Drought = low lake level

krcossin

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Very noticeable how much the lake level has dropped this month, has to be at least 6" below where it was in May.


Which presents a potential issue with underwater obstacles, I'm going to avoid the shallow areas of the lake as much as possible until it rises again.


My old timer neighbor and I were talking about it, he showed me pictures of back in 1989 when the lake was SO LOW, he could drive his golf cart all the way around the lake, HUGE beech, several boats had to hire a tow truck to get them off the ground.


How is the level at your lake?
 
Being a spring fed glacial lake, ours typically doesn't drop much but this year it's rather obvious as the beaches are extending out several feet. We had this happen a few years ago and though some lifts were moved out further midseason, several boats had to be extracted from their lifts through various means.
 
Ours has dropped at least 6-8 inches . My depth alarm is going off in places that it had not earlier in the season .
 
I noticed yesterday ours is down a couple inches. It is dam controlled so it only lets a certain amount out. And that Lake Chemung water makes it's way to our lake as we're down stream!!!! You'll have to come to Thompson to enjoy it!
 
Very noticeable how much the lake level has dropped this month, has to be at least 6" below where it was in May.


Which presents a potential issue with underwater obstacles, I'm going to avoid the shallow areas of the lake as much as possible until it rises again.


My old timer neighbor and I were talking about it, he showed me pictures of back in 1989 when the lake was SO LOW, he could drive his golf cart all the way around the lake, HUGE beech, several boats had to hire a tow truck to get them off the ground.


How is the level at your lake?

Did you say 6 inches?!? Last year our lake was down about 6 feet! It's about 10 feet deep below our slip and when it got down to about 3 or 4 feet took our boat out. Pretty normal levels this year.
 
Did you say 6 inches?!? Last year our lake was down about 6 feet! It's about 10 feet deep below our slip and when it got down to about 3 or 4 feet took our boat out. Pretty normal levels this year.

If that happens often; When it was down would you have the option of having an excavator come in and digging it deeper? 
 
My guess would be no. Doing any type of modification to a body of water is a pain in the a$$
 
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Ours is still way up. It is monitored monthly and is only down about an inch from this time last year. We used to have about 6-8 feet of "beach" but that is now all under water. It is up so much the past few years that I had to have a Seawall built spring 2015 to keep my deck and "boathouse" from being washed away. Spring fed 400 acre lake - no rivers in or out. 
 
If that happens often; When it was down would you have the option of having an excavator come in and digging it deeper? 

It's actually plenty deep enough. It drops off right behind the boat. At its worst the front of the slip was sitting on the ground but the back was at 3-4 feet............plus we are only renting a slip from my waterfront neighbor across the street so it's not ours. Couldn't imagine the cost to have something like this dredged.......
 
You guys have it made. El Nino was a bust for the southern half of California and our drought has been going on for five years. My local lake is down 70' and is currently at 39% capacity. The launch ramp they are now using was built in 1961, three years after the dam was constructed, and had been underwater for over 50 years. Obstacles are causing problems, even the ranger's patrol boat has run aground. I'm worried about damaging a toon and haven't put my boat in the water since last summer. The lake is the drinking water supply for around one million people and isn't connected to any outside source, it relies completely on rainfall. Estimates are it will be dry in 4-5 years. If that happens I'll probably close up the house and move to Oregon until conditions improve.
 
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Wow. Sorry to hear that. I didn't realize the drought was so bad out there. I guess we get spoiled in the great lake state. Location Location.
 
Lake Casitas. The pictures and video in the link are from a few months ago and the water level has dropped a lot since then. The rental boats used to be moored 100 feet from the bait shop. Now they are over half a mile away.


http://www.casitaswater.org/
 
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You guys have it made. El Nino was a bust for the southern half of California and our drought has been going on for five years. My local lake is down 70' and is currently at 39% capacity. The launch ramp they are now using was built in 1961, three years after the dam was constructed, and had been underwater for over 50 years. Obstacles are causing problems, even the ranger's patrol boat has run aground. I'm worried about damaging a toon and haven't put my boat in the water since last summer. The lake is the drinking water supply for around one million people and isn't connected to any outside source, it relies completely on rainfall. Estimates are it will be dry in 4-5 years. If that happens I'll probably close up the house and move to Oregon until conditions improve.

Yep, California is in dire straits.  I recently sold my California house and made the permanent move to AZ.  I bought my house in 2000 and had a small front yard with a rather large backyard.  I had some grass but not a lot and before I sold my house I was getting fined every month for overwater usage.  I used as little water as possible but refused to let all my landscaping die when they were continuing to build houses like crazy in my area.  I considered taking the grass out and putting in a more natural landscape (sort of like AZ) but my HOA said they would fine me if I did that.  Soooo, I did what many are now doing, sold it and bailed out of the state.
 
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Randy, you are correct. We have friends in AZ and Vegas, and both places is seeing a big influx of new residents that moved from California. Many believe the trend in dropping lake levels will continue, and the deep drilling practices that have been used in many agricultural area of CA practically insure that many of the deep aquifers will never (at least during the next 100 years) be at capacity again. While many may think that this is a local CA problem, the fact that so much of what we eat grows there makes this of gravest national concern. Water will surely prove to be the worlds most precious resource. It has only just begun.
 
"It has only just begun"  Yeah.  Hopes and prayers and whatever else ya got.  Most OH. lakes are dam controlled and will fluctuate a foot or two, right now all are good except one which is getting dam repairs.

 
I live on the Michigan Center (MI) chain of lakes just east of Jackson and this is the lowest the lake/channel level has been since we moved here in 2004.  We have a dam and I called our township supervisor just yesterday who insisted all 3 locks are completely shut (I checked it out for myself, too) it's just we've had almost no rain (except for 2 nights ago) in about 6 weeks.  It's just the evaporation plus everyone using the lake water for irrigating their lawns.  I actually called the EPA guy in charge of dams to see if adding onto the dam to raise it more would help this situation out because although the 3 locks on ours are all closed, the water level is still right at the top with some going over (and emptying into what eventually flows into the Grand River).  Right now our lake level is lower than what they lower it to in the late fall in preparation for the winter months.
 
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The grand river flows by my office window here at work and it is very very low. You'd think while it is low the city would go through and pull the trash out of it.
 
Yeah really....either that or sounds like a GREAT job for the local Boy Scouts or something like that.....or heck, make some level 1 and level 2 convicts do it.
 
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