Lake Jackson Dam repairs leave waterfront homeowners without their lake Since the Lake Jackson Dam was opened in May 2012 because of concerns about leaks after an earthquake struck the area a year earlier, the water level has gone so low that neighbors now call it Creek Jackson. A new island is rising in the brown, Willy Wonka-ish water that is left. Their beach is long gone. And docks lie marooned in the midst of fields. The good news, said Marty Nohe, a county supervisor, is that the commonwealth and the county have agreed to pay the $900,000 needed to fix the dam. The bad news: It's going to take a while. In the meantime, residents of this eclectic community tucked away in the woods near Manassas are worried about plummeting property values and spending summer weekends weeding mud flats full of snakes rather than swimming and water-skiing. Even worse, some say: In a neighborhood with both tarp-patched fishing shacks and big new homes with three-car garages, they lost the thing that always brought them together. They all live there for the lake. "A lot of people I don't see anymore," said Barbara Newton, who has lived on Lake Jackson since the early 1970s. It's like we all disappeared. "These are people that bought homes so they'd have waterfront property," Nohe said. They made investments. And they want to go out and fish, go out in boats. Many complain that their taxes don't reflect what they see out their wall-to-wall windows, either. Taxes on her waterfront lot are about nine times higher than those on her other lot not directly on the lake, said Sandra Dutemple, who has lived there 50 years. I'm not saying I won't pay it. But I don't have waterfront now. I have vegetation-front. A tough row to mow Neighbors had already waited through low water levels while the county did surface repairs to the dam in 2010 and 2011. But after the 2011 earthquake, residents noticed the lake getting lower, and in 2012, workers found water pouring through "toe drains" at the base and seeping from the downstream face of the dam. The gate was opened to relieve pressure on the dam that might worsen any leaks, and the lake began to disappear. It has now narrowed to a fraction of its former size and in the deepest spots is only about eight feet, neighbors said. Nohe hopes the work might be completed by 2014. Some residents asked whether the county would pay to dredge the silt piling up in the lake and remove the plants as part of the repairs, but the answer was no. That's why on a typical day at the lake now, the roar of lawn mowers has replaced that of outboard motors. "It's overwhelming," said Margie Roche, who trims alligatorweed and thirsty grasses in shifts with her push mower. If they don't cut the weeds, some of which are now eight feet high and have three-inch-thick trunks, it will ruin the lake when the water comes back.