Army Corp of Engineers: Drought to blame, “there is no intake”
By Andrew Harris, photos by Douglas Sciorra
Have you driven by the Almond Lake/Kanakadea Park lately? Water levels have exposed the bottom of the lake leaving what can be best described “mud flats,” resembling tidal areas at low tide.
A call to the US Army Corp of Engineers, who oversee the dam, revealed that the source which feeds the lake, Canacadea Creek, is barely flowing.
The team tending to the Dam reports that water levels are currently about ten feet lower than the ideal 1260 feet above sea level. In order to maintain the Canacadea Creek ecosystem below the dam, twelve cubic feet of water per second must be released from the lake.
The water is estimated to be about twenty-seven feet deep on the dam side but as pictured above, most of the lakes bottom is now exposed. Boats are unable to access the deeper areas and are not encouraged to try.
Fish of all species have been forced into the smaller area that still has depth of up to twenty seven feet. That is also forcing other wildlife to concentrate in that area explained the dam operator:
“I’ve never seen so many kingfishers(a fish eating bird,) in my life in on place and the herons are having a field day.”
For now it is a waiting game, a prayer for sustained rain, or guidance from the US Army Corp of Engineers with orders to reduce the outflow from the lake into Canacadea Creek.
