This is part of Liberty’s statement/request. This is more than just building a bigger pond. It has huge impact for the school and community.

https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16021coll7/id/13330

“The Project is Necessary to Provide a Venue for Aquatic Sporting Events for Liberty University. The University has experienced rapid growth over the past few years, growing from 5,000 resident students to 14,500. LU employs over 3,300 individuals. It is the desire of the University to grow to 25,000 resident students and over 100,000 distance learning students.
In order to accomplish this goal, it is necessary to increase the amenity package to resident students by adding club sports, increasing the degree and course offerings and increasing recreational activities. To continue the pursuit of excellence and growth, the University is proposing to use this facility for the items listed below:

SPORTING EVENTS / TEAMS:

Rowing – Course and Club Team
Introduction of new sports is an important part of Liberty’s curriculum. While the proposed lake is not large enough to host a sanctioned crew event, it is a protected body of water for beginners to learn crew. This will be an opportunity to introduce students to the sport. As they grow more proficient in rowing and working as a team, some will want to pursue a higher level of competition. Liberty currently has rowing as a club sport. By expanding Camp Hydaway Lake to the proposed size, LU could have a practice facility for these students very close to campus and convert this to a varsity sport. The addition of a practice facility 10 minutes from the Liberty campus would allow more practice time for the team and allow more students the opportunity to participate. Given the training requirements for crew, a close practice facility is a necessity. Rowing can also be a course added to the kinesiology curriculum. This can be a physical education course to broaden the horizons for students who have never participated in a rowing sport. After taking this introductory course, students who enjoy the sport may join the club team. Currently, the closest lake is almost an hour drive. It hinders the team from adequate practice and presents transportation difficulties. Transportation is also difficult for undergraduate students that do not have vehicles on campus. Campus shuttles already have Camp Hydaway on a route, so transportation to the practice facility would be eliminated as a barrier to participation. It is the desire of the University to allow high schools the option of starting a crew team and leagues whether club or at the varsity level. This opportunity would be extended to all area high schools. Experience in this sport at the high school level would enable local students to become more attractive college candidates and increase the scholarship opportunities for these students.

LU Water Skiing – Men’s and Women’s Club
The addition of a Liberty University water skiing team will further the advancement of the University to put it on par with its competitors. Many colleges and Universities offer this as a club sport. The addition of water skiing courses on the proposed lake will allow a practice location close to the Liberty Campus and the ability to host competitions. There are three (3) events in which collegiate athletes can compete. They include slalom, jump, and trick. Some competitions also offer wakeboarding events. Water Skiing is typically a club sport for men and women. A typical collegiate team has approximately forty (40) members. The same transportation issues as discussed in section a) above apply to all water sports additions. The closest lake large enough to host events and offer a practice location of this nature is approximately one hour away from Liberty’s campus. Traveling an hour each way for each practice and event would hamper the feasibility of a club to function operationally. The only way to offer this as a viable club sport is to have the open water within 10 minutes of the University.

LU Triathlon Club
Many colleges and Universities offer triathlon clubs. Liberty currently has a club team. USA Triathlon is the governing body with a subsection for collegiate teams. With Liberty’s unique land possessions, it is in a position to expand such clubs and offer the required training facilities as well as offering the ability to host events. Currently, Liberty only hosts one home meet which has to be held at Smith Mountain Lake. The lake would allow the Liberty University team to host more home events, which would increase student body interest in spectating and support as well as allowing families to have a chance to visit during a competition. Given the extreme training required for this sport, a training course close to Liberty’s campus is required to attain participation in good numbers. A competition of this nature includes open water swimming in a lake. The distances are as follows: • Ironman distance 2.4 miles • Medium distance 1.2 miles • Sprint distance - .5 miles. Liberty University has been given the privilege of hosting the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Triathlon Regional Championships. They have been hosting the event since October 2014. This is a huge opportunity for Liberty University as they can save costs on traveling with their team and also gaining a portion of the entry fees for the racers. This event will bring about 200 participants from 17 different teams to Liberty and consequently Lynchburg. This helps to bring in revenue for the school and the community based on lodging and eating for participants and their coaches and families. The proposed lake is large enough for lots of swimmers to make the laps necessary to complete any designated swim distance. Currently the event has to be held at Smith Mountain Lake, which is almost an hour drive from the school’s main campus. The Camp Hydaway Lake already has parking, restroom and showering facilities that could be put to use exclusively for the triathlon event, allowing the participants to shower and use the restroom easily on site and close to all the event start lines and finishes.

