Trippe Lake Drawdown

By Christopher Cameron

The city has been drawing down both Cravath and Trippe Lakes in an effort to reduce weeds and improve the lakes.  Beginning last summer, the city gradually opened the Trippe Lake millrace to draw down the lake, which has reduced lake level by 3-4 feet.  The city is installing a siphon system to reduce the level to 5-6 ft, which will expose much more of the lake bed and should make the weed reduction effort more successful.  The first siphon was installed last week and is in operation, as shown in the photos.  For more information on this project, see the city video at https://vimeo.com/439107242 .

The city has proposed extending the drawdown for another year.  The drawdown process works best when the summer is hot and dry, and the winter is cold. Since neither lake was fully drawn down last year, last winter was mild, the spring was wet, and the water table is high, it would seem worthwhile to extend the drawdown as proposed.