Club to row, row, row boats on water supply

LITTLE ROCK — Central Arkansas Water has permitted the Arkansas Boathouse Club to row on Lake Maumelle - the latest move to allow more recreation on Little Rock and North Little Rock’s main water source - and members expect to hit the lake today.

“I think recreation on the lake is fine if it is strictly limited to certain things, and that’s what we’re trying to do, so I don’t see them being anywhere near a detriment to the lake,” said water commissioner Eddie Powell.

Water-skiing, using a personal watercraft such as a Jet Ski and swimming in the water are prohibited.

Lynnette Watts, a board member for the Arkansas Boathouse Club, said that this year the club will only use the lake as a satellite location.

Watts said the club’s safety rules don’t allow rowers on water that flows at 70,000 cubic feet per second, a situation the club ran into often last year on the Arkansas River.

“We didn’t have a lot of time on the water,” she said. “We’ve been wanting access to a lake so we wouldn’t have to worry about fluctuations in flow rate.”

This year, the club will only row on the lake when the flows on the Arkansas River are too high, Watts said, but if the club gets more equipment they may use the lake and the river simultaneously in the future.

“We’re happy to have the opportunity to be the first to be on the water because we think with our safety record we can show that other boats can use the water with low or zero impact,” she said, referring to possible pollution from rowers.

Watts said whenever any club members row, there is always a safety launch, which is a boat that accompanies other boats as a safety precaution.

“The water commission liked the fact that we had that because that meant that nobody, if they did fall in the water, would be in there for very long,” Watts said, noting they would not have much time to pollute the lake.

Watts also said the commission liked the fact that club members use boats recreationally, not competitively, and that rowers typically stick to a specific route and then leave the water.

The vote by the water commissioners to allow the Arkansas Boathouse Club to row on the lake was unanimous.

“I think it’s a great sport for parents and children, and just people who love the sport,” Powell said. “I’ve never done it, but I think the people who do enjoy it are good environmentalists.”

Arkansas Central Water passed two regulations in December involving recreation on Lake Maumelle that became effective Jan. 1.

Stephanie Hymel, stewardship coordinator for Central Arkansas Water, said canoeing has been permitted on the lake, and effective Jan. 1, kayaking has also been allowed on the western side of the Highway 10 bridge.

Another change, Hymel said, addressed the lake’s catfish population eating a lot of the smaller sport fish. In an effort to slow this, people have been permitted, as of Jan. 1, to use trot lines in the upper section of Lake Maumelle to catch catfish.

Also in an attempt to protect smaller fish in the lake, Hymel said the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission on May 22 installed about 800 artificial structures in the lake.

“They’re to provide a habitat and allow fish to have some cover to hide from predators,” Hymel said. “Algae starts to grow on the structures that provides food for the fish, and some fish need the structures to lay eggs on.”

Hymel said the structures are artificial in an effort to keep the lake water clean.

“Since it’s a drinking-water supply, we don’t want to use live trees because that causes problems with some EPA restrictions we have to comply with,” she said.

Hymel said that trees give off carbon when they decay, which then combines with the chlorine in the treatment plant to create byproducts that can cause cancer.

As far as allowing scullers on the Lake, Hymel said Central Arkansas Water isn’t worried.

“It’s not a concern - if it was, we would not allow the extra activity,” she said. “Our main goal is to protect the water quality, not provide recreation. We want people to enjoy that resource but we want them to do that responsibly and keep in mind that it is a drinking-water supply.”