Dan Ternes
Lake Wheeler, located on Lake Wheeler Road in Raleigh, has been closed for swimming, water skiing and tubing intermittently this summer because of dangerous levels of bacteria enterococcus and E. coli found in the water. According to Terry Chappell, section chief of planned review and recreation sanitation, bacteria enterococcus discovered in the lake has been known to cause various health difficulties for those in direct contact with affected areas. These complications include gastrointestinal problems and skin infections.
The N.C. State crew team has called Lake Wheeler home for practices since the club began. Donny Katz, crew team president, said that the water restrictions caused minimal inconvenience to the team’s practice schedule.
“Some rowers went out to practice on the lake one day over the summer and couldn’t take their boat out because of the water restrictions,” he said.
Aside from this incident, Katz said there were no practice cancellations.
“Not many rowers practice over the summer,” he said.
Chappell said that the Wake County Environmental Services is unsure of what the source of the increased bacteria levels in the lake was this summer. However, the lake is now open for all recreational activities.
“Currently, the lake is open for primary contact. After two consecutive days of sampling on Saturday and Sunday, the tests were below levels of enterococcus and E. coli. There will be another round of sampling next week. If results are above limits, we have to close for primary contact,” he said.
Lake Wheeler has remained open for boating throughout the contamination. However, when bacteria levels are high, there is still a risk of unintentionally contacting waterborne diseases. The crew team has not been overly concerned about the risk of encountering these diseases. Katz said that there has been very little discussion among team members about the state of the water, and there has been no discussion of switching practice sites if contamination remains present.
“Our boats are stored there, so we are pretty much restricted to that lake. Loading the boats on trailers and moving them somewhere else is not an easy thing do,” Katz said.
As the crew team continues to practice at Lake Wheeler, it is important to regard the bacteria as a threat.
Crew captain Will White said, “Right now we’re just making sure everyone stays out of the water and doesn’t try to drink it or anything crazy like that.”
Concern is still present throughout the community about the state of Lake Wheeler’s water. Raleigh residents seem to be going elsewhere for recreation, according to Park Manager Chris Murray.
“We are still seeing repercussions from the testing. We have not seen turnouts on weekends [like] we saw last summer or the summer before that,” Murray said. “It’s just human nature to be concerned. We receive phone calls daily – a lot of cancellation requests for shelters and rentals.”
Lake Wheeler will remain open to the public for swimming and all other recreational activities unless bacteria levels are found to be dangerous.