Newsletter July 2022

From the President – 

Hello everyone and welcome to another summer here on our beautiful lake. In this article I’d like to address three topics: Beautification Day, the recent Membership Survey and finally our relationship with APCo/AEP and their responsibilities under their Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) operating license. 

Beautification Day: Thanks to all participants! I cannot over emphasize the importance of this event. Most importantly, the work performed helps beautify our lake and keep it safe. Additionally, the LLA Beautification Day is specifically recognized in APCo’s operating license as an area of our involvement in debris management. It is very important that we continue to fulfill that obligation. Thanks again!

Membership Survey:  The LLA Board continues to answer questions, comments and suggestions from the members in the survey. Some questions, specific to an individual and their individual circumstances, are being handled directly with the survey respondent. Those of a more general nature will be handled via education on our website, through newsletter articles and at Membership Meetings. It’s very important for members to attend the meetings if at all possible. That’s the ideal place for thorough communication about issues. In the survey there were several safety related comments/concerns. Board members with other varied responsibilities are attempting to gather answers to those questions/issues. It is important here, however, to reemphasize that at this time we have no Safety Committee Chair or active committee. Once again I plead to the membership … if you have an interest in this area, we need your help on this committee. Please contact me with any questions or interest you may have. There were also several questions/comments regarding the overall operation of the Smith Mountain Lake Project as a pumped-storage generating facility. We have asked APCo to attend our upcoming Annual Membership Meeting and to clarify how the Project operates. Our speaker will be Robert Gallimore, Hydro Asset Manager, American Electric Power.

APCo/AEP Relationship: APCo operates Smith Mountain and Leesville Lakes under a FERC license for the Smith Mountain Lake Project, No 2210. The license has specific subparts and Technical Review Committees (TRC) to address various issues such as Debris Management, Water Quality, Navigation, Recreation, Habitat, Erosion, etc. The LLA has representatives on all TRCs. Several of our LLA committees are directly involved with these same areas and I encourage you to read the specific committee reports for more details. At this time we have three primary areas of concern:

a. Debris Management: An active committee exists to monitor and assist APCo to ensure they are operating in compliance with the FERC license. Since 2017, we have identified several areas where APCo was not in full compliance with the dictates of the license. At this time we have three specific areas of concern, all of which we have identified to FERC:

                                                             i. An ongoing APCo study of the Pigg River and how debris from this tributary might be controlled. The LLA approached APCo in 2018 and requested a study be performed, just as the license requires. 

                                                           ii. The installation of a new debris removal facility at the Myers Creek boat ramp. As with the Pigg River study, the LLA approached APCo in 2018 regarding this potential. After completing some of the physical work, the project is on hold pending permitting discussions between APCo and Pittsylvania County.

                                                         iii. Since 2018 the LLA has held the position that APCo needed to add a skimmer back to the lake’s debris management equipment assets to take care of the smaller debris issues. At this time it is APCo’s position that a skimmer is not needed.

b. Water Quality: Since 2008, APCo has been aware of a dissolved oxygen level (DO) issue at the tailrace of the Smith Mountain Lake dam. During certain times of the year, the DO level does not meet license requirements. While multiple studies have been performed, the issue still exists. We have requested resolution of this matter and have notified FERC of the issue.  

c. Navigation: As part of their operating license, APCo is tasked with installing navigational buoy/markers in Leesville Lake. We have worked with APCo to identify key areas where these buoys/markers are needed, without over-running the lake with too many markers. This project continues to work its way through the APCo/AEP process(es).

Again, I encourage you to read the specific committee reports for more details on these issues and if you’d like to become involved, we’d love to have your help!

Finally I want to encourage everyone to attend our upcoming Annual Membership Meeting. It will be held at the Leesville Lake Marina at 12:00 on July 16, 2022. A catered lunch will be served so if you have not already, please sign up on our website so we have an accurate count. At this meeting we will have committee reports, approve next year’s budget, elect Directors for the upcoming year and conduct other routine business. Again, our APCo guest speaker is Robert Gallimore, Hydro Asset Manager, American Electric Power, so you will have the opportunity to address Robert directly with any questions/concerns you might have. 

Thanks for your interest and participation with the LLA. See you on the water …

Dave

SAFETY ON THE LAKE

Hazard Buoy Update

Installation of the 12 proposed Hazard Buoys is complete at the locations listed below. Although the hazards they mark are not necessarily a concern when the lake level is elevated, it would be wise to stay clear of these hazards at all times.