Open Water Swimming
Open water swimming is also a popular sport. This could be added as a course and/or club team. This sport is growing as a spin-off from triathlon popularity. It offers a different degree of difficulty due to the weather and temperature elements. It also differs from closed training venues (pools) because there is no line on the bottom as a guide.

Olympic Style Games Venue
Lynchburg hosted the Commonwealth Games of Virginia in 2016 and 2017 many of the events were held on the Liberty University campus facilities. These games are Olympic style competitions for amateur male and female athletes of all ages. The games have an economic impact of over $4 million on the host city. Water sports portions of the games were not hosted at Liberty University because the facilities were not available. When the lake is available in the future, the opportunity to host this portion of the games will bring even more segments of the games to campus. This also allows spectators to stay in one location and see many events. This further boosts the tourism dollars around the City of Lynchburg. For the first time ever, Virginia was selected to host the State Games of America in 2019. This event will bring competitors from all over the country to Lynchburg for these games at Liberty University. The Virginia Senior Games have also expressed interest in coming to Lynchburg in 2020. Liberty University is working with them to finalize the agreement. The “Olympic Village” facilities make LU an outstanding location for these games and there is no cost to the taxpayers of Lynchburg, Virginia. Liberty University is the anchor sponsor for the next five years and will be the host over that time period. Sports are added each year and open water sports could be hosted at the lake if adequate open water was available.

NEW DEGREE / COURSE OFFERINGS

With the expansion of the existing lake, the University will be in a position to increase course offerings to its students and the community at large. Most major Universities offer courses in these areas, and given the extensive land owned by the University, it would be practical to have labs for various courses on University property in close proximity of the campus. Research courses could be offered specifically in the Biology Department. The lake could provide a great platform to develop undergraduate research projects and course based research. Students in Biology 410 Course would be involved for class based research projects in addition to more advanced individual student research projects with faculty. A long term study of wetland restoration could be conducted on the lake edges. Students would learn various sampling and monitoring techniques as well as how to take physical measurements of the lake.

The following are initial ideas from the Biology department on locations and content of study:
• Sections of the lake that are 20-30 feet in depth would be ideal for lake profile studies
• Wetland shelves would be excellent locations to study community assembly in the littoral zone
• Allowing some fallen trees to remain in the lake would provide a basking environment for turtles and underwater environment for a host of other organisms to grow and thrive.
• Planting some of the shoreline with a shrub/tree layer to provide additional habitat for species that live in the transition zone between aquatic and terrestrial habitats.
• Students can monitor the numbers and types of amphibians, reptiles and macroinvertebrates in the lake.

Some potential additions for both degree offerings and course offerings are below.

New Degrees
• Wildlife & Fisheries
• Aquatic Ecology & Conservation options
• Wildlife Ecology & Conservation options

New College Credit Courses
• Water Skiing
• Scuba Diving
• Kayak/Canoe
• Rowing/Crew
• Open Water Swimming
• Fishing
• Ecology/Environmental

The Project is Necessary to Provide Recreation Opportunities for Lynchburg Area Residents The growth of the University has been the catalyst for economic growth in the region and it is one of the largest employers in the area. The leadership of Liberty feels it is incumbent upon them to provide recreational, cultural, religious, and educational opportunities to the community, given their vast resources.

This lake will be open to the public at selected times as many other University assets are like the LaHaye Ice Center, Snowflex Center, and many miles of hiking and biking trails. Liberty also allows the public to host and attend major events such as NCAA competitions and convocations for local high schools as well as local community college use Liberty facilities for graduation events.

A lake of this size would offer both the University community and the public access to many recreation activities that are not currently available in the region. Obviously this would benefit the area greatly from a standpoint of tourism, tax dollars generated, and increase the quality of living for the region.

The general recreation opportunities include the following:
• Kayak/Canoe
• Scuba Diving
• Swimming/wading
• Paddle boats/general recreation
• Wildlife observation
• Fishing
• Picnicking
• Camping
• Scouting
• Bank angling and wading
• Boat angling
• Inflatable water park zone

COMMUNITY USES
There are approximately 200,000 people within a 30 minute drive of the proposed Project. These people would have access to the lake for many outdoor recreation and educational opportunities.