Our Lakes Are Filling!

duffy

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Oct 7, 2015
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Eastern WA.
After a Long dry spell we'r getting some much needed water! Many of our local scab land lakes have been dry or were on the verge of drying up but now are receiving the much needed water. After a wet fall and a generous snowpack things are looking up. Pacific lake north of Odessa has been dry since 2000 if memory serves right and it's filling quite nicely with a strong steady stream running into it. It's about the third to the last one in the chain lakes that reaches around 40 miles. Many of the pastures have pot holes that are full or still filling from water coming up from underground and I haven't seen that in many many years. It seems to put everyone in the community in a better mood and I'm sure has made the ducks and geese pretty happy too!
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This is a pic of Pacific lake two weeks ago and you can see the water starting to fill from the bottom. Today the whole bottom is covered and is several feet deep from what I was told. This lake is sort of unique as there is a large cavern on the east end that fills first and then the water comes up from the bottom. Sort of makes you wonder if the lake once was as deep as the cavern and over the years has just filled in with sediment. This was our local recreation spot for our little local town and it's nice to see it filling once again. It has gone dry twice now and if they can keep some of the big irrigators from pumping so much water maybe it'll stay full a bit longer.
 

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duffy

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Eastern WA.
Always thought that something should have been done to either form some type of structure or dredge it out to make it deeper. When if first went dry in the late 80's after everyone investigated and it dried out enough to walk on the bottom they planted turnips and grazed cows on it. Then the BLM got involved and did fix up a nice boat ramp on the one end but of course they won't do anything that isn't according to or goes against nature. Same ole same ole, nobody want's to do anything but will bitch when things don't go right. I don't know the exact depth at this time but in that area of the picture it is at least 6' of water and is making it's way to the other end. There is a large rock dam in a narrow area that was at least up to my chest (I'm 6'1) and it's flowing over it.
 

duffy

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Eastern WA.
Yes, there were perch, bass and of course sunfish and the state would plant rainbow's. The trout were fun to catch but tasted like mud as most of them do, but the perch and bass were great. The land owner and local Lyons Club had about a 2 acre area on the one end with a grassy picnic area, swings, boat launch, shallow swimming area and sort of a gazebo type building that hung over the lake that you could sit in with tables & chairs. Someone had also built a ski jump out in the middle. It was a great recreational area for the towns people years ago and everyone really enjoyed it. Sort of an oasis in the middle of the desert. Eventually like all good things the land owner got tired of picking up garbage and the vandalism and locked up the access. He would sell you a key for a $1 so he could keep track of who was in there but that fizzled out as idiots abused that also so he shut it down. You could still gain access on the other end but early on it wasn't as developed and the owner of the property on that end who lived there, soon tired of the garbage, late parties and noise. Later on it was sold to the BLM and they build a ramp with a picnic area and bathroom. Now mind you I'm talking about a 30+ year span that this all happened in.
 I think the turnips were just some hair brained idea someone had. Beings the soil was so soft and silty, plus full of nutrients they grew rather well and some got pretty big. The cows that they put in there (and the deer) would pull them up and eat them. I guess they figured it would be a good supplement for them. The first time it went dry it was pretty interesting. The bottom looked like giant pillars of mud or clay and were all cracked. After it dried out a bit you could carefully walk on top of the pillars and they would jiggle like extra firm set jello. Lot's of people would go out and scrounge around finding all kinds of lost gear, a boat motor, tackle boxes and mostly a lot of beer cans.
 

AtticaFish

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That is crazy. Can not imagine a lake that size just drying up. Glad to hear there is some water coming back. At least it might open up a little swimming hole for people.
 

duffy

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Eastern WA.
View attachment 8View attachment 9

Please excuse the crappy cell phone pic's but it's pretty amazing how much this has filled in only 19 days. First pic in the post were taken of the east end on 4/11/17 and these were done on 4/30/17. This is the West end of the lake where the public access ramp is so the complete bottom is covered and now filling. As you can see it still has quite a ways to go before the ramp is useful but at least things are looking up. Getting more rain today and the stream running into the lake is still flowing. Russ I know that it seems nuts that it could go dry but with all the irrigation going on they are depleting allot of the water. There's a large pump just about 1/2 mile away that they used for alfalfa and I think that was the main culprit but fortunately that ground is all in CRP and I hope it never comes out.
 

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