Lake George is closed to the public in order to protect its shores and the integrity of the water, City Administrator Mark Bryant said Friday.
Lake George is where the City of Marion generally gets the water is uses to treat to make drinking water for local residents. It stopped pulling water from the lake three weeks ago because it has dropped to a record low level due to lack of adequate rainfall over the past several months. The city had been pulling 500,000 gallons of water a day from the lake.
Bryant said police have learned that a four-wheel drive truck became stuck while “mudding” along the shoreline recently. Bryant said the city does not allow motorized boats to use the lake because that’s where drinking water comes from.
“We certainly don’t want motorized vehicles in it either,” Bryant said. “Gas or other substances could spill into the lake.”
The access road to the lake is now gated and locked. Bryant said city officials are asking residents to refrain from fishing from the shore, too, until adequate rainfall replenishes the lake.
The city is currently drawing raw water from old City Lake behind the water treatment plant on Chapel Hill Road. The city could run alarmingly low of raw water if spring rains don’t refill Lake George.
Meantime, officials are looking at other options for raw water, including the old mine works behind the city maintenance garage. A geological survey earlier this winter found that an adequate volume of raw water potentially exists in the former fluorspar mine. An engineering firm from Paducah is also helping the city look for water there. Bryant said crews have found a shaft to the old Lucile Mine off East Gum Street. Now, they’re trying to get a pump in it and check the water.
