On October 14th, we visited Lake Lewisville to see first hand the condition of the lake. We set out on the kayaks, after partnering with DFW surf. The 6 of us kayaked for several hours, and observed the lake. Afterwards we interviewed the locals and utilized a Grassroot campaign.
We saw a lot of dead trees that covered one of the shore lines and very little trash in and around the lake. However, the lack of trash in the lake was made up by the fuel exhaust that surrounded the boat pier. One local said he could swim around the pier, but now there is too much exhaust pollution to even swim in certain parts of the pier. The boats that sit on the pier are the reason for this exhaust. Not only was the exhaust pollution a problem, the flooding in 2015, as well as the minor flooding this year, caused lots of damage to the environment and the homes that sit on the lake. The pavilions used to be submerged. This no doubt caused a lot of property damage and water damage to the structural integrity of those pavilions submerged.
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Oil and natural gas are undoubtedly one of the behemoths of today's economy. As companies in the industry continually seek new places to drill, it is inevitable that they turn to sources in all sorts of places - and recently, attention had turned to Lake Lewisville due to it being a possible natural gas drilling site. A portion of Lake Lewisville property was to be auctioned off in a federal lease program, where mineral rights to a plot of land are given to the highest bidder. Concerns were raised about polluting the lake due to the drilling and fracking that would take place, and after the property was removed from the auction in late 2015, it also failed to make the spring 2016 auction. Though the Lake Lewisville plot was never sold off, other areas have had problems with this same lease program.
Background: Lake Lewisville Dam was constructed in 1955 and is 125 feet tall and 33,000 feet wide. The $21,756,500 project was payed for by the cities of Dallas, Denton, University Park, and Highland Park. The Issue: Lake Lewisville Dam, before early 2015, was already rated the 8th most dangerous dam in the nation by the Army Corps or Engineers. Afterwards, the heavy rains and flooding caused the infrastructure to be severely damaged. Several sand boils formed. Sand boils are whirlpools of sand and water that signified seepage under the dam creating a tunnel that could, if untouched, lead to the eventual rupture of the dam. Such a breach would unleash a devastating 2.5 billion tons of water down the trinity river, flooding downtown Dallas and affecting over 431,000 people. Many have compared the 1889 flooding in Johnston, PA to the flooding that would result if the Lake Lewisville Dam were to collapse. However, the destruction from the floods in Johnston are minor compared to the predicted destruction that would follow the Lake Lewisville Dam collapse. Although some of the sand boils have been dealt with through great difficulty, there have been other problems - in particular, a gaping hole was discovered in the dam on June 23rd, as the result of a "slide". Full dam repairs would take an estimated 50-500 million. The Army Corps of Engineers are still pondering solutions to fix the dam's weakened state, but they have yet to find a solution that works. While the dam is still weak, many sit in harms way and do not realize it. |
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