2019 Lake Lowering
Attention Boaters: This year’s lake lowering is planned to begin approximately at the end of October/1st week of November. Please make sure to have your watercraft removed from the lake before lowering begins.
Also, remember to grab your state registration off of your watercraft before winterizing. Registrations are required when registering your watercraft with the RRA.
Be Part of the Solution
By Dick Hurwitz
Have you been paying attention to the lake over the years? Do you look out your window, or from your deck, your dock, or your watercraft and see things that concern you? Are you worried when you see mud-brown water, weeds, or algae? Do you worry even more about the possibility of toxins resulting from algae growth? If you do worry about these things—about the quality of our lake water, what have you been doing about it: Keeping your worries to yourself? Complaining about it to your friends and neighbors? Standing up at Board meetings and voicing your concerns? Deciding to move elsewhere? Sure, you can do all of these things; but are any of them really helping to solve the problem? Are any of them really actions that may improve the quality of our lake water? Most likely they are not. There are actions you could take, however, which will help with the problems of water quality. Here are some suggestions.
- Educate yourself by reading the Shores News articles written by Lake Management Committee members and by accessing and reading information on the RomeRock Association website relating to water quality. You can identify the articles by our Love the Lake logo.
- Follow suggestions in the articles and on the website for: using phosphorous-free lawn care products and lake-friendly cleaning products; constructing a buffer zone or other means to counteract shoreline erosion; planting a rain garden; and picking up after your pet.
- Do your best to keep your own leaves and yard waste out of the lake.
- Use the information provided by the Lake Management Committee to contact your state congressmen or congresswomen and lobby them to pass legislation helping to control farmland runoff into our lake’s watershed. To learn more, visit the Sediment and Nutrient Control website under the Lake Management Tab and look for our February 19, 2015 article. http://www.roamingshores.org/RRA1/category/sediment-control-sub-committee/
- Get involved. Join the Lake Management Sediment and Nutrient Control Sub-Committee. Contact the Association office or visit the RomeRock Association website for meeting times. Or send an email requesting information to IT@roamingshores.org.
- Encourage your friends and neighbors to follow the first five suggestions!!
Take another look at our lake. Decide right now to start following the above suggestions. Be one of those people in the community who becomes part of the solution to the problems of water quality. Remember to Be Lake Responsible and Love the Lake.
July Lake Level Control Sub-Committee Meeting
Members present include Tim Langer, Walt Samson and Chairman Rick Gainar. Also present was Ed Baitt.
Meeting called to order at 2PM at the Association Office.
Items discussed:
- Due to the unplanned and extraordinary expense of the failed RRA Office building, it is anticipated that no funding will be possible for significant projects, including a siphon spillway, until 2017 at the earliest. Accordingly, it was decided that study and development of a siphon spillway be suspended for a period of one year.
- The sub-committee members will continue with 1) water sampling/testing projects including stream samples, deep-water samples, and samples from the model siphon spillway, and 2) building a consolidated database containing all official test results obtained to date from the many historic lake studies.
Regular monthly meetings are suspended until further notice.
Meeting was adjourned at 3:30PM
March Lake Level Control Sub-Committee Meeting
Lake Level Control Sub-Committee Meeting Minutes
March 12, 2014
Members present include Dave Emick, Tim Langer, Gil Kendrac and Chairman Rick Gainar. Also present were Dell Rogers and Ed Baitt.
Meeting called to order at 2PM at the Association Office.
Items discussed:
- Rick Gainar described the development of the Lake Roaming Rock Data Base on which Walt Samson and Rick are currently working. It is an MS Excel spreadsheet containing all lake measurements and samples taken over the years. The database will function as a repository for lake information – past and future from which data may be extracted for analysis in other programs or reports.
- Rick described the stream-testing project he and Rick Herd are currently developing. The goal of this project is to obtain information on the amount of nutrients entering the lake via the tributaries as opposed to internal loading.
- The Pine Lake Restoration Project was reviewed. Pine Lake (Alberta, Canada) is a large, stratified lake in Canada experiencing excessive algae and nutrient loading. The first Canadian hypolimnetic withdrawal (siphon) system was installed in 1998 and proved to be effective but did not improve conditions as much as they wanted due to external loading of nutrients from the watershed.
Our next meeting is scheduled on Wednesday, April 9, 2014 at 2:00PM. Our regular meeting date is the 2nd Wednesday of each month at the Association Office so mark your calendars!
Meeting was adjourned at 3:30PM
by RD Gainar on December 13, 2013
Lake Depth Improvement Sub-Committee Workshop Report
Workshop was open to the membership.
Guests were from Lake Erie Ship Repair & Fabrication, LLC of Jefferson, OH. Mr. Joseph Crane (President) and Mr. Justin Gee (Vice President) shared with us the history of the company and presented pictures of their past construction projects. This company was chosen by the committee and voted by the Board to accept their bid for a spud barge and 2 hopper barges for the Lake Dredging Project.
