Am interrupting my PowerRule posts for a current event. For the second time in a week I look into our cove to see a vein of dark, chocolate covered water coursing its way towards the main body. The same is true as I drive across the Barry Road bridge at North Cove. It is a tangible forewarning of what it to come. The continuing stripping and preparation of the land off Tiffany Springs and the road improvements on Barry Road at the High School slowly but surely add to the storm water "pollution" to our lake. I use the word pollution loosely, because in addition to true contaminants I see sedimentation as another form of pollution. Whatever your definition I believe the results can/will be catastrophic for our community. If the quality of our water is compromised you can say adios to property values, no matter what "tier" you live on. It won't make a difference if we have a redecorated Community Center or not. We can have the best roads on the planet, no one will care. Ask Bob or Linda, our real estate gurus, how important the water is to sale of homes here.
The City has taken some steps to address the issue, but really the bulk of the fight has to be performed by the WLIC. I know Joe and the Board are mindful of the situation. I think it is important we ask the WLIC how we can help and support.
There is a vocal, active group who has pushed for the Barry Road improvements. Now they are getting what they wanted. Hopefully they will also be just as active and vocal in defending the lake from the downhill, downstream pollution that is bound to increase and worsen. What do you think?
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4 comments:
BRAVO!! During the tumultuous election season, i often wanted to stand up and shout as loud as i could that this should be higher on the agenda. Our roads and where we buy office supplies pale in comparison. Hear ye, Hear ye elected officials! The promised Master Plan or Vision for the lake should be significantly influenced by this issue. If the folks around our lake don't understand that this is a potentially catastrophic situation, they are in for a rude awakening. I know WLIC has primary ownership of this issue, BUT there is definitely municipal responsibility too! I urge our politicians to bone up on environmental issues!
We have had to endure individuals at WL spending their time the past few years taking away our resources to protect the lake. Whether it's those individuals continually suing us (their neighbors) and costing us all thousands of dollars, or doing things with outsiders delaying our ability to protect ourselves against those in our watershed with no vested interest in our lake, or the time it's chewed up from our volunteer board, it's time to put teeth back in the tiger to protect our lake or all of us...no matter where you live, will pay dearly. Let's hope our elected officials don't embrace those counter to what we need to do to protect the water.
My first thought when I read this was: This would never have happened during the Rick Noble / Don Coleman era of the WLIC, and if it did those responsible would be made to pay the price.
No doubt the current leadership is liked by more people, but are they too soft to deal with tough issues like these?
Before I say any of this, I have got to preface with the fact that this is all layman's understanding and gut feeling from what I have observed, and read, and seen in my life. I have got to say that I somewhat disagree with the whole siltation thing. I know that with the development around us, storm water runoff from streets, driveways and rooftops has certainly increased. There is a certain amount of pollution from things like road oil, yard treatments, etc but the actual topsoil and clay silt that runs into the lake could be a good thing. My understanding is that the clay attaches and bonds to some of the pollutants such as oil and pulls them out of the lake water to the bottom where they degrade by bacteria in the lake bed.
People need to consider the early history of this lake when things like siltation were almost completely uncontrolled. The water was extremely pure when the lake was first filled. The excellent black book they just published with the history of Weatherby documents this. It is a great book and City Hall has copies for sale BTW.
The lake has always became muddy after a rainstorm and it has always settled out. I really think it could be our folly to try and stop this natural process from happening. It looks like we have also lost a bunch of the plants and mosses that grew naturally in the ends of the coves. When I was much younger, the coves used to thrive with life, tadpoles, minnows, snakes and all sorts of plants like cattails, and insects. Now, if you look at many of them, they are sea walled excavated - dead zones.
We are trying to stop the pollution problem by installing silt pools and such to catch the *potentially* helpful silt at the beginning instead of the stream of putting the plants in the coves to purify it where it comes into the lake. The siltation ponds we do have look to me like they end up as a reservoir for pollution and nastiness that collects there and then all washes into the lake at once during a rainstorm. We are trying to shift the burden of maintaining our lake onto the people living around us instead of just owning the problem, dredging it out and maintaining the lake ecosystem ourselves. Plants will absorb and use the excess nitrates and phosphorus from fertilizers and such. Plants also absorb pollutants (both air and water). There is a great study from NASA where they used common house plants to absorb toxins and VOC's.
http://www.zone10.com/tech/NASA/Fyh.htm
We need to repopulate the coves with the types of plants that do this same thing for water. I am sure there are plants that would be attractive and not harm the use or looks of the lake. Weatherby could seize the opportunity to address this problem in a way that could be a model to other communities like ours. We should try to come up with a model that will not interfere peoples private property, freedoms and enjoyment of the lake. One that will add to the beauty of the lake and not subtract or penalize the people around us.
I am thinking the road oils and other pollutants are possibly removed from the lake water by the settling process of the silt. I think there is a chance that we are attacking this problem from a completely wrong angle and it should be studied much more before any other actions are taken. There are many universities out there that might jump at the chance to try and come up with a more workable solution. Furthermore, it appears to me we are hindering development of our community and city by litigating so much. One of my family members spoke with someone who developed some ground here a long time ago, and he said he would never try to develop anything in Weatherby again. I believe the city should work *with* developers, welcome them, and help them to increase the size of our community, increase our tax base and bring new kids to the lake to grow up in this wonderful community and enjoy all of the tranquility, blessings, and freedoms we did as kids growing up here.
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