Lakes Committee hears about drawdown

Lake Windsor has been successfully drawn down and work is underway around the shoreline, Parks and Lakes superintendent Rick Echols told the Joint Advisory Committee on Lakes last week at its regular meeting. Among the POA projects is work at London Landing to remove some gravel and extend the ramp. A gravel bar will be removed at Pontoon Park and some dredging will be done around the island, Echols said.

Homeowners around Lake Windsor can use the drawdown to work on their own docks and seawall. Echols said the gates will remain open until March 1, although the lake level may fluctuate some.

Answering a question from the audience, General Manager Tom Judson said the committee has been talking about wakeboard boats and possible shoreline damage from the large wakes they produce but is not recommending any action. Lake rangers will be patrolling all the lakes and, if any resident sees a problem, he should contact the rangers.

The committee heard about a successful season of water quality monitoring from lab technician Chris Fuller. For the past few years, members of the Lakes Committee and some others have been involved in a water quality testing program at each of the POA’s seven lakes. Once a week, during the warm weather months, several readings are taken at a specific spot on each lake. The information is turned in to the staff of the Lakes Department biology laboratory.

The water clarity information is used to estimate how much plankton is growing in the lake. The technicians plug the information into a formula that was developed by a University of Arkansas professor, and that tells them how much fertilizer is needed in each specific lake.

The volunteers did an excellent job, Fuller said, and the program will begin again next spring.