<bt>Lazy days of kicking back, fishing pole in hand, with one eye on the bobber are over for area fisherman who have frequented the pond behind the Kingstowne Shopping Center. It is officially a storm-water-management area, currently privately owned, and dotted with "No Fishing" signs.
Nancy Sawyer lives nearby and brings her dog to the pond for a swim occasionally. In the past, Sawyer and members from her community have put on waders and cleaned up the fishing residue (i.e., hooks, lures, bait containers and line).
"I agree with the 'No Fishing.' the fishermen have a tendency to leave lures, hooks, line. I've seen Canada geese that have fishing line around their legs," she said.
Although the signs went up in early July, some people have already disregarded them.
"There was a couple of fisherman here and I made them stop. We clean this up," she said, and came up with a suggestion that one of the nearby schools could clean up the pond as a project.
Laurie Higgins at the Kingstowne Homeowners Association said the pond is a storm-water-management area and therefore not open to recreation.
"It's a passive facility not meant for activities," she said.
Neighbors from the Chancellery condominiums that overlook the pond have complained as well, according to Higgins. Some of their issues included people swimming in the middle of the night, noise, trampled shrubs and trash.
"They're concerned. Often times, they [fun seekers] are trespassing and cause damage," she said.
Burke Centre has six similar ponds that have restrictions as well, but "no fishing" is not one of them, according to David Lyster, a resources expert at the Burke Conservancy.
"People do fish in those ponds," he said.
All the ponds are designated as storm-water-management areas. The Kingstowne pond feeds into Dogue Creek and eventually the Chesapeake Bay. Halle Construction, which is building Kingstowne, still owns the lake. It will turn it over to Kingstowne sometime in the future. Higgins was still leaning toward a passive pond.
"Most likely it will always be a storm-water-management area and possibly a 'no activities' pond," Higgins said.
The Conservancy maintains the Burke ponds, which includes trash removal. Lyster noted the connection of their ponds to the Occoquan Watershed as well.
"They all do act as filters," he said.
Jeff Hetterick, with Fairfax County Maintenance and Storm
Water Management, monitors all the county-owned ponds. One of the purposes of the ponds is to filter out the phosphorous, nitrogen and sediment in the streams before they eventually reach the Chesapeake Bay. Most allow fishing, though.
"There are restrictions like no swimming, but fishing is allowed," he said.