$2.34 Million Improvement Approved For Core Creek Park Conservation Pool

A roughly 17-acre conservation pool at Lake Luxembourg in Middletown Township will be receiving $2.34 million in restoration work.

The Bucks County Commissioners voted Wednesday to approve the project that is a partnership between the county and Bucks County Conservation District.

Bucks County General Services Director Kevin Spencer said the conservation district has raised $1.34 million from a variety of sources and county will put $1 million toward the needed work on the conservation pool, which is the smaller body of water along Woodbourne Road at Lake Luxembourg in Core Creek Park.

Lake Luxembourg totals about 175 acres. It has a dam and feeds into Core Creek, which is a tributary of the Neshaminy Creek that leads to the Delaware River. The lake was created in the 1970s.

The drainage area that feeds into Lake Luxembourg is about six square miles of surrounding land. A 1-inch rain event leads to about 160 million gallons of water falling in the drainage area, with much making it toward the lake.

Spencer the conservation pool that connects under Woodbourne Road to the larger portion of the lake has become filled with sediment over the past four decades. While the larger portion of the lake has a maximum depth of more than 20 feet in some parts, the conservation pool has a mean depth of 1.3 feet deep and a maximum of 5 feet.

Princeton Hydro, an engineering consulting firm, prepared a study on the lake and found the sediment in the conservation pool had a mean depth of 3 feet and 7 feet at the most.

The approved project will remove 14,000 cubic yards of sediment and reshape the bottom of the conservation pool to slow incoming water and reestablish a seven acre wetland habitat, Spencer said.

The project will allow millions more gallons of water could flow into the area without causing flooding.

The project is designed to improve water quality and ease access for future maintenance for the conservation pool, according to Spencer.

The work, which does not yet have a start date, will take place in ways to least disturb the bald eagles and redbelly turtles that live in the area of the conservation pool, Spencer said.

The Woodbourne Road causeway and bridge largely slows sediment from making its way from the conservation pool to the larger portion of the lake.

Bucks County Commissioners Chairperson Diane Ellis-Marseglia, a former Middletown Township supervisor, said the work sounds needed.

The county is also looking at plans for future improvements for the dam at Lake Luxembourg.

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