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Swiftmud Sets Rules For Lake Levels

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 9, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - When Earl Gamber moved into his home off Hale Road in 1964, he could float a sailboat in the canal behind his house.

Over the past 35 years or so, the water level in that canal - and King Lake, which feeds it - has dropped steadily, Gamber said recently.

"I don't have waterfront property anymore," he said. "I have a mudhole in the backyard."

State resource managers didn't win Gamber over this month when they declared the current level in King Lake - which has left only 6 inches of water in Gamber's canal - to be the lake's minimum allowable level for the future.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District last week released standards for King Lake, King Lake East in San Antonio and Lake Linda in New Port Richey. The step was part of an effort to establish high and low boundaries for the lakes to protect both lakeshore homeowners and lake-dependent wildlife, said spokeswoman Robyn Hanke.

The minimum levels - which must be met 50 percent of the time - are based on rainfall figures and aim to protect the lakes from overly aggressive water withdrawals, Hanke said.

Pasco County's lakes were among nine to get new standards tailored to their historical fluctuations by Swiftmud, as the water district is known. The other half dozen were in Polk and Highlands counties.

Similar measures have been taken on other lakes and rivers in Swiftmud's region, and more are on the horizon in the coming years.

The water levels above or below those boundaries for a set period of time will trigger Swiftmud to take action lowering or raising the lake levels to keep them within the bounds, Hanke said.

Florida's growing drought already has lowered all three Pasco lakes below their Swiftmud lowest allowable limits. Swiftmud officials have given no indication of what, if anything, they will do to bring the lakes up.

The drought has left Margo McConnell's formerly lakefront gazebo completely landlocked. King Lake East has retreated about a hundred yards from its usual level, said McConnell, who lives just west of Curley Road off Kenton Road.

McConnell said she and her neighbors are less concerned about Swiftmud's standards harming their enjoyment of the lake they share with Epperson Ranch. If anything, they're having the opposite problem from Gamber and his neighbors.

"The minimum levels they are proposing to return us to are not far off of the high-level years following the hurricanes," McConnell said. "So for us, the minimum level might just be a little too high."
Gamber said that by using the current lake levels to set future levels, Swiftmud is ignoring history. Gamber built a sea wall on his property in 1970 that has gradually been left high and dry by the falling lake level.

He blames the opening of the Cypress Creek Wellfield on his shrinking lake. Swiftmud disagrees, saying the lake fluctuations are normal.

"They're ignoring the facts," Gamber said. "I've been here. The sea wall hasn't moved."

ON THE WEB

Swiftmud's new standards for lake levels are available online at: http://www.swfwmd.state

.fl.us/documents/#mfls.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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