Lake Monroe Update

Just because I know you are interested. Well, maybe not, but listen up anyway.

And an interesting fact. If you sidle into town and try to blend in with the locals, we will know you are a fake right away once you refer to our major lake as Monroe Lake. While the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (which technically owns the lake) has named it Monroe Lake, we locals always refer to it as Lake Monroe. So if you want to blend in, talk like the locals. Another interesting side note: Why do we need artificial lakes? So we can have drinking water. As we are in the heart of limestone territory (do you want to know where the limestone for the Empire State Building, and many of the buildings in Washington D.C. - including the Pentagon - comes from? Yep, right here.), it is nearly impossible, or at least economically infeasible, to drill through many, many feet of solid limestone in order to reach a reliable water source.

This is the upper reaches of the lake. Picture taken March 23, 2008.

And now this report from our local paper, The Herald-Times (author unnamed):

Lake Monroe will be full with 2.2 more inches of rain

Lake Monroe isn’t full yet.

That’s the word from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the lake that’s been the area’s water supply for the past 40 years.

The lake was at 553.1 feet — or 80 percent full — Monday, the Army Corps of Engineers said. That means the reservoir can hold about 2.2 more inches of rainfall before it is full.
If the lake reaches its highest level of 556 feet — making it 100 percent full — guidelines mandate that any inflow will be passed through the flood protection system as outflow, the Army Corps of Engineers said. If the area gets more rain, the dam’s spillway would serve as a bypass for water so the dam isn’t overtopped. Then, water from the spillway would re-enter Salt Creek downstream of the dam.

For more info, log onto www.lrl.usace.army.mil. On the left, click on “lake/river reports” then click on “daily lake reports” in the center of the page.