This is one of the few options the lake officials are looking at.
With all the various problems on the horizon these days, many people in Springfield may wonder: What are the plans for Lake Accotink? It’s a complicated issue.
Lake lovers and budget sticklers locked horns in the past and many ideas were floated, including a major dredging operation on one end and just leaving it to the fate of sediments turning it into wetlands. Both options were on the table, and in the slide presentations these ideas were added to the deleted pile as everyone weighed in on the subject. A smaller lake seems to be the direction lake officials are going.
In a video posted on the county website created by the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, the smaller lake might be in the 20 to 40 acre range which would preserve much of the aesthetic and recreational features that the lake is famous for. Sediments are still being blamed for the demise of the lake and there have been dredgings in 1985 and again in 2008.
According to an earlier version of the Lake Accotink Task Force Findings Report, dated Dec. 8, 2023, the final decision mentions a sedimentation study, the dam assessment, a feasibility study and more outreach, so in short, a final answer was not available at that time. The task force is looking to the Board of Supervisors and “finally, it is the finding of the Task force that the community be at the table during such discussions,” it said in the Friends newsletter.
Former Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw (D) has a section on the lake activity including an ongoing dam assessment, but in the end he advises people to stay out of the mud that may look tempting to someone in a pair of boots. "During the project, residents are reminded to keep off the exposed muddy lakebed to avoid getting stuck in the exposed mud," it read.
Their most current county update, as of Sept. 4, 2025 points to a "smaller Lake Accotink," it said on the county website.
Comments will still be collected through some time in 2027, it said on the video.
Comments can be submitted via email to the project manager, Turgay.Dabak@fairfaxcounty.gov, or by US Mail to Fairfax County DPWES – Lake Accotink Preservation Study, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Suite 449, Fairfax, VA 22035.
