Density stratification limits or negates vertical mixing in lakes and reservoirs with the result that vertical strata of decreasing water quality are formed. Releases from the lowest of these strata, the hypolimnion, may be of generally poor quality due to oxygen deficiency resulting from the coupling of limited vertical mixing and hypolimnetic oxygen demand. A simple, cost-effective method to enhance these releases, localized mixing, utilizes the effects of jet mixing to transport high-quality epilimnetic water down to the hypolimnetic withdrawal zone and dilute the release. To effectively enhance downstream release quality, the localized mixing system must produce a jet of sufficient quantity and initial momentum so that it will both penetrate into the hypolimnion and adequately dilute the release. Laboratory investigations showed jet penetration into the hypolimnion to be a linear function of the densimetric Froude number at the thermocline. Dilution was observed to be a function of effective pumping ratios. An example design based on these laboratory results is given.