If you've run the loop at Murphey Candler Park anytime in the past year, you've seen it: mud flats where there used to be open water, orange construction fencing near the West Nancy Creek Drive dam, and long stretches when the lake looked more like a wide creek than the 135-acre park's centerpiece. The easy explanation floating around the neighborhood was drought, or maybe the city just letting things slide. Neither is true. What actually happened is more interesting, and it explains why the drawdown dragged on so much longer than a typical repair.
Brookhaven didn't just drain the lake once for one job. The city ran a mandated dam-safety repair, then used the rare window of low water to bolt on a second, unrelated project it might not have tackled otherwise. That sequencing, not neglect, is why the lake spent close to a year below normal levels.
A Repair the State Required
Murphey Candler Lake sits behind a dam that Georgia classifies as a Category I structure under the state's Safe Dams Program, which means any significant work on it needs sign-off from state regulators and the engineer of record. The project that kicked off the whole saga was a rehabilitation of the lake's low water drain: a corroded 30-inch metal pipe running under West Nancy Creek Drive that had gotten too deteriorated to use for controlling water levels.
The work moved in four phases:
| Phase | Window | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Dewatering | Late June to mid-July 2025 | Complete |
| Cofferdam construction | Mid-July to mid-August 2025 | Complete |
| Riser reconstruction and cured-in-place pipe lining | Mid-August to late September 2025 | Complete |
| Controlled refill | 12-week window | Targeted for completion by April 30, 2026 |
That refill timeline is the tell. A repair that wrapped its physical construction by late September shouldn't need until spring to fill a lake back up, even accounting for a state-mandated slow fill. Something happened in between.
Why the City Dredged While It Had the Chance
At the October 9, 2025 Brookhaven City Council meeting, the panel approved an additional $1.5 million to dredge roughly 10,000 cubic yards of sediment that had built up near the primary spillway, close to West Nancy Creek Drive. The contractor, North Georgia Concrete, was already mobilized from the drain rehabilitation work, and the lake was already down.
"Now is the perfect time to dredge the lake, since the water levels are already low," Brookhaven Stormwater Manager Sean McCarthy said in the city's release. "This work ensures the safety of residents downstream by addressing functionality of the low-level drain, and we can do it efficiently with the crew and structures already in place."
The council had a pricier option on the table too: a bid to dredge roughly 60,000 cubic yards across the entire lake, at what the city described as significantly higher cost. It passed on that in favor of the targeted job near the spillway. That decision is the actual mechanism behind the timeline. Rather than refill immediately after the drain repair finished in September, the city kept the lake low through the fall and winter to get a second job done at a fraction of the cost of doing it separately, then began the controlled refill afterward. What looked to residents like one long, confusing drainage was really a repair project and a maintenance project stacked on top of each other on purpose.
If you were driving Ashford Dunwoody Road or Chamblee Dunwoody Road/East Nancy Creek Drive last fall and noticed more dump trucks than usual, that wasn't your imagination either. Coverage of the dredging work noted up to 25 truck trips a day hauling sediment out during the active phase.
What It Meant for the Fish
Before any of the draining started, the lake's fish population, largemouth bass, bluegill, redear sunfish, and channel catfish, was professionally relocated to the extent possible. The plan since has been for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to restock the lake once the repair and dredging work concluded and the refill stabilized. Anglers should also know about a city ordinance that's been in place limiting the lake to monofilament line and single-hook poles only, on top of the standard requirement for a valid Georgia fishing license. If the April 30, 2026 refill target held, this stretch of late summer is roughly when a restocked, fuller lake should be showing up for the first time since last year.
This isn't new territory for Murphey Candler Lake. The lake was built in 1960 and has been drained for similar repair work twice before, in 1998 and again in 2013. This is the third time in its history that the city has had to pull the plug, work on what's underneath, and let it fill back in.
The Loop Trail and the Fall Calendar Come Back Too
None of this touches the park's other identity as Brookhaven's default place to walk a dog, run before work, or watch for the geese and beavers that live along the shoreline. The main trail is a roughly two-mile loop circling the lake, rated an easy hike on AllTrails, mostly unpaved, and crossing a wetland boardwalk installed at the lake's north end a few years back. It's the same loop that hosts the Murphey Candler Park Conservancy's Duck Duck Goose 5K each October, a fundraiser that marked its 10th annual running on October 11, 2025, complete with a food truck social the night before and a course that crosses the north boardwalk. The 11th running is expected back this October.
The Conservancy is also the reason the trail system has held up as well as it has through a year of construction traffic. In 2025 alone, its volunteer program logged 13 events, 606 volunteers, and 1,697 hours of work, hauling out 1,332 pounds of trash. Some of the trail's physical features trace back to individual Eagle Scout projects, including a walking bridge below Hasty Court on the park's west side. The group also just wrapped its ninth year partnering with the Chattahoochee Riverkeepers on the annual Sweep the Hooch cleanup, working sites at North Fork, the lake itself, and Nancy Creek.
What's Next
Separate from the lake work entirely, the city has been moving forward on a new lake house and community center planned for the west bank, roughly 4,000 square feet with multipurpose rooms facing the water and an expanded parking lot that would grow from about 52 spaces to around 100. That project runs on its own timeline funded through the 2018 Park Bond and isn't tied to the drain rehabilitation or dredging schedule, so don't expect it to show up the same week the lake refills.
For now, the practical version of this story is simple. The lake looked strange for the better part of a year because Brookhaven did two jobs while it had one hole in the ground, and the smarter of two dredging options kept the bill closer to $1.5 million than the alternative. The fish are supposed to be coming back. The trail never stopped being the trail. And the race that's raised money for this park for a decade now should be back on the calendar this fall, same as it always has been.
Murphey Candler Park is one of the reasons people put down roots in Brookhaven in the first place, alongside the neighborhood's parks, schools, and dining scene that keep drawing new residents in. If you're curious what else is happening in the neighborhood beyond the lake, our team at Bolst Homes keeps a close eye on it. Find a Home. Make an Impact.
