Scott Dance reports for the Baltimore Sun
Fights over water rights usually wrack Western states, but a similar debate is bubbling in Western Maryland.
On one side are the thousands of boaters who spend their summers cruising and playing in the waters of Deep Creek Lake, the largest of the state’s lakes, all of them man-made. During the driest years, when lake levels drop too low, waters can recede far enough from some docks that they get trapped by dry land.
Those enjoying the waters of the nearby Youghiogheny River, which lake waters help feed, have a different set of concerns.[From The Archives] No, Deep Creek Lake is not going to be drained »
Whitewater rafters and kayakers depend on scheduled releases of lake waters into the river for an exciting ride downstream. The river’s trout, which attract anglers from across the state and region, depend on the surges of cool lake water, because otherwise the river could get too warm for them to survive.
In the middle is a 94-year-old hydroelectric dam that uses the lake water to generate electricity, and also bears some responsibility for keeping water users on both sides of the earthen dike happy. The Maryland Department of the Environment is currently weighing a new permit to govern how the dam owner must manage water flow over the next dozen years.
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The permit, expected to be issued by the end of the year, has been the focus of a months-long debate because the lake and river waters are the lifeblood of the economy in Garrett County, a remote part of the state with few remaining industries. Wherever the water flows, it draws with it tourism dollars, whether they’re tied to recreation with speedboats and jet skis, tackle and lures, or rafts and paddles.
The environmental agency’s John Grace said the state will have to weigh the impacts on both sides of the dam before issuing a final permit. Advocates for the lake and the river will get one more chance to share their concerns publicly at an Oct. 15 hearing at Garrett College in McHenry.
“It’s a really challenging situation to make everyone totally happy,” said Grace, chief of the source protection and appropriations division of the state water supply program. “I don’t think that’s realistic, but I think it’s realistic for us to be consistent and follow our mission.”
[From 2010] Residents concerned about Deep Creek Lake’s future »
A string of wet or wet-enough years has prevented much conflict for the past six or seven years. But those who see the potential for it know it could be just a dry season away.
Drought has developed rapidly across parts of Maryland in recent weeks, and all of Garrett County and the surrounding area is considered “abnormally dry,” a precursor to drought. A relatively small 62-square-mile watershed feeds Deep Creek, so Grace said the lake’s fortunes can change quickly, for better or worse.
As population and development spread around the area, Neil Jacobs said, he’s prepared for more conflicts like this one. The McHenry resident and angler said he expects there will only be more need to share water resources in the future.
“There’s going to be some pain,” he said. “Everyone’s going to have to take a little pain.”
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To residents, many of whom spend summers or weekends there but live elsewhere in Maryland and Pennsylvania, lake access is paramount. Development has been building around the lake ever since its creation, when the Deep Creek was impounded to power the hydroelectric station that began operating in 1925 and is now owned by Brookfield Renewable Power.
Concerns about low lake levels last appeared in 2012, the area’s third dry year in four. It prompted the Deep Creek Watershed Foundation, a nonprofit group, to commission research that found significant potential impacts to water access.
The lake’s surface currently lies at an elevation of about 2,458½ feet, though it’s often higher in the summer. Just six inches below that level, 2,458 feet, about 9% of the lake’s 2,200 boat slips lose access to water, said David Myerberg, the foundation’s president. At two feet lower, 2,456 feet, 15% are affected.
But in some southern coves, the impact is more pronounced, with more than half of boat slips inaccessible when the lake surface lies at 2,457 feet or lower, Myerberg said.
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