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5-foot draw down of the lake to begin on Feb. 3

MILL SPRING—As part of the state’s dredging project of the lake, a draw down of 5-feet is scheduled to begin on Thursday, Feb. 3 at Lake Adger. 

The draw down will be done so surveyors can do a topographical survey for the dredging of the lake. Weather permitting the draw down should be done by Thursday, Feb. 10. 

The North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission is dredging the lake around the marina. 

Polk County owns the lake, which is 430 surface acres and has more than 14 miles of shoreline. The lake is public and is used for recreational activities, like boating, fishing and swimming. 

The state is dredging almost 6,800 cubic yards of material to clean out the channel at the boating access area. 

NCWRC Engineering Section Chief Gary Gardner said the drawdown is needed so surveyors can shoot a topographic survey of the proposed placement areas using an aerial drone. 

“This area of the lake was too shallow to be surveyed by the hydrographic survey crew during their recent survey of the navigation channel dredge area,” Gardner said in a recent statement. “Surveying the topography of the lakebed with a drone can be completed in a single day once the lake level is lowered sufficiently. The data from this survey will be used to identify any changes since the 2018 survey and to plan for the installation of containment measures around the placement cells in advance of the dredging operations.” 

The county, state and Lake Adger Homeowners Association have an agreement to keep the marina open to the public and for the state to be responsible for dredging the marina to keep public access. Silt from the Green River has filled the marina in recent years and the state has come up with a plan to dredge the sediment. The plan is for dredging and to do inland placement to create habitat creations where the river is forming deltas. 

The county applied for a grant that will help fund much of the project with the rest being paid for by the NCWRC. 

WRC officials said a couple years ago that the dredging will make the channel about 40 feet wider at the main part of the channel and contractors will go as deep as possible. 

Polk County purchased Lake Adger several years ago for $1.6 million and has been saving money to make needed repairs to the Turner Shoals Dam.