Help! Everyone's Dock is Submerged on Camp Creek Lake.

[AAbsolute]

Eastern Lake was opened by the county. It has not broken out naturally in probably four years. In the fifty years I have been observing Eastern Lake the salinity has never dropped to the point where it has wiped out entire species of plants and wildlife, as it has now. The sawgrass that was prevelant since the early sixties has been completely replaced by cattails. There is no more mullet and bluecrab. Freshwater invasive plants are now digging in. This is in no way a cycle but a clear change in the ecology of this lake brought upon by the damming of the inlet.

Don't you like it better this way?

 

[rheffron]

I went on my kayak to the outfall area of Camp Creek Lake last week--it has broken through/connected to the Gulf--there has slow movement of the water out to the Gulf..... but obviously, it is too slow--everyone's with docks right on Camp Creek Lake haven't been able to use them--they have been underwater for almost 2 months now!

I know here in South Walton that man cannot give Nature a push to open it up more, physically, but how much longer will my dock be under water?

I will talk to anyone to get the info. on what to do about this? Anyone have any ideas?
Has Global Warming started to affect South Walton now!!!

Signed,

Dockless Camp Creeker.

Can you put a floating dock on top of your stationary dock?

 

[Smiling JOe]

Looks like Eastern Lake opened this morning. The lake has dropped about a foot.

amazing! Must be a miracle of man, because it hasn't rained in the last two days.

Personally, I think that when I hear people talk about normal or abnormal, regarding nature, I think that they are too short-sighted. These lakes have been around for thousands of years without man doing anything. What we tend to think of as normal or abnormal regarding these lakes is less than fifty years, and that is almost a point on a time line of the life of these lakes. ;-) Relax, and let the lakes do what they do. Go watch TV or something.

 

[NotDeadYet]

The weed is not invasive, the sand that was dumped after Ivan is long gone, the salt water species will return some day, low salinity is not bad, the cattails are probably living on fertilizer. I second SJ, there must be something interesting on tv.

 

[Lake View Too]

Tv

TV is nothing but bail-out, bail-out, bail-out...I want to rant about something!

 

[AAbsolute]

I remember reading in Prominence's PUD application and Environmental Impact Doc's that they had a small coastal dune lake. The Prominence parcel completely surrounded the CDL therefore there were no property owners fronting its borders beside the developer. It was stated that CDL were a naturally occurring sink hole with borders that change naturally. It was stated that neither the FDEP or Army Corp of Eng. had any jurisdiction and that Prominence could fill it.

I never followed up to see how that item played out.

 

[DuneLaker]

Eastern Lake was opened by the county. It has not broken out naturally in probably four years. In the fifty years I have been observing Eastern Lake the salinity has never dropped to the point where it has wiped out entire species of plants and wildlife, as it has now. The sawgrass that was prevelant since the early sixties has been completely replaced by cattails. There is no more mullet and bluecrab. Freshwater invasive plants are now digging in. This is in no way a cycle but a clear change in the ecology of this lake brought upon by the damming of the inlet.

Leaving the lake alone is a best practice that should be observed for the good of the lake and the good of our tax dollars. Sit back, relax, take a longer view. BTW, lake has opened naturally a few times over the last four years. Disagree with most of your points. Have been here 50+ years and have a number of friends around here 50+ too that would disagree with your statement. Just think people need to know there is quite a bit of difference of opinion here on a number of the stories that have been thrown around the last several years.

 

[Lake View Too]

Opinions

Leaving the lake alone is a best practice that should be observed for the good of the lake and the good of our tax dollars. Sit back, relax, take a longer view. BTW, lake has opened naturally a few times over the last four years. Disagree with most of your points. Have been here 50+ years and have a number of friends around here 50+ too that would disagree with your statement. Just think people need to know there is quite a bit of difference of opinion here on a number of the stories that have been thrown around the last several years.

There is much difference in opinion. In a perfect world, I'd be much happier to say just let it be, but I, unfortunately, have to show some empathy for less fortunate property owners. The lake has broken out naturally a few times but these are virtually trickles with little backwash. The sawgrass is gone. The mullett and bluecrab are gone. The ecology of the lake is changed.

 

[Smiling JOe]

The ecology of the lake is changed.

Allow me to adjust your statement above, just slightly, to read, "The ecology of the lake is changing." Everything in our environment is changing, it always has and always will. Nothing is permanent, not even the sand that Worth Williams dumped beside the lake.

 

[DuneLaker]

Indeed, the ecology of the lake is changing. While I was the Lake Watch person for the lake, the salinity even had a 10% reading around 2003 well before any of the storms and other porported activity. I miss the croakers that used to be around when I was a teenager. Flounder were getting in shorter supply before 2004, too. Changes, changes. Used to not have grass spurs or lawn grass in the dunes or around lake either. Used to not have sprinklers hitting lake or runoff from sprinklers draining into lake from across 30A such as the Southern Shores Building. Some houses have always flooded, were built in a flood plain or have been blown away by past storms. Should we keep bailing them out?