What the Heck is the Lake Tapps Community Council?

In early 1999 then Senator Pam Roach held an open public meeting for the Lake Tapps community in the Commons Room at Emerald Hills Elementary near the shores of Lake Tapps. The subject was the possibility of the draining of the Lake. The meeting was standing room only. Not long after the first meeting, a second meeting was held at the state capitol in Olympia. Though names and members have fluctuated through the years, Friends of Lake Tapps, Save Lake Tapps Coalition, Lake Tapps Task Force, and currently Lake Tapps Community Council (LTCC), the goal has remained the same. To save our beautiful lake!

Since the first threat of losing Lake Tapps, a few hard working, committed community members have donated many hours of their time, money and expertise. Council members have met with Puget Sound Energy, the cities of Auburn, Bonney Lake and Sumner, the Tribes, Pierce County Executives, the Department of Ecology, Washington State elected officials and have consulted with various experts to save not only the Lake itself, but the recreational value it has offered so many since it was formed as a reservoir by the White River Project in 1911. Those efforts paid off and Lake Tapps remains not only a valuable asset to the Lake Tapps Plateau, but also to the valleys below.

The LTCC continues to serve the interests of the Lake community. More recently it was able to work out an agreement with the Department of Ecology to revise proposed setbacks on waterfront properties in favor of homeowners.

If you are part of an HOA with a vacant seat, please consider joining and being an active member of LTCC. Without the efforts of the LTCC the rights of the Lake Tapps community are in jeopardy of being impacted little by little. If interested, please let your HOA president, or LTCC President Dan Roach know.

Members of LTCC are strictly volunteers. The website and its maintenance are donated. Although not as overwhelming as in the beginning, LTCC still has a few financial needs. The donated funds raised in the beginning are almost gone. Donations from participating HOAs are welcome. It takes a Lake village!

How Did We Get Here?
A little history

Lake Tapps is a result of the White River Project. It's original purpose was to create a hydroelectric power plant for what was then Pacific Coast Power Company, which eventually became Puget Sound Energy (PSE). When governmental constraints created a challenge for PSE to make a profit from using the plant, PSE decided to stop using it for obvious economic reasons.

If it weren't for the hard work of concerned residents, the tribes and some local government officials, the area would have reverted back to the individual small lakes that were originally joined to form the Lake Tapps we know now. Most likely the areas of dried lake bed that was left would now be hosting more housing developments.

The lake is fed by the White River. The White River is fed by the Emmons Glacier on Mount Rainier. No matter the season or the temperature at the lake, it stays frozen that high on the mountain year round. The sun does not melt it. Rain does. When there is no rain to melt the glacier, there is no icy water flowing into the river. Besides natural evaporation, the lake leaks into the aquifer which feeds wells in the valley. Add that to natural evaporation and you have a natural lowering of the lake. Adversely, when there is an abundant rainfall, the lake can rise higher than expected.

In order to save the lake when PSE threatened to drain it permanently, an agreement with the tribes who have control over a large portion of the water which flows through the White River was made to keep the water in the river ample enough for the survival of the three species of salmon who use the river as a means to swim from the ocean to the sound to the river to spawn and then for the new hatchlings to swim back down the river to the sound to the ocean. Then repeat.

It's a simple supply and demand thing. The main demand is to maintain the survival of the salmon. Of secondary importance is for recreational purposes. When the supply is not there, recreation takes a back seat. That, and the laws that bind those in control to adhere to the contract agreed upon in which to save the lake for recreational purposes in the summer months.

If interested, a view of the Emmons Glacier may be seen from the Mud Mountain Dam viewing area and looking eastward up the White River. Way up.