More problems at a much-loved lake in Bedford: a water main break flushed chlorinated water into Boys Ranch Lake and killed off around 200 fish.
The small lake has a dedicated group of wildlife protectors who have seen it through a duck virus and a recent bout of dead turtles.
Now they are worried there will be more problems to come.
Boys Ranch Lake was dredged and reconstructed starting back in 2015, as part of a multi-million dollar upgrade to Boys Ranch Park. So much sludge and mud had built up on the lake floor that the depth had dropped from roughly 18 feet to just about four feet deep.
But some neighbors think the city did not do enough to protect wildlife when they went through that costly reconstruction.
"The water is lower than normal," said Faith Zabriskie. "When you're walking around, you see a lot of trash in here."
You will find her out by the lake every day with a faithful group of wildlife protectors, known simply as the Duck Ladies.
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“I’ve had a love for animals my whole life," Zabriskie said. "I've done rescues my whole life, cats, dogs, ducks, you name it.”
This week, she and her friends worried when a water main broke in a nearby subdivision, flooding chlorinated water, mud and debris into the lake and killing roughly 200 fish. Zabriskie snapped several photos of city crews cleaning up.
"It's like the third hit that this pond has taken in three years and it just never seems to end," she said.
The group started its patrols back in 2015, when a virus was killing off ducks at the lake. At the same time, the city started dredging and reconstructing the lake.
But the Duck Ladies worry the changes to the ecosystem did more harm than good, by stripping away from natural habitat. They think the city should have installed a filtration system during the reconstruction.
“But we just have the water fountains and that doesn’t seem to be enough,” Zabriskie said.
Bucky Greer is another Boys Ranch Lake lover, who also volunteers on the Bedford Beautification Commission.
"When they rebuilt the lake, I was in the bottom of the lake, pulling out ducks and turtles and fish, the like, to help them survive," Greer said.
He said the reconstruction had to be done because of the deep sludge built up, and believes only time will set the system right.
"It's a new lake,” Greer said. “It's going to take several years for the lake to stabilize. Not only for the water to stabilize, the plants to stabilize, but the wildlife to stabilize. That's just part of the process."
But Zabriskie worry there's no time to waste: "To prevent our wildlife from dying."
The city said they have been monitoring the lake every day since the water main break and that oxygen levels are now back where they should be to support the wildlife living there. They stress there was nothing toxic in the water that spilled into the lake.
The city reported the incident to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and reported the dead fish to the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife.
Several turtles have also turned up dead in recent months. The city said it is largely because people are feeding them food they cannot digest.
The have launched a campaign to urge people not to feed any wildlife in the lake.
