The 137Cs and 210Pb dating of a 61-cm long sediment core retrieved from a drinking water reservoir (Lake Brêt) located in Switzerland revealed a linear and relatively high sedimentation rate (~1 cm year-1) over the last decades. The continuous centimeter scale measurement of physical (porewater and granulometry), organic (Corg, P, N, HI and OI indexes) and mineral (Cmin and lithogenic trace elements) parameters therefore enables reconstructing the environmental history of the lake and anthropogenic pollutant input (trace metals, DDT and PCBs) at high resolution. A major change in the physical properties of the lowermost sediments occurred following the artificial rise of the dam in 1922. After ca. 1940, there was a longterm up-core increase in organic matter deposition attributed to enhance primary production and anoxic bottom water conditions due to excessive nutrient input from a watershed predominantly used for agriculture that also received domestic effluents of two wastewater-treatment plants.