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Another Perspective
Pulling the Plug
Preparations are under way to drain Sloan’s Lake.
I see by the papers they are going to drain Sloan’s Lake. You don’t know Sloan’s Lake? Not many do. It’s in Cheyenne, Wyoming, not far from the airport in a place called Lion’s Park. Sloan’s is, or used to be, chock-full of rough fish. Ideal for a boy with a can of worms and an uncle who would take him there.
Sloan’s, we are told, holds 16 million gallons of water, about 12 feet deep, and pure, or sort of.
Trouble is, there is a pump intake that feeds water to the park’s irrigation system and over the years it has started silting up. Why not simply dive down and fix the area? No fun. Cheyenne’s Board of Public Utilities wants to drain all 16 million gallons and repair and move the pump. More fun that way. And more work as a consequence for the state Fish and Game folks. They must preserve as many of the submersible inhabitants as possible. So far their nets and electro-shockers have captured 428 largemouth bass, 374 yellow perch, 292 black crappies, seven painted turtles, and seven trout. How the trout got there is not explained. Oh, and one more: a 34-inch carp that weighed more than 20 pounds. So, that’s where all those worms went.
All of these denizens of Sloan’s are to be moved to a nearby lake and fish and game plans to return to Sloan’s in October to capture more. The idea will be to restock the lake next spring. The manager of the Public Utilities board says there are no plans to clean the lakebed floor, save for individual pieces of debris. These may include some of my Uncle’s tackle, a hook or two of mine, and perhaps some of a friend’s, a young lad stricken with bone cancer with whom I fished a couple of times, being carefully forewarned not to mention the shadow that overhung it all.
One wonders, what happened to the couple of cars that broke through the ice during winter racing events and, along with several iceboats, sliced into those twelve feet of water. Or whatever else aside from memories may be found at the bottom of Sloan’s Lake.
About the Author
Reid Collins is a former CBS and CNN news correspondent.
Ray| 9.29.09 @ 9:53AM
They plan to drain a lake just to relocate a pump? Hay, idiots, have you ever heard of a caisson?
Houston Rao| 9.29.09 @ 10:35AM
Is this a stimulus-funded shovel ready project? Or are the good citizens of Cheyenne paying for this over-kill by themselves?
Steve| 9.29.09 @ 11:50AM
If they were going to drain it such that the draining water scoured the accumulated silt from the bottom, that would be sensible - there are artificial lakes which would benefit from that.
If they aren't, then they are wasting it, I would think.
David Bryson | 9.29.09 @ 1:13PM
What do you expect?? This is your government in action with your tax dollars!
Michael L. Hauschild| 9.29.09 @ 2:23PM
16 million gallons? That is not a very big lake.
There are about seven point five gallons in a cubic foot, that means the lake has two point one million cubic feet. That is about the same amount of water in three fifty meter Olympic Swimming pools. If it is twelve feet deep and square it would only be 288 feet on a side. If that lake had a watershed of one square mile a rain of slightly more than a half inch would fill it completely.
Either someone is making a big deal out of nothing or doesn't know how much water is actually in the lake.
Michael L. Hauschild| 9.29.09 @ 4:12PM
Oops. Four hundred and eighteen feet on a side, or a little bigger than a city block.
Hey Reid| 9.29.09 @ 2:40PM
Unless the Fish & Game Fools are adding food to the temp holding lake then the extra fish will simply die as any lake already holds as many fish as it can sustain at any time. Duh!
Big Leo| 9.29.09 @ 2:48PM
You beat me to the punch. This is obviously a case of what you do with a government lake. A private lake would simply pull the pump, repair it, and put it back. If you want stupidity, you can't match the government. Our wildlife preserve here had about four hundred rare Sonoran pronghorn antelope. To make the preserve more 'natural', they decided to eliminate all the artificial water sources left over from the days when cattle grazed there. They managed to reduce the pronghorn population by 90%. They had become dependent on the artificial tanks and wells. Thank God for experts! Soon they will have eliminated all those pesky Sonoran pronghorn antelopes and we can have ranches there again.
Tim| 9.29.09 @ 3:01PM
You're suggesting that this is just an expensive excercise in public relations? Would the government do that?
Johnny Knuckles| 9.29.09 @ 3:58PM
Maybe the bureaucrats are thinking that some of the smaller relocated fish will be on the menu in their new digs.
Now my head hurts. Memo to self: avoid thinking like a bureaucrat.
Kurt| 9.29.09 @ 6:39PM
Leftover FDR folly-de ja vu all over again. Thanks Yogi.
Richard Baker| 9.30.09 @ 4:36PM
Ray:
You're right about using a caisson. The Golden Gate Bridge was built using this device to gain access and anchor each of the support pilings to the seabed. This is a classic case of wasting money because it comes from the government.
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Pav | 4.9.10 @ 12:25PM
Well, I guess that the way the government do things.
Car | 4.9.10 @ 12:28PM
I don't get it? Why don't they just fix the pump? Wouldn't it be easier?
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