By RAY WYCHE
Staff Writer

Lake Waccamaw is shrinking.

Lakeshore residents say they can now walk to cypress trees growing in the lake water in front of their homes that a few weeks ago were accessible only by boat or by wading.

And state weather experts say that no significant amounts of rainfall are expected in the area until spring. But there’s always the possibility — not too pleasant to think about — of a moisture-laden hurricane hitting our area and leaving great amounts of water.

The level of the lake is never static; the depth changes continually as rains, wind and evaporation have their effects on the amount of water in the lake.

Some lake residents determine the rise and fall of the lake level by the simplest method: mark where the water stops on pier pilings. This simple procedure works fine if there are no waves and winds, conditions that seldom exist over the expanse of the 8,938-acre bay lake.

Since the wind can “pile up” water – make the water surface higher in one part of the lake than in other sections — the influence of the wind must be taken into consideration.

To consider all factors that influence the height of the lake surface from time to time, Canal Cove resident John A. McNeill Sr., with help from Dr. Bob Eplee of Whiteville, has developed a system for determining the height of the lake’s surface that in theory is more accurate than marks on a pier post.

McNeill and Eplee drilled holes in a four-inch diameter plastic pipe that they placed upright in the lake next to McNeill’s pier; they take their measurements of the water depth by dropping a measuring stick inside the pipe, where the water is not moving regardless of the wind and waves.

“We try to record anything that would have an influence on the level of the lake,” McNeill says.

McNeill is careful when placing his measuring stick inside the pipe; to drop it in one motion could cause it to sink into the sand, or to splash water higher on the stick.

Since the concrete dam at the mouth of the Waccamaw River on the south side of the lake is not influenced by wind or waves, it is a convenient reference point when calculating the depth of the lake. Most people speak of the lake’s depth by the number of inches to the water surface below or above the top of the dam.

McNeill has compared measurements at his pier to the exact distance of the water surface below the top of the dam. The effects of the wind’s speed and direction were factored into the calculations and he found that his system is accurate.

His calculations taken from measurements on Wednesday show that the lake’s level is 15 inches below its normal level.

A big drop but not a record.

On Dec. 12, 1993, the lake level dropped to 19 1/2 inches below the top of the dam.

“That’s the lowest I have recorded,” McNeill says. He began keeping records of the lake’s level in 1990.
The highest level recorded by McNeill?

On Sept. 17, 1999, the water crested at 37 inches above the top of the dam.

“We had a tremendous rainfall on Sept. 15. (McNeill measured that day’s total rainfall at 15.8 inches, the results of Hurricane Floyd.) That’s the highest I’ve ever seen it. It (the lake level) stayed high all during October and on into November.”

McNeill is a meticulous record keeper in the manner of naturalist/philosopher Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond in Massachusetts in the 1850s where he recorded his observations of nature. McNeill maintains a journal noting natural conditions “almost every day if something interesting happens. If it’s just an average day, I leave it alone,” he says.

Each line of his journal denotes the time and date, sky conditions (hazy, clear, cloudy), wind speed and direction, temperature, weather (rainy, foggy, clear), as well as other things that strike his fancy.

These would include the number of fishing boats at a particular time and place on the lake that he observes with binoculars from the roof deck of his pier, and the number and species of water birds he sees swimming in the lake. Warm, shallow water such as that occurring now greatly increases the amount of algae growing in the lake, a fact duly noted in his journal.

A few of the journal’s lines are blank but most have some observation recorded by the energetic 89-year old retired pharmacist who lives closely attuned to the nature he loves.