|
Missed an issue of Ozark Waters?
Visit the Ozarks Water Watch website to find archives of all our newsletters.
www.ozarkswaterwatch.org
Want to join a Watershed Group? Click on the site you want to join...
Table Rock Lake Water Quality
http://www.trlwq.org
James River Basin Partnership
http://www.jamesriverbasin.com
Kings River Watershed
http://www.kingsriverwatershed.
org/about_us.html
Illinois River Watershed Ptshp
http://www.irwp.org/
Elk River Watershed
http://www.erwia.org/
Friends of the North Fork and White River
www.friendsoftherivers.org
Save the Illinois River
www.illinoisriver.org
|
|
Upcoming Events
Click on the Event Title to go to the event webpage.
Stream Team's 2011 Introductory Level Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Workshops:
Springfield, Sat. March 26th
8:30am - 5:00pm
(see other locations also)
To register: login to
Stream Team Web Page
W. K. Lewis
Shoreline Cleanup
on Table Rock Lake:
April 2, 2011
Team leader meeting
March 24, 2011
For more information:
call (417) 739-4100
or email
Arkansas Earth Day 2011 Sat. April 23rd 10am - 3pm at North Little Rock's North Shore Riverwalk more information at: |
|
|
Rockaway Beach on Lake Taneycomo, Missouri
David Casaletto
Sometime in the early 1960's a family leaves Arma, a small town in southeast Kansas, in a 1959 Ford station wagon heading for a short family vacation. The destination is a famous lakefront resort town called Rockaway Beach, Missouri. I am around 10 years old and sitting in the backseat of that vehicle with my younger sister. About 2 ½ hours into the trip, I have a vivid recollection of singing (if you can call it that) with my sister over and over again "rock, rock, rock to rockaway beach". If you have had children, I am sure you can identify with this picture!
My next memory is actually at Rockaway Beach. We had rented a paddleboat but for some reason we had drifted or paddled out a ways from the dock where my dad was still standing. I remember him diving into the water to swim over to us and his loud scream when his body hit that cold water. Lake Taneycomo was created in 1913 as a warm water lake but in 1958, just a couple of years before our vacation, it became a cold water lake when the Table Rock Dam was completed. The clear cold waters from the deep Tailwaters of Table Rock Lake now pour out of the dam into Lake Taneycomo. I asked my mom if she had any pictures of that family vacation but if she does they are tucked away and hidden in some closet. This generic photo found on the web will have to do.
While the change in water temperature changed the major lake activity from family vacations to fishing (Lake Taneycomo is one of the best trout fishing lakes in the country), another change threatens Rockaway Beach's attempt to stay a viable tourist destination, mud, lots & lots of mud. With the change in water flow after the completion of Table Rock Lake dam and for reasons only known to stream and lake dynamics (and people trained in that subject),  Mother Nature has chosen to deposit mud and silt brought into Lake Taneycomo by storm events directly in front of Rockaway Beach.
The pictures you see in this newsletter taken in 2009 show how severe this problem has become. During needed repairs to the Power Site Dam, the lake was lowered just a few feet and this vast mud field was exposed. At normal lake levels boats can barely make their way in and out of their slips and the large tourist boats that could make Rockaway a stop on their cruise cannot find deep enough waters to dock. It is interesting to note that only a foot or two change in lake levels makes the difference between private boats being able to safely use their slips at Rockaway or to risk hitting bottom.
In 2000 the US Army Corps of Engineers attempted to correct the problem with the placement of three viaducts and pumps under a passageway to the fishing island and also placed four fountains to circulate water. Both the pumps and fountains have since failed. The recommended construction of a wing dam to divert the current in the main channel of the lake as well as the dredging of the silt was never done. In 2009 there was a meeting spearheaded by Missouri State Senator Jack Goodman. In attendance were many local, state and federal elected officials along with representatives from Missouri Department of Transportation, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Missouri Department of Economic Development, the Little Rock District US Army Corps of Engineers and many local businesses. After the meeting everyone was given a guided boat tour of the lake and there seemed to be consensus that there was a serious problem. To date, no further action has been taken.
There are no easy answers to these types of problems. It has been estimated that to actually fix the problem at Rockaway Beach there would have to be 315,000 cubic yards of material removed and engineering modifications made to ensure the silt would not return. Before this can happen a decision will need to be made as to who is actually responsible for the project and where the estimated $4.5 million dollars to complete it will come from. But in the meantime, city officials estimate that losses in tourist revenue approach $4.5 million annually. Rockaway's problems are easy to see but the answers may be harder to find. Meanwhile, I remember that day almost 50 years ago, a family enjoyed their vacation at Rockaway Beach, Missouri.
Quote of the Week
Water is the one substance from which the earth can conceal nothing; it sucks out its innermost secrets and brings them to our very lips.
-Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944), The Madwomen of Chaillot, 1946
Current News Articles
|
|
|
Film fest documentary has roots in Illinois
Quad-City Times, March 18, 2011
It probably would come as a surprise to most Americans to learn that it is legal for industry and agriculture to use chemicals that have been linked to cancer and release them into the environment: the air, water and soil.
But such is the case in America today, according to Sandra Steingraber, 51, a biologist originally from the central Illinois city of Pekin who has written a book titled "Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment." To read more...
http://qctimes.com/entertainment/movies/article_9f8bdb7e-4e8b-11e0-936c-001cc4c002e0.html |
|
Banana Peels Get a Second Life As Water Purifier
Kansas Cityy infoZine, Monday, March 14, 2011
To the surprisingly inventive uses for banana peels, which include polishing silverware, leather shoes, and the leaves of house plants, scientists have added purification of drinking water contaminated with potentially toxic metals. Their report which concludes that minced banana peel performs better than an array of other purification materials; appears in ACS's journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research. For more...
http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/46726/
|
|
Partnership plans for safer sewage
Branson Tri-Lakes News, March 11, 2011
HOLLISTER - A mobile centrifuge was at the Hollister Waste Water Treatment Plant this week to demonstrate the technology planned to be available in Taney County by 2013.
The Hollister facility, like the plants in Branson, Forsyth, Branson West, Kimberling City and Rockaway Beach, take in residential waste sewage and process water from it, which is filtered, purified and treated several times. The water from the Hollister plant then drains into Turkey Creek. More...
http://bransontrilakesnews.com/news_free/article_edcca7ec-4c32-11e0-8f3e-001cc4c002e0.html |
|
|
