News & Events

Lily Creek, located at the southeastern shoreline of Little Simonton, drains Simonton Lake.  After about 20 years of negotiations with the county and the DNR, the weir was completed in the fall of 2016.  This is important to the lake because it controls the lake level.  The County had informed us earlier this year that the creek would be cleaned out from the weir south to the toll road.  At this point this project is still in the planning stage.  We are watching closely as the Elkhart County Drainage Board discusses the issue.  It is important the the creek drain when the water is higher than the top of the weir, which is set at the legal lake level.  If the creek is full of debris, the creek will not drain properly.  Once the level of the water drops to the legal lake level, the weir keeps the water back to maintain the level of the water in our lake.

 

Taken by Carole and Dave Foutz, this picture shows the approach to the weir.  Stone now lines the edges of the creek

 

A weir is a water control device which regulates the level of the lake. Previously Simonton Lake had no such device.  Weirs are very common on most lakes the size of Simonton. A legal lake level was established by DNR based on records of the past ten years of lake levels and the weir was constructed at that level. You can see from the pictures the weir looks like a small dam. This keeps the lake from dropping below the level of the weir. Also you will notice a wide free flowing channel has been excavated to allow lake water to quickly flow out of the lake during heavy rain episodes. Thereby controlling the level of the lake.

But, if the creek below the weir is clogged, water will not drain well.  In times of heavy rain, this mean water is backed up making the lake level too high.

    Photo by Maria Hopman

.The top of the Weir as it breaks the surface of the water.