Recently the Polk Commissioners heard from their consultant regarding the dredging report for Lake Adger and in it was a contract signed in December 2004 whereby the Lake Adger Property Owners’ Association (POA) made a marina and boat ramp accessible to the public. It is to be operated by the Lake Adger POA in partnership with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (WRC).

The WRC agreed to be “responsible for maintaining the access channel from the Lake Adger Marina and Marina Boat Ramp Facility to the main body…and will include the obligation to dredge the channel as necessary to maintain access to the waters of Lake Adger for watercraft. WRC will maintain the parking lot to its present standard.”

Polk County promised to meet annually with these two groups to work on these issues and make sure everything was done.

It’s been over 10 years now with NO annual meetings and NO action (from any of the parties), allowing the problem to get worse and worse. Now the neglect is too obvious to ignore, as the marina and boat launch are virtually unusable.

The dredging report shows a large area of the cove that is only 6 inches deep, newly created islands and wetland, shrinking the lake and reducing its value from a number of standpoints. You can clearly see this happening on a Google earth map of the lake.

If the county truly cares about Lake Adger and our precious water resources, they will join the Lake Adger Property Owners in taking the necessary actions, including legal remedies, which are provided for in the contract (each “shall have the right to bring an action in the Superior Court for Polk County to enforce the terms and conditions of this Agreement…”).

If problems this obvious and important have not been and are not being addressed and remedied, the county has no business signing a thrown-together water agreement with South Carolina (written by them), an agreement that has even more potential for dire consequences.

We taxpayers must demand that until Lake Adger is maintained properly so that we can all enjoy it, and until a commercial sand and gravel operation is put in place upstream on the Green River, as recommended by the dredging report, the county has no business entering into any new water contracts that concern Lake Adger!

Michael Veatch
Columbus, N.C.