Silver Lake Community Association

"Silver Lake - A Community Treasure Since 1786"

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July 2019 Silver Lake Water Analysis

Silver Lake Lewisberry PA Water Quality 2019
Silver Lake Lewisberry PA Water Quality 2019

Residents expressed concern in the spring of 2019 about the green “pond scum” and wondered whether Silver Lake water quality was safe for swimmers and other water sports.

The SLCA is happy to report that YES our lake’s water is safe for recreation.

Elevated levels of phosphorus are generally attributed to fertilizers upstream from our lake. Long time residents will recognize that this green “pond scum” happens periodically especially after hard rains in the early to mid spring. Elevated iron content is no surprise, many of our residents filter their well water for this. Iron and manganese are what cause that sulfur smell in our well water in the summer time when water is warmer and we have been away a few days.

According to the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Analytical Services Laboratory, “Your pond/lake sample has suspended solids (sediment) which are difficult to completely filter from the water. This fine sediment may cause high levels of aluminum and/or iron to be measured when using standard laboratory procedures. Iron and/or aluminum that are in a suspended, not dissolved, form should not pose a hazard to fish in your pond/lake.”

The full analysis is available here. The interpretive key is available here.

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2019 SLCA Annual Meeting Follow up

The annual meeting was a big success! Thank you to all who came. We discussed the following.

  • Where we stand with DEP and the Earthen Dam, Spillway and Bennetts Run
  • Where we are with title searches and collections. There are a few properties that we have found in our title searches that will begin being billed Jan. 2020
  • Financials
  • Some changes and additions to the billing of the annual maintenance fees-There are some vacant parcels that we will start billing Jan, 2020
  • Work parties-We had a work party on June 15th and it was a big success. We had some new faces that volunteered their time and a shout out to everyone that helped.
  • Voting on Board members whose terms are expiring. We have 2 new board members (Jon Steiner and John Taylor) and we would like to welcome them to the board! We voted on the officials and the officials remain the same.

The SLCA Board continues to make progress on a remediation plan for our dams and we thank the PA Department of Environmental Protection staff for the collaborative relationship we have developed.

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2019 SLCA Annual Meeting

The main purpose of this newsletter is the upcoming 2019 SLCA annual meeting scheduled for 1 June 2019. We have many things to discuss! If you are a member in good standing and can’t attend, a proxy form is linked below.

  • Where we stand with DEP and the Earthen Dam, Spillway and Bennetts Run;
  • Where we are with title searches and collections;
  • Treasurer’s Report;
  • Some changes and additions to the billing of the annual maintenance fees;
  • Members concerns and questions;
  • Work parties;
  • Voting on Board members whose terms are expiring.

If you have something you would like to discuss at the meeting please let us know asap so we can add it to the agenda.

If you are interested in serving as a Board member please let us know.

We look forward to seeing you all at the meeting!
June 1 st at 10:00 AM
Lewisberry Borough Pavilion

Proxy Form for SLCA Annual Meeting

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2019 New Year Update: Silver Lake Dam Rehabilitation

Earthen Dam and Spillway Update:

Here is the long awaited update on the meeting between DEP and our Engineer. The meeting was held last month. Brad Ellenberger, Sean Concannon, Tom Imblum and Mark Giunta (our engineer) met with DEP.  The meeting went well and we are on the right track, yet there is a fair amount of work to be done before dam rehabilitation commences.

First, everyone agreed that the actual work of reinforcing our earthen dam is fairly straight forward. However, prior to drawing up and submitting a design to DEP, we have a number of steps to complete first.

Our first step is to work with DEP on the hydrology of the water body and commission a survey of the lake and feeder streams.  Those preliminary determinations will then be the foundation to engineer the solutions for our earthen and concrete dams.

Broken down by increments, first our engineer needs to stake out what he believes to be the locations and elevations of our dam and spillway.  This will be run past DEP for their approval.

Bennett’s Run diversion dam is part of this process, as the design of the diversion dam must take into account the amount of water that DEP believes is appropriate to direct to our lake, and come to agreement.  Again, the incremental steps will be to stake out the location, and have DEP approve.

Once these two items are nailed down, we can proceed to commission the necessary surveys.

After the surveys, we will have to do watershed modeling.

Only after all of this is done can we proceed on the design for the rehabilitation of both Bennett’s Run dam, the earthen dam, and the spillway.

DEP observed that while the engineering is straightforward, the entire scope of the project with the various dependencies is one of the most complex dams with which that they are dealing!  The good news is they are working WITH us, not against us!  We hope to have an update prior to the annual meeting.  We will keep you updated!

Annual Inspection:

The annual inspection was completed in December and has been sent to DEP.  There were no major requirements but some minor repairs that need done. We will address them in the Spring.

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2018 SLCA Annual Meeting and Important Updates

The Silver Lake Community Association will be holding its Annual Meeting on Saturday, June 2 at 10am. We will hold the meeting again at the pavilion at Lewisberry Borough Park. Mark your calendars. Please remember that only members in good standing – meaning maintenance fees up to date through 3/31/2018 – are eligible to vote on any matters before the Association.

We will be discussing:

  1. The status of DEP’s response to our annual inspection report. DEP is pressing for a permanent earthen dam rehabilitation plan and timeline, and important decisions need to be made.
  2. The status of SLCA’s search for a new engineering firm, replacing our prior relationship due to the sudden death of our lead engineer.
  3. Our financial status, including the results of collections activities.
  4. Outreach efforts for support from our elected officials.
  5. Near and longer term plans for the rehabilitation of both our Earthen Dam and the Bennetts Run diversion dam.

