DALLAS -- A mix of logs, trash and heavy soot has created a debris field large enough in the middle of Bachman Lake to force the cancellation of recreational events, according to regular users of the city-owned lake.
On Monday members of the Dallas Rowing Club showed WFAA the extensive amount of debris that has piled up in the southwest corner of the lake off Shorecrest Drive.
DRC board member Matt Naifeh says the debris was severe enough last week that a group of 50 volunteers spent several hours removing over 100 pounds of trash from the lake.
Naifeh says it is likely a combination of debris from the creek system in Dallas flowing into the lake along with runoff from roadways and the runways at Love Field just off the southern edge of the lake.
"It's terribly gross," Naifeh said. "It's really bad. This is a safety issue."
Henry Roseman is on the lake every week.
"It's beautiful, even when it looks like this, it's still really beautiful," Roseman said.
The high school senior says the lake, which was constructed in 1903, is a natural setting for rowing and fishing with it's placid surface and long east to west orientation.
But that beauty is compromised by orange buoys floating in the middle of the lake. The markers were placed there by the Dallas Rowing Club to warn of the mounting debris just below the surface that could potentially ensnare a rower or sailboat.
"It is maybe two feet deep here," Roseman points out by placing an oar in the water.
"We need to dredge this part of the lake and sweep it out," Roseman said. "Make it deeper so that we have room for it to fill back up."
Bachman Lake was last dredged in 2002, according to city records.
Roseman hopes as Dallas voters consider a likely $1 billion bond election in November, helping to clean out Bachman Lake can make the priority list.