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~ ~ of Paris Stud1. of Lake Crook March, 2001 . enough problem by itself to inhibit the såle of property around Lake Crook. 3.1.6. Water Clarity. While it can generally be ackno\vledged that Lake Crook is an asset to the City of Paris, can it be likewise acknowledged that Lake Crook is a muddy, turbid body of water, a fact \vhich detracts from its potential beauty? Lake Crook is not th~ same as the Villages of Lake Palestine, Holly Lake Ranch, Hide Away Lake, Lake Cypress Springs, Lake Ouachita at Hot Springs, Arkansas or any of the more famous regional lake developments. These lakes have clear, sometimes spring fed water. During public participation meetings, several individuals brought up the subject of dredging Lake Crook. Cleaning an 80-year old lake of siltation is an expensive task. There are essentially two methods which can be used. One is to drain the lake down and allow the bottom to harden to the point where standard earth moving equipment like scrapers, back hoes or drag lines can remove the silt. This may take years given that you must have a dry period for the lake bottom to firm and for silt to be de-watered before it can be hauled off. Further, there is no way of lo\vering Lake Crook without constructing some alternative pipe spillway, building a siphon, pumping, or breaching the dam. All of these are costly and breaching may be unpredictable. \Ve do not recommend any consideration be given to breaching the dam. .., The second method is to use shallow \vater barge mounted dredges. \Vhiterock Lake is the most recent success story. This urban Dallas Lake is almost exactly the size of Lake Crook and has nearly the identical square miles of watershed. It also was built in the 1920's. Whiterock was dredged in 1995-1996 at a cost of nearly $14.0 million which included a 17 mile force main for the dredgings to be pumped to an abandoned gravel pit near Duncanville. A similar project was completed two years later on a larger lake for the City of San Angelo. Their dredging project cost a mere $9.5 million but land \vas available adjacent to the lake on \vhich to pump silt. Based on these and other dredging projects with \vhich \ve are familiar, we estimate a dredging project for Lake Crook would cost between $5.0 and $6.5 million dollars. A permit is required from the Army Corps of Engineers and from the TNRCC before dredging can be done. The chief ad vantage to dredging over lowering of the water level is that use of the lake is continuous. .'. even \vhile dredging is taking ~ ~:.;' place. , . even for fishing. Figure 9 Effects of erosion seen on south shore Page 21 of 45