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Lake Martin declared ‘treasured lake’
Published 11:59am Tuesday, December 28, 2010ECLECTIC – Many area residents have believed Lake Martin was a treasure for years.
Now, state officials are finally recognizing that fact.
Gov. Bob Riley signed an executive order creating the designation “Treasured Alabama Lake,” which will be awarded by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to lakes that meet special quality standards for cleanliness and nutrient enrichment.
Lake Martin will likely be the first in line to receive the title once proper rules have been created by ADEM following guidelines set up by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Dick Bronson, president of Lake Watch of Lake Martin, said they have been working on trying to protect Lake Martin for more than a decade. He said it will raise the bar on water quality requirements for the lake and its tributaries upstream, but it could also affect the water war with Georgia.
“If you have a higher water quality standard for a lake downstream, you’ve got to have some tough standards for the discharges,” Bronson said. “And it’s some added protection, I think, that’s going to be important for Water Wars among other things.”
After collecting more than 1,800 water samples from at least 30 sites on the lake, the organization had its credibility to go to ADEM to ask for some kind of designation to protect the lake.
The organization initially tried to get the Outstanding Alabama Water designation, but Bronson said the rules didn’t fit a reservoir like Lake Martin.
So he went back to ADEM and asked to create a new designation that Lake Martin would fit in. Earlier this month, Lake Watch met with ADEM director Lance LeFleur, Riley and EPA to develop the classification Treasured Alabama Lakes.
Riley backed the proposal and agreed to sign an executive order creating the designation.
“We can determine what our standards are going to be up the Tallapoosa River,” Riley said. “(The designation) says that no matter what happens over the next generation, the water here will never be degraded from what it is today. Now ladies and gentlemen, that is worth protecting.”
LeFleur said this is a win-win situation for everyone who lives on or around the lake and gives the state more protection on water coming into Alabama from Georgia.
“It’s helpful for those who live around the lake that they know they live on a Treasured Alabama Lake. It increases the value of their property,” LeFleur said. “It will also help us – we believe – in some of these efforts that have been underway for water coming into the state from Georgia, and it will give us an added level of protection – we hope – to make sure that the downstream impact of that is taken into consideration.”
Riley said by signing this executive order, it creates a process for other areas of the state to achieve this recognition if the people on that lake want it.
“We know that Lake Martin can, should and will,” Riley said. “And now to know that in perpetuity that anything that’s built around this reservoir or on the tributaries coming into it are also going to be protected to the point that they cannot degrade the quality here, I think that that is something we should all celebrate.”
Barnett Lawley, commissioner of the state Department of Natural Resources, said he wished that Logan Martin Lake and other Alabama bodies of water would receive this distinction like Lake Martin will receive.
“I hope I can go home and find a Dick Bronson who would do what you’ve done on Logan Martin Lake,” Lawley said. “I hope the other rivers and the other impoundments in the state look at Lake Martin, copy what you’ve done and we can improve the water system in our state – not only for us but for our critters and our wildlife…”
Because of this new designation, Bronson believes Lake Martin will be known by a new name in the future.
“This won’t be known as Lake Martin in the future. It will be known as Alabama’s Treasured Lake,” Bronson said. “It’s a little bit of a play on words, but it has a nice ring to it.”
While I appreciate Mr. Bronson’s efforts to keep the lake clean and protect it, the lake will always be known as LAKE MARTIN. No way will it ever be called Alabama’s Treasured Lake on a map or otherwise.
I appreciate the conservation efforts as well, but I hope that it doesn’t have an environmentalist slant to it when it comes to future business and economic developement in the upper watershed areas of the Alabama side of the river or in the local Lake Martin area which is desperate for jobs and income. Which comes first as a priorty? From what I’ve seen the last few years, it has leaned toward the enjoyment of the upper income of the area.