lake level

[Sue Doe-Nym]

Originally Posted by Descant

Mentioned earlier--a simple solution is to push back the full pool date to mid or late July instead of early June. Looking at the mean from 40+50 years ago does not consider many current situations, esp. bigger, deeper draft boats. And, in contrast, people used to build right up to the waters edge and now are set back at least 50 feet. In the mean time, frontage with shallow or gradual sloping bottom was not developed. Same with super sharp drop off like the east side of Rattlesnake Island. So, newcomers (less than say 25 years), are encountering problems that did not exist 40 years ago.

A couple of thoughts on chamging regulations: DES can already adjust the date/goals for full pond. No regulation chamnge needed. Other regulation through the legislature gets very complicated as it usually affects all lakes, not just Winnipesaukee. Around 2017-2018 there was legislation proposed to allow docks to be 40 ft instead of 30'. Ok for the particular location that Senator had in mind, but very problematic for the other 959 lakes. Similarly, therfe was a push (withdrawn) to define a boat slip as 4' deep instead of 3' deep. Boaters testified that when you have a 3' start slip depth, everfything being measurted from 504.32, later in the summer you really only had a 1' deep slip. But then, move to smaller coves and smaller lakes and start extending docks on all sides. Won't work. I have friends in a cove on another lake who really can't build their own dock because of pre-existing docks.

I don't see a big future for floating docks as they can't support boats when there are high winds and wave action, whether from wind or wake boats.

The marketplace will resolve some of these issues with bigger boiats getting huge tilt up out boards, and shallow draft pontoons taking a bigger share of the market.

The suggestion to change the full pool date from early June to mid July or later could be a very useful tool in managing lake levels for the summer season. Sounds simple and reasonable to me.