Pictures of Forest Hill Lake Restoration
As you should already know from all these posts, work is being done to restore Forest Hill Lake to it’s former glory. Below are some pictures from Kathy Graziano’s office showing the start of the process, including some unfortunate examples of vandalism to the site. Thanks to David Hathcock for getting these pictures to us.
The Suck-o-Matic Ten Thousand hard at work.
Might be a containment boom but not sure.
A fine looking excavator ready to attack the sludge.
This damage was caused by unkown vandals. Please report any suspicious activty.
More evidence of vandalism.
Where’s that water going? Is it being monitored for heavy metals and other dangerous substances as it’s removed from the lake? Has that creek feeding the lake been damed at some point?
As far as the vandals, it’s probably those same 3 youths who used to hang out at the “love house” sucking down brews and yelling a lot on weekends.
The water is being drained/pumped from the lake into Reedy Creek below the dam. Reedy Creek upstream is being diverted around the lake into lower Reedy Creek. It has been the subject of all approrpiate environmental reviews.
Did they really need a Suck-o-Matic ten thousand? Fine equipment, but a sham-wow might have done it
The Suck o Matic 10,000 info came from Richard. It’s really a Swampbuster 304 mm (named for the size of the discharge pipe)
Yeah Justin, Ask a silly question… ;)
I think Swampbuster 304 is just a cool a name as Suck-o-Matic Ten Thousand. By my estimate it would take 4 Sham-Wows to absorb the lake but then they would be so heavy that larger lifting equipment would have had to be brought in, unless Chuck Norris was available.
On the serious side thanks David for providing actual facts to the discussion it is appreciated.
It’s fun. I leave it up to you to dissect my sometimes bizarre streak. I will try to post an archive of photos on the Friends of Forest Hill Park website weekly, and on the Kathy Graziano site, as possible. I want to take shots from the same location every week to show the progress being made. 40,000 cubic yards of silt, abou 2/3s of which will be reclaimed by farmers for topical application.
I took my 2 year old down to the lake this morning – he loved watching the digging and all the heavy equipment – it’s great to see the work happening
I liked when no one knew about this hidden, out of the way lake. Its so isolated I just dont see alot of people ever going here, but it definetly needed dredging if ya dont like how algaefied and overgrown and uncared for it used to be, but i kinda liked it that way in an omegaman sort of way.
I agree 100 percent. If folks took the time to look closely, they’d find great charm and beauty in the way it was before this project started, in many many ways superior to the more santized and sterile version we’re sure to see in the months to come.
It was the trash and garbage that was allowed to accumlate, not nature’s housekeeping that marred this little gem.
I disagree. First, the lake was always manmade, as a lake, not a wetlands. It became a wetlands over the past 25 years because of poor drainage control of the Reedy Creek basin, all the way to midlothian Turnpike behind Channel 12. As the plans show, however, the renovaion will retain a small wetlands area at the southern end, near the inflow. Trash and garbage certainly, but mostly silt and mud.
[...] Thanks to David Hathcock for providing the updated pictures. The first batches of photos are here and here. [...]