June 24, 2013
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Save Weiss Lake, now officially organized, gets to work By SCOTT WRIGHT CENTRE — Ever since Atlanta transplant Tom Taylor created Save Weiss Lake (SWL) in 2010, he's been fielding questions about why, exactly, there is a need for yet another organization dedicated to the 30,200-acre reservoir. In an editorial on the SWL website (www.saveweisslake.org) dated May 29, 2013, Taylor explained that other lake-related organizations, while they “do good things that deserve our support,” do not specifically address what he considers the most important aspect of Weiss Lake's future—the need to clean it up. “Our goals are simple and we will not get distracted by things that are interesting but will not address issues that are causing the deterioration of our lake,” the editorial continued. Last week, Taylor told The Post his organization is now an official, non-profit, 501(c)(3), with a list of goals aimed at assuring the continued viability of one of Cherokee County's most valuable economic engines. “This thing started with me, writing letters and building a website,” Taylor said. “I'll admit I was kind of aggressive in trying to stir people up to get involved.” Taylor's strategy worked. Now, the group has over 75 paying members. And after a “healthy revamping” recently, which included the addition of a seven-member board of directors, Taylor's door-pounding approach has given way to regular meetings, a set agenda, and a coordinated long-term plan. “We have four initiatives—water quality, Alabama Power Shoreline Management issues, the water level, and so-called high polluters, which you could say falls under water quality,” Taylor said. “We want to be the voice for all waterfront property owners, because we don't feel like they are being represented.” Taylor said the ultimate goal of SWL is to help everyone in Cherokee County reap the benefits of what he considers an invaluable man-made wonder. “We're trying to help businesses, too, so we want to focus on cleaning up the lake,” Taylor said. “That will allow us to get the lake's reputation back to a more healthy state and attract more tourists, which we believe will help businesses be more successful.” Taylor recently received an email “out of the clear blue sky” from someone he believes may be the perfect person to help the newly reorganized version of SWL get off to a good start. “We're very fortunate to have Jack Taylor as our director of water quality,” Taylor said. “He has a PhD in limnology, which is the science of fresh water.” Taylor said Jack Taylor (no relation) has 40 years of experience in the field and has worked on water quality issues on the Hudson River in New York and the Fox River in Wisconsin. “Jack is going to put together a comprehensive program to really study the lake and figure out what's going on, because most of the existing data dates from the early 1990s,” Taylor said. “It's already twenty or twenty-five years old.” Another of SWL's early goals is to complete a fully-updated depth survey of Weiss Lake. “All the maps in existence are very old,” Taylor said. “We want to lay out a matrix of the entire lake and bring that information up to date.” Taylor said Jack Taylor also plans to complete a bacterial study of the lake over the next couple of months. “We're going to take samples of the bottom of the lake, and of the water at different depths, then review those results and see what our water quality really is,” Taylor said. “And our intention is to make clearly visible all the information we gather, whether it's good, bad or indifferent. If there isn't a problem with bacteria we are going to say so.” Taylor said the group's shoreline concerns deal mainly with cleaning up the flood easement and forcing the removal of the estimated hundreds of dilapidated piers that dot the edges of Weiss Lake. “This has more to do with aesthetics than anything else, but that's an important part of drawing tourists to the lake,” Taylor said. The third issue SWL will focus on deals with the winter water level in Weiss Lake. Currently, the Army Corps of Engineers dictates to Alabama Power that the water drop six feet below full pool (564 ft. asl) during the winter months to facilitate flood control downstream. For the past several years, local organizations have been pushing Alabama Power to request a reduction of the winter draw-down level to three feet. As part of its most recent federal license renewal, Alabama Power asked permission to do so. Alabama Power's new 30-year license to conduct operations at Weiss Dam was reissued recently, but the water level request was not granted. “What we have found out since we really got into this issue is that Weiss Lake is caught up in a bunch of government red tape, the tri-state water wars, and hundreds of appeals against the federal agency that can ultimately do something about the water level,” Taylor said. “We're really going to start to zero in on what we can do, whether it's getting in touch with Rep. Mike Rogers, or state legislators, or whoever, and get something done about this.” Taylor said he believes that if enough people add their voices to those of the current the members of SWL, Weiss Lake and everyone who loves it will be the ultimate benefactors. “This place could be the golden star of northeast Alabama, it's so beautiful,” Taylor said. “There are already a lot of people who come here, but there could be a lot more.” To find out more about Save Weiss Lake, visit their website or contact Tom Taylor at 256-541-1347. Send email to saveweisslake@gmail.com. |