by Rick Stryker, P.E.
By now, camp's pretty close to being ready for the 2008 campers.
Hibernating animals have long ago moved out of the cabin crawl spaces,
the bees and wasps have been evicted from the cabin eaves (for the hundredth
time already), and the program areas are being checked for supplies and
equipment. One area in particular should receive extra attention, not
just as camp is being opened, but all through the summer — and
that's the waterfront. This month, we're going to look at
some of the features of the lake side/waterfront that should help to
make it more functional and safer.
Staffing
With all of the other things
on the permanent staff 's plate at this time of year, it may seem
extreme, but when camp opens each year, it's those people who need
to be evaluating this program area. As the organization's on-site
expert on facilities, the facilities director needs to personally inspect
the area, actively seeking items and issues that could present a hazard
to any users. It may be tempting to put the guard chair out, float the
docks, and let the seasonal staff handle the evaluation, but they generally
lack the vested interest of the permanent staff. Items, issues, or concerns
in the water often require time to plan and equip a solution. To wait
until seasonal staff is already on site invites a short-fused fire drill
where a "good enough" solution is all there's time
or money for. Finally, the seasonal folks should be bringing concerns
about the facilities to the full-time folks, and short of news of the
tree that fell last night during the storm, there should be few if any
surprises along the way. There's simply no other way to build confidence
than to be aware of and already working on solutions, even before someone
else brings them to your attention.
Beach Replenishment
Many organizations
spend truckloads of money each year buying sand. You may not know that
sand comes in many different varieties, so calling the local quarry or
hauling company and asking for "Five loads of sand — and
give me the CHEAP stuff," is a sure way to get what you're
paying for. Most likely the cheapest sand you'll encounter will
contain pretty high amounts of clay particles. That's OK for some
foundation or construction projects, but when working near a lakefront,
you'll want to stay away from that. Otherwise, those tiny platy
clay particles will cloud the water causing "turbidity" and
make difficult (if not impossible) for the lifeguard to see the bottom
when watching the swimming area. The much better (and more expensive)
solution is generally known as "washed sand." Where natural
riverine material isn't available, this processed material has
often been screened and sorted for size and then literally washed to
be mostly free from clay and silt.
Water Contamination
More than the
commonly thought-of "pollution," you should protect your
water asset from environmental damage. Even if you own all of the land
around the lake, most inland freshwater lakes are regulated by the federal
and state governments. In the past several years, invasive species of
aquatic life including the zebra mussel have been introduced into lakes
by several different means of cross contamination. To help curb such
spreads, the environmental agencies have put in place regulations which
closely monitor activities like recreational boating and shoreline construction.
Where there may not have been enforced rules in the past, the direct
cost in dollars and bad press caused by ecological damage may be more
than your organization can weather. As an aside, it's likely that
your insurance policy won't cover environmental damage. It would
be worth your time to call your broker and agent and ask the question.
They would surely rather help you get smart than tell you "Tough
luck" after the fact. That would be expensive tough luck indeed.
Foreign Objects
On the flight line at an airport or on an aircraft carrier,
workers regularly walk the area aircraft use searching for miscellaneous
bits and pieces lying about. The material they're after is called
FOD, an acronym for "foreign objects and debris," and the
procedure is called an "FOD walk." Your beach and swimming
area should get the same attention every day during the summer. More importantly,
though, the permanent staff should conduct an FOD walk on the beach and
through the entire swimming area. When searching the water area, "FOD
walkers" link arms to ensure that they don't try to cover
too much area in a single sweep. The limits of each pass should be marked
with simple buoys made from Clorox bottles tied to a weight with a rope.
More than just searching for obstructions, they should be noting the
presence of holes, steep drops, or other unseen bottom conditions. Once
found, these too should be marked with buoys so that they can be found
again quickly when a solution is ready.
Incidentally, if there are separate
areas for swimming and boating, all of the same rules and procedures
apply. Even if swimming is forbidden in the canoe area, boats capsize.
So whether they intended to swim, people are in the water shortly after.
Water Clarity
As mentioned previously, clay particles can become suspended
with even a small amount of activity, and this can really affect the
water clarity. But other fine particles can have the same effect. Soil,
silt, and decayed organics can all cloud the water and create visibility
issues for lifeguards and safety personnel. In some cases, like the choice
of beach materials, you can take quick steps to improve things. In others,
though, water clarity may be an issue which is simply intrinsic to the
ecology of your particular lake, pond, stream, or watershed.
Before you
reach out for help, you should work to quantify the water clarity problem
for yourself. Water clarity is measured as a function of depth using
a standard called a "Secchi Disc." This weighted 8" diameter
plastic disc is attached to a non-stretching cord or rope. Its four quarters
are alternately black and white. The disc is lowered into the water and
the depth at which it is no longer distinguishable is noted. By recording
daily measurements from a boat or rescue board along with the date and
time of the measurement, the current and past 24-hour weather and the
location of the reading, and the occupancy in the past hour and day,
analysts may be able to correlate any number of factors with changes
in the swimming area turbidity.
Where can you go for help? Certainly,
the local yellow pages contain a list of consultants who may be able
to help dissect and digest the data that you've collected. But
there are a couple of entities which will be helpful in developing a
range of solutions which are on target and within the bounds of the law.
Perhaps best of all, these will provide consultation at no direct cost
to you. Your state environmental body and agricultural extension bureau
have a range of experts on staff that can help sort out what the problem
is and identify some possible solutions.
Finally, human activity in the
upstream reaches of a watershed can disturb the natural filter and buffering
processes which prevented large amounts of soil and silt from washing
into the lake. In the same way, chemicals of all sorts (including automotive
lubricants like grease and wastewater constituents like soaps and detergents)
find their way into surface waters and upset the biological balance.
These pollutants, even in small doses, can strip water of its ability
to hold oxygen in solution or make it chemically unavailable to life
in the water. Some starve, while others overfeed, naturally occurring
microbes, causing a cascade of reactions which can leave program operators
scratching their heads, wondering what happened to the crystal-clear
water full of fish.
The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) is the regulatory answer to outcry about surface water pollution.
It has been developing in range, scope, and content for better than a
decade and it may have a substantial impact on activities in each and
every watershed. As camps consider "What happened?" to their
lake, a first place to look is at their own development to see how and
where they may have added to the decline.
Like all of your facilities,
your waterfront is an important part of the program offerings. But unlike
so many of the others, it's not one that you can easily replace
or quickly fix if something's wrong. Diligence and an ounce of
prevention may be worth much, much more than the normal pound of cure.
Originally published in the 2008 May/June
issue of Camping Magazine. |