After the meeting, questions were asked by Membership.
1. Is there a contract? – Yes
2. Will the spud barge hold our trackhoe? – Yes, the barge holds up to 90k lbs. Our trackhoe is 33k lbs.
3. What about the hopper barges, how many cubic yards can it carry? – Between 6 ½ to 8 cubic yards.
4. Will the barges be painted? – Yes, the color of the barges will be red inside and out.
5. Where will the barges be put into the water? – At the boat ramp.
6. How long does it take to build the barge? – About 5 to 6 weeks.
7. Will the barges be ready for July 2014 dredging? – Yes
8. Where will you practice dredging? – Plum Creek
9. Where will the dredging start and when? – The target date is July 14th and it will be in Fishman’s Cove.
10. Why Fisherman’s Cove? – EnviroScience sampling methods from 2009 and 2011 indicated that that area had the most siltation.
11. How will we know where and when the dredging is going to be? – Times will be 8am to 3:30pm; the location will be announced on the Website, in the Email Blast, and in the Shores News.
The next workshop will be on Saturday, April 5th at 10am in the Clubhouse. This workshop will be open to the membership.
February Lake Level Control Sub-Committee Meeting
Lake Level Control Sub-Committee Meeting Minutes
February 12, 2014
Members present include Walt Samson, Tim Langer, Todd Gress and Chairman Rick Gainar.
Meeting called to order at 2PM at the Association Office.
Items discussed:
- Discussion of Walt’s early work on a project to create a database for all lake measurements and samples taken over the years. Walt advises that the MS Excel spreadsheet is large and unwieldy and will require adjustments for samples captured in the past versus the future. A copy of Walt’s “Lake Roaming Rock Compendium of Lake Sampling Readings” was provided for review.
- Grand Lake St. Mary’s restoration activities as they pertain to internal release of phosphorus were discussed. Chemical treatment is primarily used to reduce phosphorus in order to bring the lake under control. Controlling nutrients in the watershed is their long-term goal. Dredging is employed at a rate of <1% of the lake per year solely to improve the depth in waterways for safe-boating.
- The recent closing of our lake drain was ordered by the Village in order to prevent the ice from coming into contact with the sewage pipe that crosses a shallow cove. Unfortunately, this brings to an end our plan to remove as much high phosphorus water after the fall mixing as possible.
Our next meeting is scheduled on Wednesday, March 12, 2014 at 2:00PM. Our regular meeting date is the 2nd Wednesday of each month at the Association Office so mark your calendars!
Meeting was adjourned at 3:30PM
by RD Gainar on December 13, 2013
January Lake Level Control Sub-Committee Meeting
Lake Level Control Sub-Committee Meeting Minutes
January 8, 2014
Members present include Gil Kandrac, Walt Samson and Chairman Rick Gainar. Also present was RRA Board President Dell Rogers.
Meeting called to order at 2PM at the Association Office.
Items discussed:
1. Discussion of the various forms of phosphorus and the ways it enters our lake. Phosphorus can either a) be transported from our large watershed into the lake during storm events, or b) internally released from sediment in deep water from at the bottom of the lake. Our Lake Management Committee Plan charges our committee, the Lake Level Control Sub-Committee, to address internally released phosphorus and the Lake Sediment/Nutrient Control Sub-Committee to address phosphorus transported from outside the lake.
2. Our committee is investigating a hypolimnetic withdrawal system (bottom withdrawal siphon spillway) first as the tool we use to improve water quality as it relates to the release of nutrients from deep-water sediment. It is by far the most efficient and economical means to this end and, therefore, should be consider first and thoroughly. There is currently a significant effort in Ohio to limit the amount of phosphorus that enters Lake Erie. This effort may cause state agencies, such as the Ohio EPA, to severely restrict our use of a hypolimnetic withdrawal system. If we determine the siphon spillway would no longer be effective with these EPA restrictions, we will begin investigation of the next most efficient tool, hypolimnetic aeration.
3. Gil Kendrac will investigate the water/sewage lines that cross a shallow cove near the dam. We will need to understand the effect a freezing, winter drawdown would have on these lines.
Our next meeting is scheduled on Wednesday, February 12, 2014 at 2:00PM. Our regular meeting date is the 2nd Wednesday of each month at the Association Office so mark your calendars!
Meeting was adjourned at 3:30PM
by RD Gainar on December 13, 2013
November Lake Level Control Sub-Committee Meeting Minutes
Lake Level Control Sub-Committee Meeting Minutes
November 13, 2013
Members present include Gil Kendrac, Dave Flaum, Dave Emick, Todd Gress, and Chairman Rick Gainar. Also present was RRA Board Member Dell Rogers.
