DAPHNE, Ala. — The siltation of Lake Forest Lake — owned by the Lake Forest Property Owners Association — and the D’Olive, and Tiawassee watersheds has drawn scrutiny resulting from the D’Olive Creek and Lake Forest Working Group, according to officials.

The group includes city of Daphne personnel, Lake Forest Property Owners Association members, the Lake Forest Improvement Committee, Alabama Department of Transportation, Mobile Bay National Estuary Program and Alabama representatives.

Problems

Run-off from construction, road widening and storms — starting with the 1971 development of Lake Forest — have landed in the lake, resulting in murky, shallow water, according to David Yeager of the Mobile Bay NEP.

“The amount of silt put into the water creates a water clarity problem;  sunlight cannot penetrate through the water column. Submerged vegetation can die out or be smothered …,” he said. “There’s a decrease  in finned fish and shell fish; many bottom dwelling critters don’t get up and move around. When sediment comes down they get covered over.

“Plus you lose use of  your waters for recreation because you’re filling them up with dirt.”

Henry Lawson, president of the Lake Forest Improvement Committee, foresees a continued problem as Daphne grows.

“I guess from time eternal, the beauty of the Eastern Shore was recognized as a prime location to first relax and later, as time passed, a great place to live and raise a family,” he said. “The bedroom community has now become a beehive and is attracting shopping malls and centers of unrivaled proportion.”

“Growth does not occur without change,” he said. “Regrettably, change often compromises our environment.”

Lake Forest resident, Capt. Hal Pierce, said he has watched the mud plume grow over the years.

“Years have gone by and D’Olive Creek has dumped at least 10,000 tons of silt into the (Mobile) Bay, backed up into Lake Forest and made a mud bank out of the (Lake Forest) Lake,” he said.

Steps

In order to plan a reversal of effects, data are being collected. Research on biological and geochemical parameters will be conducted through June 2009 by the Geological Survey of Alabama. It will compare findings with a reference site in pristine conditions, according to the working group’s April meeting minutes.

“Work on the sediment assessment is about half-way completed,” Marlon Cook, of the Geological Survey of Alabama, said of the $96,000 study.

The group has found that TimberCreek brings the heaviest load of sediment  and bedload into the lake during high flow events, according to a November 2006 to November 2007 study.

Past actions include a dredging  of the lake about 15 years ago, according to Lawson.

Also, “ … Tom’s Cove (located west of Bay View Drive, 300 yards into Lake Forest’s north entrance) on the lake was dredged following an ADEM complaint and compliance order four years ago and it is now silted worse than before,” he said.

An attempted 1998 project to correct the flow — a collaboration between Daphne and Lake Forest — resulted in halted efforts because city funds couldn’t be used on privately-owned property, according to Harry Brown, mayor from 1992 – 2004.

Actions

The group has worked toward:

•a comprehensive review of ordinances affecting wetlands, land use, drainage, land disturbance and consideration of adopting stronger standards

•identification of sites in the watersheds for remediation

•educational workshops for builders and developers

•green space requirements

•supporting limited openings in the Mobile Bay Causeway to improve flow conditions in D’Olive Bay; and

•dredging portions of the lake to return it to a functioning system.

Mayor Fred Small, City Councilwoman Cathy Barnette and Site Containment Inspector Ashley Campbell seek advice to create detention facilities in order to offset the lake’s siltation.

“She (Campbell) has found the problems that are out there; she’s walking streams and is finding problems that have been there for years,” Small said.

Changes are being made to the land use ordinance to help control sediment, according to the Daphne Planning Commission.

The commission will hold the second land use ordinance work session on Aug. 13 and plans to bring changes to the city council for consideration after the Aug. 28 meeting, according to Barnette.

John Peterson, president of the Lake Forest POA, said the study phase is nearly over.

“The studies are moving to completion; they provide the information we need to feed to these (government) agencies for funding,” he said. “We’re poised to move to the action and remediation phase.”

The group plans to ask for quotes to create a plan to reverse siltation effects by examining the collected data, he said.

Yeager said the plan is a starting point, but funds are required before further action can take place.

“We are now asking engineering and environmental firms to help us develop a concept,” Yeager said. “Then  we’ll try to find the money — it will be a multi-million dollar effort to get this fixed.”