Boats leaving damage, algae in their wake
Staff writer
Not only are docks at Marion County Lake being wrecked by inconsiderate visitors who, among other things, have been caught on surveillance cameras getting naked and having sex.
They also are being damaged by a relatively new water sport that also is contributing to shoreline erosion and is being blamed in part for an unprecedented six consecutive weeks of blue-green algae advisories.
Wakeboarding, which mixes elements of waterskiing, surfing, and snowboarding, involves riders being towed behind specially designed speedboats and performing tricks by jumping over the boat’s wake.
“We had five or six of them doing it on the Fourth, and normally one or two every weekend,” lake superintendent Isaac Hett said Monday.
The sport often employs specially designed boats with deep hulls, ballast systems, and shaping attachments designed to create extra-large wakes.
On a small lake, the wakes don’t have space to dissipate before hitting shore. In areas where water is 8 to 10 feet deep, they also disturb sediment on the bottom, releasing nutrients like phosphorous that encourage algae growth.
After being free of algae advisories most of last summer, the lake has been under a watch or warning continuously since the Fourth. The latest will continue at least until Friday.
Several states — most recently, Wisconsin — have outlawed wakeboarding on lakes of less than 500 acres.
The county lake is barely more than half that size at 280 acres. Marion Reservoir, in comparison, extends over 6,200 to 9,183 acres. Most summers, it has had more problems with algae than the county lake has. This year, however, it has not been under a watch or warning for nearly a month.
It’s not merely the speed at which wakeboarding boats operate. They typically move slower than waterskiing boats. A pontoon might travel at 7 mph. A wake boat tends to travel at 11 to 19 mph while a ski boat travels at 20 to 30 mph.
Pontoon and ski boats, however, are designed to minimize wakes while wake boats are designed to maximize them, with ballast causing them to ride low in the water at their stern.
The waves they create provide a surf-like surface for wakeboarders to jump over. They also disturb anglers and others along with shore.
“I get people all the time telling me that they really can’t enjoy the lake because of all the waves,” Hett said.
The waves cause shoreline erosion and can take a financial toll on docks.
Dock owner Brian Crooks has had to replace cables on his dock three times this year because wakeboard boats come within 30 feet of his dock.
“I think it’s doing a lot of damage to everyone’s docks,” Crooks told county commissioners Monday. “I also think it’s hurting the lake itself. There’s a lot of studies out there that show that the damage above the lake is nothing compared to the bed of the lake and what it’s doing to fishing and stirring up sediment, encouraging algae growth.”
Crooks has switched to half-inch cables on his dock near the former Kingfishers Inn.
“At this point, I think the dock will start breaking before the cables will snap again,” he told commissioners. “Our lake is definitely too small for that kind of thing.”
He was one of three dock owners who pleaded with commissioners Monday to consider adopting regulations governing visitors’ dock usage and wakeboarding.
Marci Cain, who purchased a dock five years ago, told commissioners a fire pit was moved and left still burning on her dock the next morning.
“We’ve cleaned up fish guts, stink bait, broken glass, beer cans, trash, and dog doo,” she said. “We’ve had several confrontations with perfect strangers who refused to leave when we arrived to use our dock, or they get angry when we’re using our dock. They don’t understand why they can’t use it, too. The joys of being cussed out for trying to use your own personal property!”
She questioned who would be liable in case of an accident, adding: “Despite two very visible ‘you’re on camera’ signs, and the trail camera is not hidden, we had people engaging in sexual activity on our dock.”
She criticized commissioners other than Kent Becker for failing to respond to her emails complaining about the situation.
Her concerns were echoed by dock owner Sherry Conyers, who reported that her cameras had recorded unwanted nude visitors at her dock at 2 a.m., well after the lake’s posted curfew.
Conyers and Cain asked that docks be privatized, but Crooks, who’s had his dock for about a year, disagreed.
“I had to rely on public docks in the past,” he told commissioners. “My dock is public, and I feel that when I purchased that spot, part of that was that I made a commitment to maintain that area for the public. And I don’t mind doing that.”
But, he said, he would like to see “some rules and regulations to kind of help on both sides.”
Commissioners took no action.
“Some of the activities on them I was guilty of when I was a teenager,” commissioner Mike Beneke said. “So, it’s been going on for quite a while.”
He suggested designating Hett as a compliance officer, with brief two-week training as a part-time law enforcement officer — a plan Hett said he would favor.
But Hett warned that the lake was open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and a single compliance officer with other duties would not be able to stop all problems.
“The easy fix is for people to respect other people’s property,” commissioner Clarke Dirks said, “but that’s not going to happen.”