В штате Вашингтон капитально ремонтируют плотину и трубопроводы на озере Лейсона, удаляя инвазивную рыбу

Lawson’s Pond gets a makeover Published 1:30 am Tuesday, August 25, 2026 Driving down West Valley Road, people may be shocked to see the extremely low level of Lawson’s Pond as much-needed repairs and improvements are made. The work, owner Tommy Lawson told the Journal, included replacing the dam, the town’s pipes within the dam and along the borrow of the pond, and working with the Department of Fish and Wildlife to remove largemouth bass. After discovering the dam — built by his grandfather — was unsustainable, Lawson, a six-generation islander whose children are seventh generation, was faced with the choice to tear down the dam or to repair it. “[The pond] is kind of important to us. People fish here, and swim and love it. So I kind of took it upon myself to replace it,” Lawson said. GeoEngineers designed the new dam and has been working alongside Lawson and his crew. Quality control specialist Jason Kim has been on site, and when he saw Lawson was being interviewed about the project, said, ‘Tom has not cut corners; he is doing a great job, and it’s been a pleasure working with him.” Besides recreation, Lawson’s Pond has also been used as a mill pond for irrigation. “There is an old log dump…where they skidded them down and pushed them in. The old log boom out here at the front is still there, and the truck they used to has a boom on it with a cable. They’d run the cable under the logs, then pull the cable taut, which would spring the logs into the lake, all bundled up.” Logs can now be seen scattered along the bottom of the lake; those are from bundles that broke apart, according to Lawson. If he gets the critical dam work done, he would like to bring the logs up, and perhaps with his own sawmill, make furniture out of any that are usable. According to Lawson, in the late ‘70s, the town made an agreement with Lawson’s grandfather to use water from the pond as a supplement to Trout Lake. His grandfather developed Hillview Terrace; he went to the town and proposed an exchange for a water right and a 100-by-300-foot easement with a pump station that sends water up the hill to Trout Lake to hook Hillview Terrace homes to the town’s water lines. The Town laid a pipe along the bottom of Lawson’s Pond and installed pipes in the dam. According to Town Administrator Denise Kulseth, the Town is allowed to draw from the pond from the fall through the spring, and does so each year. Kulseth told the Journal that over the years they have maintained and completed multiple costly repairs on the pipe. Such work has required the town to hire a diver to assist on more than one occasion. “Taking advantage of the opportunity to replace our pipe while the pond is drained is the smart thing to do,” she said. “We are replacing old brittle fiberglass pipe that is nearing the end of its useful life with new HDPE, which does not corrode, is extremely flexible, and has essentially leak-proof joints. We expect this pipe to last up to 100 years.” Kulseth told the Journal that there were three severe droughts, one in the late ‘70s, right before the Lawson Pond agreement was reached; in ‘88; and one ending in ‘94, when the agreement to a second water right was reached, this time in Margo Lake. “These were three ‘50-year droughts’ in the span of 16 years,” Kulseth noted, commending former Town Administrator King Fitch for his foresight. “A huge thank you to former Town Administrator King Fitch,” she said, “who had the foresight to seek additional water sources for the town. He acquired both Aug 1 and Aug 2, [Lawson Pond and Margo Lake], and left a legacy of careful water management.” The dam, however, is not the only improvement being made. While largemouth bass are considered a top recreational fish, locally, they are also deemed an invasive species. Lawson is using the low water level to work with the Department of Fish and Wildlife to remove the bass. According to Lawson, the agents stun the fish, which then float to the surface, making it easy for the department to scoop them up with nets. “[We hope] to put some kind of trout or something a little more indigenous to our area,” Lawson told the Journal. The pond’s makeover sounds like a lot of work, and due to the location of the dam, there have been challenges. However, as of Aug. 19, Lawson anticipated it would be complete around the first week of September. “I’m about two weeks out on the excavation, the haul-out and removal part; I’ll have the dam back up to elevation in about another week and a half, and I suspect the pond will recover pretty quickly,” Lawson assured. “As soon as we get into October, November, by Christmas time nobody will even know it was empty.”