How long does Lake Berkeley have to survive in the suburban jungle? Outside the city limits of Berkeley Lake, it is hard to find anyone who cares how long it survives. Inside the city limits, passions run across a broad spectrum. One thing is for sure; the survival of the lake largely depends on those whose passion runs to minimizing the silt that enters the lake and to removing the silt that does — on a routine basis.

Stormwater management is a major factor in minimizing silt that enters the lake. My opinion is that the city government of Berkeley Lake has total responsibility for managing stormwater within the city limits and monitoring activity outside the city limits that may impact watershed inside the city limits. This breaks down into the following: the design, construction, operation and maintenance of stormwater facilities on city property; the establishment and enforcement of stormwater ordinances related to private property; and monitoring outside activity. While I believe the City has this responsibility, we all are responsible for taking care of our property and being aware of the activity going on around us.

Your BLHA Board takes this responsibility very seriously. So, what are we doing? First, we are monitoring activity within the Lake Berkeley watershed that potentially could introduce silt into the lake and, second, we are developing a plan to remove as much silt as we can afford during the dam repair project.

Here's the status of our silt removal efforts to date. In late 2009 the BLHA Board decided that while the lake is down we would remove the silt from areas (mainly the various coves) that have been identified from engineering studies. This amounts to approximately 9000 cubic yards. We developed a Request for Proposal (RFP) and we had two bids submitted, ranging from about $200,000 to about $550,000. Then it became clear that the lake level would be down 10' at least through 2010 and after that perhaps drained to as low as 10' total depth. This changed the options we have for silt removal, and we are investigating the possibility of moving silt from the shallow waters to the deep waters, thus saving a significant portion of the expense. This option requires a permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers. We have bids from two ecological engineering firms to assist us in this process. If the Corps accepts our proposal, we would then seek needed permits from state and city governments. If the Corps rejects our proposal, we will be back to the more expensive methods of silt disposal.

Since this permitting process can take months, we are pursuing this process with the goal to remove silt while the dam repair project is taking place next year. Stay tuned for more information.