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Low Water Closes Lake

Posted on: Wednesday, 2 November 2005, 21:00 CST

By Isaac Groves, Times-News, Burlington, N.C.

Nov. 2--Graham is cutting the boating season on Graham-Mebane Lake short this year because of low water levels.

Actually, the boaters were already staying away, said Graham Recreation and Parks Director Melody Wiggins. The city just made it official.

The lake is about 5 and a half feet lower than it should be. This does not mean the lake is running short of drinking water, said Mike Carson, supervisor of the water treatment plant.

In fact, the lake can give about 12 million gallons a day, and customers are only taking about 3.6 million gallons a day out of it.

The low levels are, however, a danger for boats, Wiggins said, especially at the boat ramps where water levels are low and boats can scrape on the bottom as they get into the shallow water.

The lack of rain is only partly responsible for the low water level. The city needed to do some repairs on a spillway this summer, and Federal regulations require the work area be at least 3 feet above the water line, so the city drained it. This summer's drought did the rest, Carson said.

Wiggins said this won't be too big of a disruption. The lake is only open on weekends in November anyway, she said, because demand slows. It will open for weekends as usual in February and open full time in March.

The low water level has created another problem however.

The spillway is a large concrete structure that holds the lake in but lets enough water out over its edge to maintain consistent water levels.

Its expansion joints, the ones that allow for the expansion and contraction of the concrete sections, have deteriorated faster than anticipated. To find something that will hold up, the city has filled the joints with several different materials, but there isn't enough water in the lake to test them, Carson said. That's not unusual for the time of year. It will just take time for the water level to rise.

The recent rain added about an inch to the lake's level, Carson said.

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Source: Times-News

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