxygenation of the total water column. The interannual development of the lake was characterized by a regular increase in transparency (from 1 m in 1979 to 2.7 m in 1985) which was partly due to not only stabilization of the bottom sediment and the banks, but also to a reduction of the biological component. A decrease in chlorophyll a concentrations resulted from nutrient diversion of domestic inputs collected through the rainwater pipe coming into the lake. The rapid restoration of water quality shows that this small artificial lake is very sensitive to human interventions.