IT TAKES A WHILE…BUT EVEN THE REGIONAL MEDIA IS ASKING WHAT GIVES WITH LOW WATER LEVELS IN KERR LAKE?

Unfortunately, it seems that it’s gotten down to someone has to do something drastic to make media headlines or lead stories lately, but Kerr Lake as an entity unto itself, is holding up three watery fingers that aren’t as watery as they used to be and saying, “help me with Hydrilla, get me more water and don’t let them slip uranium waste into me. Oh, and if you get a chance, please check my PCP levels, they’re up, too.”

WRAL’s Beau Minnick left the studios and ventured up to the lake to see first hand the drought-stricken reservoir.  He and WRAL.com web editor Kelly Gardner filed this recent story: http://www.wral.com/kerr-lake-seeing-lower-water-levels-/11960647/

KLPW appreciates the attention from WRAL but with the exception of local media right around the lake, coverage of lake issues has been minimal. What Minnick didn’t ask was how will the almost 2 million visitors who frequent Kerr Lake annually be impacted if the lake doesn’t recover quickly from the drought?  If Kerr Lake were to lose its recreational appeal and function, how would those areas of North Carolina and Southside Virginia be impacted.  He didn’t ask why is it that the Kerr Lake suddenly has an incredible amount of newly disclosed pressure on it and how that will impact Kerr Lake residents, park visitors and lake users.  He didn’t ask if the US Army Corps of Engineers has modified its operations to do everything possible to help the lake recover.

“We think that anything that impacts a place that draws in excess of a million people a year is news.  That makes Kerr Lake news,” according to KLPW’s Lead for Public Affairs, Frank Timberlake, a native of lake country. “Kerr Lake’s issues are discussed maybe once a year by an informal group or two and then they disappear.”  Timberlake added about the growth of his group saying, “We’re not going to disappear.  We have information, we have growing numbers, we have financing and we have issues.  Kerr Lake Park Watch will continue to post news, to encourage and to invite the media to become better informed about the complex and varied issues as well as the relevance of Kerr Lake.  The real problem with motivating support and establishing actionable agendas for recreation giants like the lake is that there is a small residential population disconnected by the distance of communities, counties and even states.  Then there is the visiting population that visits and then returns home.  People who don’t live at Kerr Lake but visit must get involved in the very life of the lake.”

Kerr Lake Park Watch started on Facebook with ten members a little over two years ago and now boasts a membership of more than 160 members.