The 2018 SLCA Annual Meeting is your opportunity to hear directly for your board, and to help us all be part of the solution to saving beautiful Silver Lake for future generation.

Stay tuned, we will be scheduling a work party in the near future to keep up with vegetation control and animal burrows in our earthen dam, and other maintenance work. Last year we were delighted to see some new participants, and hope to see more in 2018.

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2017 Engineer’s Dam Inspection

Silver Lake Community Association Annual Dam Inspection

The Silver Lake Community Association (SLCA) is required by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to have an engineer inspect our dam and spillway annually and submit a written report to the DEP by year end.

The SLCA Board of Directors in 2017 engaged a new engineer to perform the inspection, as our prior engineer from ARM Group passed away unexpectedly this spring. This was a time consuming endeavor, as we are anxious to move forward with dam rehabilitation projects. We searched for and engaged an engineer with demonstrated experience both in dams such as ours and rehabilitation project management that meets DEP standards.

We are delighted to report that the inspections are complete and the report has been submitted timely to the DEP.

The 2017 SLCA dam inspection noted that the conditions of our dam and spillway remain consistent with prior inspections. We will be required to do more maintenance, as we always are, in the areas of animal burrows, vegetation control, and minor caulking and cement repairs on the spillway. This is all good news.

The SLCA Board thanks all members who turned out with us in 2017 for dam and common area maintenance projects, and we look forward to robust community support in 2018.

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September 2017 Work Party

The SLCA Board would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the SLCA community who came out on a cool September morning to assist in vegetation control and to obliterate animal burrows in and around our earthen dam.

We are well prepared by our annual engineering inspection thanks to all of your hard work.

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2017 Annual Meeting and Fall Draw Down

Annual Meeting: The Annual Meeting was held Saturday, June 3rd at 10:00AM. It was at the Lewisberry Borough Pavilion. The address is 308 Market Street in Lewisberry. We discussed our financials, Bennetts Run project, DEP and the Earthen Dam and collections. We voted on the Board members and they remain the same. Two weeks after the Annual meeting the board voted on the officers. They remain the same as well.

Draw Down: We will be drawing the Lake down this year for your shoreline maintenance projects. Our Facebook page has a list of contractors if you need help with your maintenance. Draw down will start the day after Labor Day. We will keep it down as long as possible. Keep in mind when the leaves start falling and if we get a lot of rain it is very hard to keep the water level down so get your projects completed as soon as possible. If you have any kayaks, paddle boats or canoes please get them out of the lake. If you see any debris in the area in front of your property, please clean it up. Please let Brad Ellenberger (President) know if you are planning to do any work. You can call 554-1948 or 938-8366. You can also send an email to silverlakecommunityassociation@gmail.com

Work Party: Saturday, September 30th. We will be working on weed whacking the Earthen dam and the recommended repairs to the spillway. More info to follow. Please plan on helping out! Call 938-8366 or 554-1948 or email us to let us know you are coming!

Bennett’s Run diversion dam project:  As you were told before our engineer passed away. We have been working with ARM to try to continue with the project but are not satisfied with their work. We will be looking for a new Engineer to complete the project.

Fall Party: Sean Concannon will once again host our Fall party! It will be October 21st at 4:00 PM.

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SLCA Spring 2017 Update

The SLCA Board of Directors is please to present members and the community with this SLCA Spring 2017 Update.

SLCA 2017 Annual Meeting

It is time for our Annual Meeting! Saturday, June 3rd at 10:00AM. It will be held at the Lewisberry Borough Pavilion. The address is 308 Market Street in Lewisberry. We will be discussing our financials, Bennetts Run project, DEP and the Earthen Dam and collections. We will also be voting on Board members. Please plan on attending.

PA DEP Annual Inspection

The SLCA’s engineer from ARM Group performed the DEP mandated annual inspection of our dam and spillway in November 2016. The report back is encouraging, as we are holding our own and no new major issues were discovered. A special THANK YOU to all residents who helped last year on the work parties that were instrumental in this effort. As always, there were some new maintenance items recommended. We are particularly challenged with animal burrows that jeopardize the integrity of our earthen dam, and must remain vigilant in remediation when found.

If you see it, report it please to a board member! Your cell phone is your friend, take pictures of the car tags of the offenders!

Bennett’s Run Diversion Dam Project

We received a bid from our engineer, ARM, to do all engineering and permitting with DEP for the project. The quote received is for $6700. We have accepted the proposal. Our plan was to have the project completed in the spring/summer of 2017. Unfortunately, we received a call from ARM this spring informing us that our engineer, John Masland, had passed away suddenly. The ARM Group is currently getting John’s accounts in order and assigned to other employees. When they do they will contact us and we will proceed with our plans. For now the project is on hold and may not be completed this year.

No Dumping!

It has been brought to our attention that people are still dumping garbage and yard waste along West Street behind the Earthen Dam. Dumping is not allowed anywhere on Silver Lake Community Association property! If you see someone dumping please feel free to get their license plate number and report them to one of the Board members immediately. All the property associated with the Earthen Dam is monitored by DEP and The York Conservation Group. We do not want to be fined for unlawful dumping. If any of you have any free time, the area where the dumping is occurring needs to be cleaned up. Any volunteer work is greatly appreciated. Please let’s keep our Lake and the surrounding area beautiful.