Runaway Bay Point-rocks-mile 1.2

Across from North End Heron Landing-shoal-mile 1.5

North End Heron Landing-rocks-mile 1.6

Across from Goat Island-rocks-mile 2.2

Old Womans Creek, LVL Marina-shoal-mile 2.2

Terrapin Creek/Tri-County Marina-shoal-mile 4.5

Anthony’s Shoal-shoal-mile 6.2

Shoeless Island-shoal-mile 8.7

9 Mile Rock-rock-mile 9

11 Mile Shoal-shoal-mile 11

12 Mile Island-shoal-mile 12

15 Mile Hazard-stump-mile 15

(for longitude and latitude of these buoys, see the Navigation page on the website)

Aids To Navigation

We still have no update on the 13 proposed navigation aids intended to identify the channel at those locations where the location of the channel may be in question. These markers (buoys) will be especially helpful for those not familiar with navigating Leesville Lake. Along with our proposal for the 13 channel markers, we are requesting AEP install and maintain navigation lights on the Toler’s Ferry Bridge. 

No Wake Buoys and No Wake Surfing Zones

If interested in applying for installation of No Wake Buoys or No Wake Surfing Buoys you will need to contact Tri-County Lakes Administration Commission (TLAC) at (540) 721-4400.

Boating season is right around the corner. Please be considerate of others at all times so we may continue to enjoy a safe and fun lake.

As always, please navigate our lake safely!

Joe Humphrey

Treasurer’s Report

Summer is ramping up and so is our busy season. Beautification Day is behind us – thank you to all the sponsors, boaters, landlubbers and others who supported us! We receive monetary donations from some sponsors and “in-kind” donations from others. That means they donate labor, equipment, materials, space, services and/or give us a discount on their bill for services. We appreciate them all and hope you patronize the businesses that helped us out. 

The Beautification Day Thank You and Annual Members Picnic is coming up on Saturday, July 16. Be sure to make your reservation here. You can pick up your dues invoice at that time; all invoices remaining will be mailed after the picnic. Dues remain at $25 for another year – a real bargain!  T-shirts and prints with the 2022 Bob Rankin design will be for sale, along with some 2022 calendars if you haven’t purchased one yet. We’ll also be voting on the next fiscal year budget (September 1, 2022 through August 31, 2023) so we hope you can join us for food, fun, fellowship and a little business!  

Mary Loiselle

Membership Report

Hello from the Membership Committee. The Annual Picnic is here. Join us as Leesville Lake Marina for this fun picnic on July 16th. Be sure to make your reservation here. We will enjoy good food, listen to a guest speaker from Appalachian Power, and address several business issues for the association. It is a great time to meet with old friends and make new ones as we continue to grow as a lake community. Hope to see you there!

Over the winter, we conducted a survey and the Association has already taken action on some of the responses. We will continue to address survey items throughout the year. In some instances, we may have reached out to you for further clarification or to ask for your assistance. We may reach out to others in the future. 

If you have any desire to volunteer to assist with any of our committees, please let us know either in person or through the website. 

Our membership is up slightly at 241 member families. Continue to invite neighbors to join or contact us if they have questions. Thanks for your support.

Chip Zimmerman

Debris Committee

Hello fellow Members.

Due to two consecutive years of minimal high flow events and debris removal efforts, the Lake appears to have significantly recuperated from the worst sequence of High Flow events and inattention from prior years (2017-2020). A High Flow event is determined based on a USGS gauge measurement on the Pigg River. Normal level at that gauge site is approximately 3 feet. APCo considers an event as High Flow if the gauge reading exceeds six (6) feet. However there are still areas throughout the Lake that need attention. Our Committee continues to stress the benefit for AEP to add a skimmer to address the scattered debris.The current equipment (barge/track hoe) is inadequate for this use. Since 2018, Appalachian has ignored our appeal for a skimmer that we believe would aid in reducing the risk of injury to public and personal property. In addition AEP has decreased their “debris removal activities “at our lake to 2-3 days a week for the foreseeable future, or unless debris loading circumstances change.

There has been another delay in completing the Myers Creek new offload site due to land use permitting. As President Rives mentioned above, APCo and Pittslyvania County are currently working out these details.

Since 2017, the LLA Debris Committee has made considerable progress in working with APCo to adhere to their license agreement with FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission). We cannot afford to lose ground going forward. Our biggest aspiration is that by end of 2023 APCo will have completed their engineering studies, permits approved and the diversion/collection device initiated at the confluence of the Pigg River. We believe- and so does AEP-that this device, if properly fabricated and feasible, should reduce huge amounts of debris entering Leesville Lake, therefore making other origins of debris more manageable.

