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Low Lakes, Aquifers Cause Problems For Boaters And Wells

Doug Carman/Highlands Today

From left: Aaron Seward and Charles Vealey get Vealey's boat cleaned out Tuesday morning. Vealey said it was taking up too much garage space and the low lake levels kept him from using it the past two years.

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By Douglas  Carman | Highlands Today

Published: December 19, 2007

SEBRING — Charles Vealey's boat sat in his garage for two years. He and his fishing buddy, Aaron Seward, used to take the boat out to Lake Jackson or Istokpoga, sometimes going elsewhere in the state to catch some bass.

Vealey said he couldn't put his boat in those lakes anymore, and he had better uses for the garage space the boat was taking up.

"I don't want it stored in the garage if the lake's so low," said Vealey as he cleaned out his boat Tuesday. He just sold it and was about to deliver it to someone.

Highlands County continues to have less than average rainfalls, causing most of the lakes to dip up to several feet below where they should be. Erin McCarta, the county's assistant lakes manager, said this is beginning to interfere with the public boat ramps at lakes Tulane and Jackson.

Ecologically, the lowering lake levels are not a major concern yet, McCarta said, even though "they're suffering a little bit."

But if a boater has one sitting in any of the lakes right now, she warned that they may have trouble getting them out in the near future, as the lakes are expected to decline further through the winter.
"It wouldn't be a bad idea to pull it out," she said.

Of course, some of the homeowners are already seeing nothing but sand under their docks, and that has been the case for a year.

Judy Brooks, who owns one of those boat docks, remembered when she had to mow the grass in front of her dock back in 2000. That's "front," as in beyond the end of the dock. She's wondering if it's going to get that low again.

Meanwhile, she and her husband have not had the chance to use the boat since they returned to Sebring from Kentucky last month. She said some of the parties she and her neighbors had on the lake were affected because they couldn't launch their boats.

"It's a shame that the water level is so low," the 11-year seasonal resident said. "My husband's in the lake practically every year."

Well Owners Face Low Water Tables

As the lakes are down, so are the aquifers.

The latest data from the Southwest Florida Water Management District showed that the water table for the southern part of the district, which includes the western part of Highlands County, is already 1.5 feet below where it should normally be.

And with the water tables staying low, James Lewis, of Lewis Well Drilling in Lake Placid, said he's having to install well packers for several residential wells to keep them working.

Owners of the smaller irrigation wells, which pump about twice as much water as the residential counterparts, might have to dig 4-inch wells if the water tables continue to drop, he said.

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