Meeting called to order at 2PM at the Association Office.
Items discussed:
1. Discussed the recent lake turnover event that occurred on or about 10/24/2013 and the subsequent algal bloom. O2 and temperature data collected on 10/4/2013, while the lake was still stratified, was compared to data collected after the lake turnover on 10/24/2013. Before the turnover temperatures ranged from 21.5ºC at the surface to 12.5ºC at 31-foot level while dissolved oxygen ranged from 10.4 mg/L to 0mg/L at the 17-foot level and below. After the lake turnover temperatures remained constant throughout the water column at 5.2ºC. Dissolved oxygen was also nearly constant ranging from 1.6 mg/L at the surface to 0mg.L at the 29-foot level.
2. Lake turnover is an annual event at Roam Rock Lake. So is the subsequent, massive algal bloom that follows this event after a few days time. The lake turnover event causes the phosphorus that was released from the organic sediment but held at the lake bottom all year, to mix in the entire water column.
3. We discussed the model siphon that a team of committee members recently installed at the dam using a length of garden hose. Dissolved oxygen data is currently being collected from lake water 5-feet off the bottom. Phosphorus data collection will soon follow.
4. No report from the Lowrey/Martin work group on their investigation of the water/sewage lines that cross a cove near the dam. We will need to understand the effect a freezing, winter drawdown would have on these lines.
5. A discussion ranking 13 advantages of a siphon spillway determined that the committee felt that less phosphorus & nutrients, improved weed control, and ability to maintain lake level for emergency repairs were among the most important. A siphon design with the ability to keep up with 100% of expected water flowing into the lake would be necessary.
Our next meeting is scheduled on December 11, 2013 at 2:00PM. Our regular meeting date is the 2nd Wednesday of each month at the Association Office so mark your calendars!
Meeting was adjourned at 3:45PM
by RD Gainar on November 14, 2013
October Lake Level Control Sub-Committee Meeting Minutes
October 9, 2013
Members present include Bud Tharp, Gil Kandrac, Walt Samson, and Chairman Rick Gainar. Also present was RRA Board Member Dell Rogers.
Meeting called to order at 2PM at the Association Office.
Items discussed:
1. Walt Samson led a conversation in order to focus the work and discussions of the sub-committee. Many years of committee experience has taught Walt that nothing usually get accomplished until a goal is clearly defined.
2. A list of benefits that various bottom-withdrawal siphon systems provide is to be created so that committee members can rank the importance of each benefit. Our goal will be to detail and cost a specific siphon design that will accomplish at least the more important benefits. The design will eventually be presented to the Board for their action.
3. No report from the Lowrey/Martin work group on their investigation of the water/sewage lines that cross a cove near the dam. We will need to understand the effect a freezing, winter drawdown would have on these lines.
4. The Kandrac/Emick/Gainar work group is working to install a small model siphon near the principle spillway in order to begin sampling lake water from the approximate area in the lake where the actual siphon would draw water. The Village has given access to the work group so they can proceed. Materials have been purchased and are ready to install.
Our next meeting is scheduled on November 13, 2013 at 2:00PM. Our regular meeting date is the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 2:00PM so mark your calendars!
Meeting was adjourned at 3:45PM
by RD Gainar on October 9, 2013
Lake Level Control Sub-Committee Meeting Minutes – August 14, 2013
Members present include Bud Trarp, Dave Emick, Louise Lowery, Gil Kendrac, Sally Flash, Walt Samson, Dave Flaum, and Chairman Rick Gainar. Also present were RRA Board Members Del Rogers and John Martin.
Meeting called to order at 2PM at the Association Office.
Items discussed:
- Advantages of a bottom-withdrawal siphon spillway including improved weed control, less algae and sediment, clearer water, improved fishery, less wear on the dam, less risk of blockage to the emergency drain port, flood mitigation measures, scheduled drawdowns, less phosphorus and other nutrients and methyl-mercury buildups. Disadvantages including impact on downstream waters and thermal instability were also discussed. This open-ended discussion included a basic description of how a siphon works and some of the issues involved in coordinating the project with Roaming Shores Village.
- Need to create a work group to investigate the water/sewage lines that cross the cove near the dam in order to understand the effect a winter drawdown would have on the lines. Louise Lowrey and John Martin volunteered to work on that project and report their finding to the committee.
- Need to create a work group to install a small 5/8” garden hose siphon near the principle spillway in order to begin sampling lake water from the approximate area in the lake where the actual siphon would draw water. A history of the water quality will be sampled and recorded. Rick Gainar and Dave Emick volunteered to initiate this project.
Members requested copies of the various lake studies and other background materials.
While meetings are regularly scheduled on the 2nd Wednesday of each month, conflicts required our next meeting to be rescheduled on September 25th at 2:00pm.
Meeting was adjourned at 3:45PM
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