Moose Droppings

Update on Lake Phelps

Jul 12, 2006 @ 11:01 pm by Moose

The tannic run off into Lake Phelps has been stopped. The state has made it clear that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service was clearly to blame for this problem. Excerpt from an Email I received late today from the Raleigh office of the State Parks;

We discovered that for a few days in
June, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was redirecting water from the
Pocosin NWR into Lake Phelps (in Pettigrew State Park) for flood
control (rather than their usual practice of diverting it to the
south.)

We had concerns about water quality as well as about upsetting the
hydrology of the area and discussed the issue with the N.C. Division of
Water Quality which looked into the matter. The USFWS stopped the
practice right away when our concerns were made known.

What remains unclear at this point is if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will remove the structure and return the area to how it was prior to the “Management Project” was started. Failure to remove the structure only leaves the potential for it to be used again at some future date. We will continue to follow this story.