SOUTHPORT — After boating and fishing Deer Point Lake for 30 years, Bill Ronk knows every nook and cranny of the reservoir.
He knows the areas of the lake where he needs to cut his boat engine to avoid the prop hitting underwater logs or getting snagged in thick weeds. He can name many of the weeds in the lake, including the dreaded lemon bacopa that has infested the lake in recent years. He says the situation has gotten worse in recent years, hurting fishing and limiting boater access to the lake.
He and his neighbors want county officials to drawdown the lake next week even more than what is planned, saying that would expose more of the lake bottom and kill nuisance weeds.
Ronk, who was previously a member of the now defunct Deer Point Lake Advisory Committee that made recommendations to the County Commission, said he expects the county this year will be drawing down more in the 2-foot range. “It’s so important to draw down to at least 3 feet,” he said.
But county officials are concerned that drawing down the lake too much could pose a risk of saltwater intrusion into the county’s water supply, which comes from the lake.
Generally speaking, the lake will be drawn down 2 to 3 feet next week, Assistant County Manager Dan Shaw said.
“This not an exact science,” he said. “Our target is (a drawdown) of 2 to 3 feet.”
When the water levels of the lake reach 2 feet, saltwater intrusion could occur if there is a major storm, Shaw said, noting that this is not unusual during the winter.
“The swells that come out on these storms could potentially cause saltwater intrusion,” he said.
The annual drawdown, which is requested by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is aimed at reducing the number of weeds growing in the reservoir by exposing them to freezing temperatures. FWC officials said this would serve to decrease nuisance aquatic vegetation, improve boater access and enhance fish and wildlife habitat.
The drawdown is expected to last until Jan. 30, barring unexpected interruptions outside Bay County Utilities’ control such as heavy rain that could raise water levels and extend the drawdown timetable.
Using figures provided by Bay County, Ronk said 50 acres of lake bottom is exposed with a 1-foot drawdown, 230 acres are exposed with a 2-foot drawdown, 425 acres are exposed with a 2.5 foot drawdown and 600 acres are exposed with a 3-foot drawdown.
Trey Hall, who also lives on the lake, said he also would like to see a little deeper drawdown than what the county plans.
“I guess it’s doing some good, but you are not exposing near as much ground cover or bottom cover (as needed),” he said. “If you don’t expose the weeds to the cold you are not really doing anything.”
Katie Woodside, a FWC freshwater fisheries biologist, said the depth of the drawdown is up to Bay County.
“They are the ones who operate the control structure,” she said. “We recommend that they go down as far as they can go down without causing saltwater intrusion.”
She said a drawdown of 3 feet or more could help kill some of the lemon bacopa weeds in shallower areas of the lake, “but there is a limit to how far they can draw it down based on the saltwater intrusion.”
Woodside said they can’t kill the weeds with herbicides because the water is the county’s drinking water source.
Moreoever, she said FWC be not be stocking grass-eating carp in the lake this year to get rid of the weeds as they have done in year’s past, as the carp sometimes end up eating weeds that are positive for fish habitats.
“There are other weeds that anglers or boaters don’t like that carp control, but they don’t control the lemon bacopa,” she said.