Floodwaters receding, but problems rise
Posted on Sunday, August 10, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/233823/
Norfork Lake has receded enough from spring flooding that Jim Wencker can finally see the rocky shoreline he calls the “bathtub ring” of the lake while sitting on his back porch.
It’s been six months since heavy rains sent Norfork, Greers Ferry, Bull Shoals, Table Rock and Beaver lakes to record or near-record flood levels. Evaporation and water releases at dams for electrical generation have lowered the lakes some since the spring deluges, but as the water disappears, problems emerge.
U. S. Army Corps of Engineers officials estimate at least $ 50 million in damage to lake parks, campsites, roads and shorelines, up from an estimate of $ 39 million in April.
As the water continues to drop, the estimates may go higher, said P. J. Spaul, a spokesman for the Corps.
Beaches are submerged, marinas can’t be reached because of high water and fishing has diminished. Fishing-guide businesses are also hampered because of the high water.
“We got hit,” Spaul said of the flooding’s havoc.
An Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Web site indicates that more than $ 11 million is normally spent yearly on fishing excursions on the reservoir lakes in northern Arkansas. But this year, business around the lakes has been slower.
For example, the Lake Norfork Resort Hotel, perched on the eastern edge of the lake in Baxter County, reported that it earned 30 percent less than normal so far this year.
Spaul said the lakes’ water levels should return to normal by late October or early November. That won’t relieve all the problems, however.
“Even though the lake levels will be normal this year, the water won’t be normal for a long time,” said Wencker, a retired fish biologist and the president of the Lake Norfork Striper’s Club. “It’s going to get worse.”
Wencker said Arkansas Game and Fish Commission officers have spotted dead stripers floating in Bull Shoals and Norfork lakes. The large striped hybrid bass were first introduced to the Arkansas reservoir lakes in the late 1950 s.
The fish die, he said, because the higher water level creates a “dead zone” of warmer water with depleted oxygen.
Officers have found numerous dead stripers on Lake Norfork’s shorelines, including a 35-pound striper and a 25-pound striper last week, Wencker said.
“That’s a real waste of resource,” he said of the fish. “Those are trophies.”
Heavy rain fell March 17 and 18, and water cascaded into the lakes. Up to 4 inches of rain fell again April 8, causing the already swollen reservoirs to reach record levels.
At Lake Norfork, engineers at the electricity-generating dam on the southern end of the lake released water at a rate of 82, 000 cubic feet per second. Normally, 6, 800 cubic feet of water per second of water is released.
Corps officials are still moving water from lake to lake, dumping it into the White River Basin to lower levels.
“We’re juggling water,” Spaul said. “We’re gradually moving it along.”
Officials use the White River stage at Newport as a gauge. The river level must be below 12 feet in the Jackson County town for water to be released from the lakes north of it, Spaul said.
Once the level dips below the 12 feet, more water is released. If the level rises above the mark, flooding could occur along the agricultural bottomlands of the White River.
“It’s a balancing act,” Spaul said.
As of Friday, Bull Shoals Lake was at 75 percent of its flood stage, some 30 feet above its normal level for this time of year. Beaver Lake is 6 feet above normal now, Lake Norfork is 17 feet above and Table Rock Lake is 3 feet above.
“Every day we’re releasing water, night and day,” said Kevin Fagot, a Corps hydrologist in Little Rock. “We’re talking about a tremendous amount of water.”
Jason Piper, the owner of JT’s Crappie Guide Service on Beaver Lake, has lost at least 40 guided fishing trips because customers balk at the high water.
Fish spawn in the spring in brush piles, normally about 25 feet deep, he said. This year, because of the flooding, the brush was in about 45 feet of water.
“Fish are disoriented,” he said. “We’re catching fish, but nowhere near as normal.
“ It’s going to be rough for a while,” he said. “It’s insane. It’s never lasted this long before. We’re going to have to rely on Mother Nature a bit to fix this.”
It’s the worst Red Van Scoyoc has ever seen the lake. A fishing guide in Henderson, Van Scoyoc said the flooding has kept sportsmen from the area.
“Tourism has taken a hit,” he said. “It’s down at least 20 percent because of the water.”
Canada geese were left homeless and spent the spring on the lawn at the Lake Norfork Resort Hotel on U. S. 62, manager Pat Garey said. “They laid their eggs on the shoreline, and the water came up,” she said.
“They had nowhere to go. It was sad.”
She said summer visitors have stayed away because the high water keeps them from launching sport boats and personal watercraft near the hotel.
“It’s had a tremendous impact,” she said. “The flooding did a number on everything.”
Wencker said the oxygen levels that stripers need to survive are much deeper in the lake than normal. As the fish swim deeper to reach the needed oxygen, their metabolisms slow because the water is cooler. At Lake Norfork, the proper oxygen level is at 150 feet, where the temperature is about 50 degrees.
“There is no water accessible to keep the stripers alive,” he said.
When fishermen do catch the stripers at the lower levels, the stripers die when they are reeled up through the oxygendeprived water.
Wencker has suggested that the Game and Fish Commission require that any fish more than 20 inches long be kept, rather than released, and be counted toward the daily striper limit of three.
“It’s going to die anyway if it’s released,” he said.
Spaul said the Corps will continue releasing water, hoping that by early and midfall the lake levels return to normal.
“As the water lowers, we’re seeing for the first time some of the damage,” he said. “The shorelines might change for the next several years as a result of this.
“ It might be two to five years before we really totally assess all the damages from this,” he said.