Submitted by KM Hills.
There is no doubt that American Lake is a real jewel when it comes to recreation in Lakewood. In past submissions I have shared that I grew up working as a life guard at North American Lake Park and that I still like to both open water swim and paddle on the lake today.
Few places in Lakewood can you feel like you are in nature, like I do in places on American Lake. Given the land owned by the VA & Joint Base there remains significant shoreline that has no developement. You can watch Bald Eagles swoop down for fish and watch Great Blue Heron wade in the water while enjoying peace and quiet.
The only reminder that you are not far from civilization is when you see trash floating in/on the lake. Yesterday, when paddling with my nephew, we pulled two giant chunks of styrofoam out of the lake, which looked like a dock somewhere was missing them. We also pulled out a plastic garbage can lid. The other junk we saw were several mostly submerged “No Wake” buoys which looked more like hazards at this time. There was even one, at the south end of the VA property which had totally washed ashore. While I know the buoys are for safety and some are location markers for EMS personnel to use when trying to locate people during an emergency, they dont seem too effective when unreadable or out of place.
If you also use the lake please do your share to pull out trash and protect this jewel. If anyone reads this that knows how to right the buoys or who’s job that is, help is needed there too.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
Love this lake. I have been fishing and boating this lake for over 40 years. Between the eagles and the serenity, it’s hard to match with any other inner city lake.
Proof your articles, before going to print. Do you not have an editor??
A third grader could write better than this.
? No Doubt.
Are you a teacher?
How about you all check your grammar before you post an article! American Lake in a real jewel in the first paragraph.
Join and volunteer at the American Lake Improvement Club. They handle the buoys along with other issues.
American Lake sits in dangerous proximity to one of the most toxic waste dumping grounds on the west coast. On Joint Base Lewis McChord just under the ground of the Army Logistics Center lies a massive saturation of toxic waste from years of ground contamination at what was once called Rainier Army Depot. This lethal slow-moving tsunami of contamination has infiltrated the subterranean Olympic aquifer and is slowly moving towards American Lake. From I-5 you can see several of the Sparging Towers and at the Logistics Center a line of multiple wells which pump the contaminated water to the surface and expose it to the air to “detoxify” it and then pump it back into the aquifer. This is a remedial effort and is little more than a pacification process to hide the scale and scope of this environmental nightmare. It will not arrest all the toxins and an indeterminate amount will eventually leach into the aquifer and then on to the springs that feed American lake. If you believe the EPA or JBLM will be able to stop this then you don’t understand the vast dimension of this impending largely unreported catastrophe. Enjoy the lake while you can it’s unlikely your grandchildren will.
Why not read the article for it’s content and message. You should be able to share your story without fear of mean criticisms.