A planned dredging and deepening of Lake Wichita is not likely to happen soon partly due to a government shutdown, according to revitalization proponent David Coleman.
“The killer of this whole thing is that the government shutdown cost us almost two years,” said Coleman, who is secretary-treasurer of the Lake Wichita Revitalization Committee.
He was referring to a shutdown of the U.S. government in 2025 during which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could not begin any new projects.
In November 2023, the Wichita Falls City Council submitted a request to the corps for a project in which the city would pay 25% of the cost and the federal government would foot the rest of the bill to dredge a portion of the badly silted 125-year-old lake.
Coleman said following the delay, the corps must now determine if it is in the federal interest to tackle the project, conduct a feasibility study and then rank it among the other projects under consideration.
“I don’t know what other projects the corps has in the stack. I’m sure that during the shutdown the stack probably grew bigger,” Coleman said. “Realistically, we’re looking at years here. We know it’s still moving, but it’s agonizing.”
Brennen Parrish, deputy of public affairs for the Tulsa District of the USACE, said on Wednesday the project is currently awaiting funding “to initiate interest determination and feasibility phase funding.”
Coleman said the plan would be to dredge part of the east side of the lake for residents in Lakeside City and in the area of the boat ramp and kayak launch.
“In the people areas,” he said.
Cost of dredging the entire lake, estimated at $70 million in 2023, was considered prohibitive, he said.
In addition to years of silting, the lake has fallen victim to droughts and the spillway was lowered in the mid-1990s as a way to reduce flooding along Holliday Creek. As a result the water level declined.
Lake Wichita was completed in 1901 as a water supply for the city and remained a recreation attraction after bigger reservoirs were constructed. It went into decline in the 1950s.
The revitalization committee was formed in 2013 to stop the decline. Veterans memorials, part of the Circle Trail and other amenities have been added in the intervening years.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Lake Wichita dredging project moving slowly
Reporting by Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News / Wichita Falls Times Record News
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