In the meantime we will continue to monitor and participate with AEP on monthly surveys among other obligations.

In the next several months we will reply to questions and concerns mentioned on the membership survey concerning debris topics. We also look forward to the general membership meeting on July 16th to answer any additional questions or concerns you may have and hope to recruit a few that may be interested in joining the Debris Committee.

Determination, organization(record keeping), and especially motivation, are the keys to our success and we could use the help in these areas. Most important is having lake residents consistently submit debris reports. It is highly influential to have these reports on record with AEP’s operational response and removal timing (or not), as part of their state license obligation . TLAC (Tri-County Lakes Administrative Commission) and the LLA collectively record and track all submitted report through the following link. Debris Reporting – Leesville Lake Association. Please include pictures if at all possible as they will be helpful in future discussions as visual documentation of lake conditions throughout the year and at varied locations.  

Thank you and have a safe and enjoyable summer.

Pam McMillan

Water Quality Report

We have begun our water monitoring efforts for 2022. Dr. Shahady/University of Lynchburg sampled at the end of April and May, and the Water Quality Committee will begin its water monitoring in June – August, in accordance with our 2022 MOA. In the fall we will continue sampling of the Pigg River using the 2022 Pigg River Project Plan, which has been submitted to TLAC.

Current Water Quality health of LVL: 

1)      No overall health concerns for recreational use. 

2)     Two threats to the lake are evident and are being carefully monitored. These are:

  a)     low dissolved oxygen in the tailwaters from Smith Mountain Lake Dam. 

  b)     poor water quality of the Pigg River

Low Dissolved Oxygen:

LVL Water Quality Committee leads met with the APCo chaired Water Quality Technical Review Committee (WQTRC) on 4 May 2022. We reviewed the findings of APCo’s 2021 WQ report (prepared by EnviroScience). The report provided ample documentation that Appalachian Power Company (APCo) has not been meeting its operating license requirements regarding the minimal dissolved oxygen content permissible in water released during SML dam operations for both 2021 and the six previous years (2015-2020). Further, the problem has been known (by APCo) since March 2008, without an active plan for remediation (only studies). 

It was determined LVL Association missed the formal comments reclama window (April 18, 2022) to comment on APCo’s 2021 WQ report. APCo was gracious enough to extend the comment window to 9 May 2022. LVL WQ submitted comments on 9 May 2022 which highlighted each of the license breaches, the lack of transparency on APCo studies and the inadequacy of the report’s Recommendations (page 32), which take no action, provide no clear or comprehensive plan, and provide no timeline for mitigation to get APCo in compliance with their license. We formally requested FERC to mandate action for APCo to achieve license requirements.

While awaiting FERC direction, APCO is initiating Phase 3 of their Feasibility Study:

  1)  evaluate the practicality, effectiveness and cost efficiency of methods that increase dissolved oxygen in the tailrace without causing other water quality issues (e.g., increased water temperature).

  2)  Determine life cycle costs and decide whether to act, or not.

  3)  The completion of the Feasibility Plan is timely as Appalachian’s VDEQ Virginia Water Protection Individual Permit No 08-0572 (Permit) expires on March 31, 2025. It is Appalachian’s intent to file for a new permit at least one year prior to the expiration date.

The LVL WQ Committee will continue to press APCo, DEQ, and other regulatory agencies to make APCo meet its Operating License Requirements; including comments on the new permit application.

2022 Pigg River Study

 The Pigg River is the major tributary flowing into Leesville Lake (LVL). Although water quality in LVL remains good, the Pigg River is classified as an impaired river for bacteria by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ) and this poor water quality has been confirmed by the Leesville Lake Association (LLA). Indeed, monitoring efforts by the LLA indicate that the quality of water flowing into LVL from the Pigg River has been worsening in recent years as documented in the annual LVL Water Quality Reports. Of greatest concern is the sediment and bacteria suspended in the waters of the Pigg then transported to Leesville Lake. This has resulted in degradation of water quality in the upper region of Leesville Lake, which is concerning to residents and visitors. Furthermore, storm events promote entrainment of poor-quality water in the upper regions of LVL and pumping of that water into Smith Mountain Lake during pump-back operations.

We initiated monitoring of water quality in the Pigg River during the 2018 season, and continued 2019-2021. Our 2022 Objectives are:

    (1) Closely study the area between Chestnut Hill and Colonial Turnpike (the area implicated as contaminated with sediment from the Power Dam removal) to quantify the extent to which the sediment in this area impacts bacterial/nutrient/sediment water quality in the Pigg River.

