Aging valve rescues clogged lake

Borough officials breathed a sigh of relief earlier this month as the old valve at Lake Rowena worked.

The water level is being lowered and will stay that way all winter in an effort to eliminate grasses that have been clogging the lake.

“It went fine,” said a relieved borough Manager Dan Pentazer, who had advocated that approach rather than the costly solution of using carp to gobble up the grasses.

“We operated the valve ... and it works. Now we’ll lower the water level some more, and it will stay lowered all winter. We won’t fill it up until March,” Penatzer said.

“The fishing experts tell us that will kill the grasses,” he said.

The only other proposed solution for the popular fishing spot along Route 22 would have been to use triploid grass carp – fish commonly called “white amur” that are native to Siberia and China.

It was hoped that the carp would eat the grasses, posing a cheap solution.

But council learned during the summer that the carp would pose their own problems and costs.

The state would have required an environmental evaluation at a cost of $1,350, and the borough would have had to construct a containment device across the spillway so the carp wouldn’t be able to escape and go downstream.

Instead, it was more practical to take a chance on the aging valve.

A “stop log” inserted into the valve assembly will prevent draining the lake altogether, Penatzer said. The plan is to stop at about 40 percent of its current level.