Only a couple of days after the US Army Corps of Engineers announced a mission to use
"Now that
The Pittsburgh District of the Corps will also begin a slow release. The waters in
Originally the Corps planned to hold back water for as long as 30-days. The process threatened to push lake levels far above summer pool for an extended period. Already many of the lakes’ recreational facilities, like boat ramps, picnic areas, and campgrounds have been underwater for days.
"It’s going to be slow and controlled," Noel said. "What this will do is keep the
“Slow and controlled” may be a relative term.
"We’ll be running these really high levels for a day or so and then cut it back," said Summersville Dam Manager C-J Hamilton. "We should be getting a boat ramp open sometime tomorrow (Friday) and all the ramps open in about three days, provided we don’t get any more local storms."
How fast the water comes down depends on the impoundment.
"Each of the lakes is different because of their capacity to store different volumes of water," said DNR District Fisheries Biologist Frank Jernejcic. "So you can’t make a blanket statement for each of the lakes."
The announcement from the Corps is good news for fishing and boating enthusiasts who were facing the entire month of May with almost no access to some of the most popular
The releases however don’t mean those facilities will automatically reopen. Soon after the water is down, there’s expected to be a vast amount of cleanup work to do.
"The problem is we’ve got mud on the ramps and debris," said Jernejcic in talking about