West Lake Closing, Draining The Entire Main Lake

What? They're draining West Lake? What in the....?

This morning we talked to Roger Larson, park manager and DNR officer of West Lake County Park and he said that they're planning on starting the draining of the 65-acre lake on July 15 due to, "A lot of sediment in the water and it's not as clear as it could be. There's a lot of carp and shad and they stir up the bottom and it adds to the problem. We'd like more game fish in there, and we'd also like to fix the banks in the process."

They first started discussing this back in 2006, and it's estimated that this closure could take up to a year, but they're not sure how long it'll actually take as they've never done this before.

Man-made lakes like this have a normal life span of 30 years and they've exceeded it.

The lake will officially close on August 1. "There are 5 lakes we're actually draining and we're going to monitor it and drain the main lake last. This will keep the swimming and activities open as long as possible."

The DNR has fishery program and what they'll do is restock the lake and we'll add some bass, bluegill, catfish.

The entire process will probably take about a year. According to Roger, "In a perfect world we could be putting water back in it in the Summer of next year. But things happen with contractors and there's a good chance that next year we may be shut down."

There has to be a ton of stuff at the bottom of the lake. They drained it down about 10 feet a few years back and we found fishing poles, tackle boxes, boat anchors... and so much more.

The campground and rental shelters will remain open. It's just the water areas that will be impacted.