I read with interest the about the battle between homeowners needing shoreline protection and speedboats pulling skiers on Echo Lake (Aug. 22 Beacon: “Flooded Again, Echo Lake Residents Call for No-Wake Zone”). For 18 years I’ve owned a home on the lake. Watching my shoreline erode is painful. This is the second high-water summer that I’ve had to put in boulders to try to stave off the damage. The first year was 1997. It wasn’t cheap and it wasn’t easy. Yet I find it a tough bridge to straddle. I too am a father who enjoys seeing my kids learn to water ski. But does this have to be an all-or-nothing deal if Mother Nature gives us more water than the lake should handle?
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Flathead County commissioners cite a technicality in the law to do nothing, while you report 32 families threatened to sue if a no-wake zone was implemented. Isn’t there any political will or foresight here? How about a short-term compromise during high-water years? Like, no speedboats allowed off the public access that year. Or, no speedboating before 10 a.m. and after 7 p.m.? Or long term: Push for the Army Corp of Engineers to build the water relief system that an FWP officer told me was the only solution to Echo Lake’s high-water troubles. Instead, our public officials appear to shrug, hope we concerned homeowners don’t get too fussy with them as boats blow by from 8 a.m. until dark.
Mark Suppelsa
Echo Lake