Beaver Lake half inch to four feet shallower

Jasper — Beaver Lake is full again but residents and landowners are skeptical about whether it’s as full as it used to be.

Utilities Manager Bud Hauersperger has been fielding calls from the skeptical group. “They are saying it is anywhere from a two feet to 4 feet shallower,” he explained.

The city has been hearing complaints ranging from “a cement block used to be this far out of the water” to “I gotta get out of my boat and I have to step a foot higher than I used to.”

Hauersperger admitted last year that the spillway for the recently completed new dam would be about an inch lower than the previous spillway, but to verify that measurement hadn’t changed, he commissioned Brosmer Surveying to inspect the level. They determined that the new spillway is only about a ½ inch lower than the original spillway.

Hauersperger shaking his head says he can’t explain the observations from the frequenters to the lake but guesses that maybe since the previous spillway was narrower and had rock in it, the water didn’t flow as freely when the lake was full in turn increasing the level of the lake.

Hauersperger also stated that the difference in depth would be more noticeable along the shallow shorelines of the lake. “An inch difference in water level can be four feet of more shoreline.”

Narrowing the spillway or obstructing the water going over the news spillway is the only option the city has to slow the water flow from the lake.