By Lake Cortez Shoreliner, Patty MacDonald, with the technological assistance of Paul MacDonald
Note from Cheryl: This report was passed out at a meeting with Lake Cortez Shoreliners and Public Services Director Ken Unger. Click here to go to the report of that meeting.
A quick review of what has previously happened to Lake Cortez may aid your understanding of our present situation. Dave Specht, a Shoreliner who lives on Empinada, is our resident historian. Dave is away on family business today and asked me to stand in for him. I am Patty MacDonald, a Sabiote Lane resident for 40 years, and I have lived through most of what I will tell you about our lake.
Lake Cortez was the second sizeable lake Cooper Communities built as it developed our Village from the West Gate toward the east. Lake Desoto is some years older. Both lakes were created by dams on Mill Creek, whose headwaters are in the Jessieville area. Both lakes are also in the Mill Creek Watershed, meaning we get run-off from rain that falls on the mountains bordering the Village toward the north. Mill Creek flows into Lake Desoto, which in times of heavy rainfall, drains its excess into Lake Cortez. That is why our lake experiences sudden water depth changes. Mill Creek runs along the north side of our lake, and our excess water goes over the spillway in the dam to join the Middle Fork of the Saline River.
In times of adequate rainfall, the Village has the right to pump water from the Saline River to replenish our supply of potable water in Lake Lago. Lake Cortez water is a backup supply for drinking water in case of emergency. One of our two Village Wastewater Treatment Plants (sanitation plants) is located on the far side of Cortez Dam. After treatment, the water is released back into the Saline River—downstream of where we draw our drinking water. It’s an elegant and complicated plan to provide us with high-quality potable water and get rid of our sanitary waste in a safe and environmentally acceptable way. These operations are supervised and permitted by the Arkansas Dept. of Environmental Quality (ADEQ).
When my husband and I started building our home 40 years ago, the lake bed was mostly dry except for a little water from Mill Creek in the center and from a few springs. The west end of the lake had been used as a “stump dump,” and there were snags and stumps all over the future lake bed. These provided excellent fish habitat when the dam was finally finished, and the valve closed. It was a rainy year, so we could soon call ourselves Shoreliners. There have been several disputes and controversies involving our POA and property owners over the years:
Early on, a farmer outside the Village sued the POA for improperly closing off the water flowing into the Saline River, which watered his cattle. The judge decided for the plaintiff and declared Mill Creek a “navigable river,” which means the POA cannot arbitrarily decrease or close off Cortez’s out-flow.
During 2009-10 ADEQ changed its permitting requirements so that treatment plants had to filter out phosphorous and copper, and our water was out of compliance. Re-fitting our two sanitation plants proved very expensive, so our POA conceived a plan to cycle the treated wastewater from the Mill Creek Plant through Cortez Lake, thus diluting it to meet the state requirements. The wastewater would then be used to water Cortez Golf Course, saving on fertilizer costs. Cortez Shoreliners objected vehemently, calling it “Pollution by Dilution.” The POA withdrew that idea.
Villagers voted for permission for the POA to sell $9.6 million in bonds. One of the principal uses for this money was to upgrade our sewer plants. An engineering company was paid $224,000 to study these issues. Thousands of dollars were paid in interest until, finally, the POA voted to retire about $6M of the bonds early to avoid more interest. I don’t know what if any, upgrades were made.
In mid-summer 2010, Public Works tested beaches and one boat ramp for fecal coliform (e-coli). The results were Lake DeSoto: 0, Lake Coronado: 0, Lake Cortez: 1, and Lake Balboa: 1, all of which are excellent…. [Minutes of the Lakes and Water Committee, July 14, 2010]. Elevated levels (1) were later blamed on Canada geese.
Conclusion: The work of previous Shoreliners has helped protect our property values. We’d like to continue to work with the POA in a constructive way.
Great history lesson for me. I’m new to the village. Interested in future articles.
I truly appreciate Patty taking the time to speak to the history of Lake Cortez.
I wish as a long-termed on Sabiote she would speak to the rest of the history, or that someone else would as to the fact that we all believed that this was a HSV amenity
up to the day that word came down the pike that the POA did not own it; Cooper did, and further, that Cooper Jr had sold it on a handshake deal for half a mil to a couple who would own the entire peninsula for that price, removing it from public use ( POA members/guests) and ultimately including in their plans to build a pool because the woman in the couple didn’t want to swim in lakes!
THAT is the history that should be publicly recounted in addition to the origins of the lake itself. And the board in the past has had money to fund all sorts of advisors and ad agencies coming in to design redesign marketing plans, logos while not letting the public members know the lowdown.
1/2 mil and we couldn’t come up with ( because we didn’t know $&?!!) now with expansive growth o cutting, we are down to Balboa for babies and party crowds and our gem of a swimming lake sold under our noses. Totally gets me steamed. No disclosure, no apologies… and then tears of haggling go by in the outside pool, literally. So now there’s a poop incident there with a ‘closed till future notice’ warning.
Anyway, I truly thank Patty for her story and if only the rest of the story would be told. That would be an honest clearing, doubtful that will ever happen. A great loss of an amenity and a great non transparency.