  (2) Identify sources of bacterial contamination by identifying the bacterial content of water during both low flow and storm events.

  (3) Quantify the impact of this sediment by conducting sediment disturbance experiments (water collected before and after sediment disturbance) in conjunction with bacterial source tracking to specifically characterize how this underlying sediment contributes to bacteria in the water. 

  (4) Evaluate the efficacy of E. coli / Enterococci ratios in determining the source of bacterial contamination. We need to identify this impact to suggest management of sediment as it impacts water quality to Leesville Lake and continues its migration into the lake. 

LVL Survey Question: “Do you have concerns over low dissolved oxygen, harmful algae blooms, or other environmental issues?

               Our low dissolved oxygen concern is documented above. During late summer and fall months oxygen levels in water released during power generation is low and often fails to meet the Appalachian Power Company’s (APCo) licensing requirements. At these times, fish can be seen piping for air in the upper regions of LVL. For the fishermen and fisherwomen amongst us – it’s an issue worth maintaining focus on.

The submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) beds in Leesville Lake have remained limited in extent and geographic locations, with the same species and only one of them an invasive species (i.e., Curly-leaf pondweed). No new beds of SAV have been reported during the past seven years of SAV surveys.

We look forward to another season of water quality monitoring. The LVL WQ Committee will keep you updated on our progress with low dissolved oxygen and the Pigg River Study.

Charlie Hamilton

Chair Water Quality Committee

Safety Committee

(previously published, but always topical)

Fire extinguishers are an often neglected item on our seasonal check list. Here are some tips of what to look at:​ 

*check extinguisher gauges monthly

*make sure they’re at full pressure; gauges can sometimes be unreliable

• recharge size I and II rechargeable extinguishers at a qualified service center. Rechargeable extinguishers have metal, not plastic, heads. Get them inspected annually.
• check for corrosion or mechanical damage to the extinguisher case
• check and clean the discharge nozzle. Insects love to build nests inside.
• slowly rock dry chemical extinguishers from an upright to an upside down position several times. If you feel a thud, chemical has stuck together. This means the extinguisher won’t function properly.
• never test a marine extinguisher by partially discharging it. It could leak and become unusable. Always make sure to recharge or replace partially discharged extinguishers.
• purchase only Coast Guard approved extinguishers designed for marine use.

For more information about marine extinguishers, download a BOATERS’ GUIDE TO THE FEDERAL REQUIREMENTS.

And while checking your Fire Extinguishers, put an eye on your Life Vests. Are they in GOOD condition? Remember, if there is a fire and you need to abandon ship, grab a Life Vest. They float when you don’t.

Recently, groups of young people have been spotted in the lake, on tubes, without PFDs. Please remind your guests that wearing flotation devices while tubing is required, and just makes good sense!

Gerry is conducting Vessel Safety Checks again on a “call me” basis. My dock, your dock, driveway, garage. 

434 – 656 – 9082 

Gerry Caprario

Native Plants of Leesville Lake

This quarterly column will be about native plants that live at or below the 613 foot contour level of Leesville Lake, which fluctuates between 600 and 613 feet. Each issue will feature a different species.

 Hypericum prolificum

Shrubby St. John’s Wort

 Of the numerous varieties of St. John’s Wort, Hypericum prolificum is what its common name implies: a shrub growing upright to about 1 to 4 feet tall and having a rounded compact appearance. Its lower stems are woody.It blooms in the summer for about two months.The bright yellow flowers, up to 1 inch in width, have five petals with numerous yellow stamens that are so bushy that they partially obscure the petals; thus the scientific name prolificum. The flowers, offering only pollen with no nectar, are cross-pollinated primarily by bumblebees, which collect the pollen for their larvae, which transforms the flower into a dry seed capsule that persists all winter.

 The genus name comes from the Greek words hyper-meaning above-and eikon- meaning picture in reference to the practice of hanging flowers from this genus above images, pictures or windows.Plants were apparently gathered and burned to ward off evil spirits on the eve of St. John’s Day.Some species have been used since ancient times in the treatment of wounds and inflammations.

Hypericums have a phototoxic chemical named hypericin that, in the presence of light, can cause rashes to develop on light-skinned animals.

 It can irritate the gastrointestinal tract if ingested, so mammals do not bother it.

 Shrubby St. John’s Wort grows along the upper reaches of the fluctuation zone of Leesville Lake, usually out of the side of the bank or even from the rocks. It can root in the crevices between slabs of sedimentary rock and survive quite well. It will grow in full sun to part shade, is drought tolerant and flood-enduring

Richard Beaton