Maple Lake community says airport project dirtied their lake

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - Although the Move that Mountain Project has been a success, some locals aren’t so happy to find out some of the mountain has found its way into their lake.

Maple Lake is located just downhill from the North Central West Virginia Airport construction site.

Maple Lake Clubs President Michael Arnold says a storm last week led to runoffs from the project. Arnold says they just paid $400-thousand bill to dredge the lake in February, but after the latest storm they believe it needs to be dredged again. What used to be a pretty clear lake now looks more like coffee

“It’s a little bit more murky than we would like, but it’s whole different level this past week,” said Arnold.

Guenter Metzger is the chairman of Maple Lakes dredging committee. He says in February it took 19 large bags to clear it out and that was only after dredging half the lake.

Metzger says similar situations have happened in the past, but in his 35 years living here he’s never seen it get this bad. He blames it on the mountain project.

“You’re always going to have some sort of sediment wash down in a creek, in a river as you see, but here it’s the massive amounts that came off of those walls where literally it should’ve been going into the retaining ponds -- it was going off the wall and running down there,” said Metzger.

Members of the Maple Club community were in attendance at the ribbon cutting today and were able to air some of their grievances. Now they’re hoping to find a fair resolution soon.

“We’re looking to talk to some of the folks involved in the project; the airport authority etc. and see what sort of solution we can come up with to return some of their dirt and sediment back to them,” said Arnold.

5 News is reaching out to NCWV Airport, The Thrasher Group Inc., and Wolfe’s Excavating for comment.