by:  Bill Butler, President Lake Watch
 Appeared in July 2025 issue of Lake Magazine

Hello, readers. This is my first LAKE magazine article since becoming president of Lake Watch of Lake Martin. A lot of friends have been asking questions about the organization, so I thought it might be helpful to start out with some general information about us.

Lake Watch of Lake Martin is an all-volunteer nonprofit citizen group created in 1992 by a lake resident named Dick Bronson and several others who shared his concern over serious threats to the water quality of the lake. The biggest concern at that time was the discharge of poorly treated industrial waste and municipal sewage from an Alexander City wastewater treatment plant into Sugar Creek, which then flowed through Elkahatchee Creek into Lake Martin. Lake Watch’s efforts eventually led to a significant upgrade of the treatment plant, including the installation of a new discharge line that bypassed Sugar Creek altogether and discharged through a diffuser placed at the bottom of the lake, a little south of the Highway 280 bridge. Since that beginning, Lake Watch monitors have played key roles in identifying many pollution issues in the lake and communities around it and having those issues corrected.

In 1992, Lake Watch became the first group of citizens to be trained and certified in water-quality monitoring by Alabama Water Watch.

AWW is a citizen volunteer water quality monitoring program covering all the major river basins in the state. It trains people as water monitors and manages the database of all the samples collected. AWW has now established a network of many monitoring groups throughout the state, and Lake Watch of Lake Martin is recognized as one of the premier ones.

The Lake Watch mission is to preserve and improve the water quality of Lake Martin and the surrounding Tallapoosa River watershed. We try to accomplish this mission by focusing on three primary activities:

1. Water monitoring: We presently have about 35 certified monitors who regularly sample about 60 sites. Our monitors take water samples, usually on a monthly basis, and perform chemistry and bacteriological tests, looking for water quality problems. We check such things as the dissolved oxygen level, pH, alkalinity, hardness and turbidity. We also check for E. coli bacteria, the presence of which indicates that fecal matter is present in the water, which can be very dangerous to humans.

Since its creation, Lake Watch has submitted over 5,000 sampling data records to the Alabama Water Watch database. In addition to the obvious benefit of identifying acute water quality problems, all of these records are very valuable in establishing a baseline and providing documentation of long-term water quality trends all over the lake, so if a problem occurs, we will have scientifically reliable evidence to prove that something has changed and that it hasn’t just “always been that way.” The data we collect is available to the public on our website, as is data from our Swim Alert program, which provides our monthly monitoring results for E. coli bacteria at selected popular swimming sites on the lake.

2. Environmental Education: The second area we focus on is seeking to increase public awareness of water quality and watershed stewardship through environmental education activities. Lake Watch has been active in environmental education of students for many years. Lake Watch believes that environmental education of our youth is the best way to ensure that the good works of Lake Watch and other similar groups continue into the next generation.

3. Advocacy: The third area is advocating for clean water in the Tallapoosa Watershed. We work with governmental and non-governmental agencies and organizations. We correspond and meet regarding issues of concern with federal and state agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is the agency that controls the operations of the Lake Martin Dam. We regularly file comments and participate in these agencies’ rule-making actions. Lake Watch was very active in the last re-licensing of Martin Dam by FERC, and we are currently participating in the re-licensing of Harris Dam because the quantity and quality of water being released from that dam will obviously have a direct impact on Lake Martin.

One of Lake Watch’s most significant achievements in protection and advocacy came in December 2010 when Governor Bob Riley signed an executive order establishing the special designation of Treasured Alabama Lake for lakes possessing exceptional ecological and recreational value. The TAL category has the highest water quality standards available under ADEM criteria. Existing water quality must be maintained and protected, and new pollution sources are generally prohibited.

In 2011, Lake Martin was designated as the first, and as of now, only Treasured Alabama Lake. This designation will help ensure the protection and preservation of the lake’s high water quality now and for generations to come.

We would love for you to join us, whether you want to be an active monitor or just support those who do. Our website lakewatch.org has links for joining, donating to help fund our monitoring efforts, reporting pollution issues and lots of other good information.

Bill Butler is president of Lake Watch, long-time Lake Martin resident and retired attorney.