WIRTZ -- When Deborah Painter moved into her home on the Blackwater River three years ago, she snapped a lot of pictures -- her husband and her granddaughter fishing off their dock, fall leaves reflected in the river, the view of the water from her back porch.

But when she stands on her dock now, Painter sees yards of thick, fertile mud sprouting grass and weeds where water once quietly lapped at the dock's edges. Her more recent pictures show her boat just before she sold it lodged on a mud pile at the end of the dock.

"You have no idea how depressing this is," she said.

As dirt destroys their waterfront properties, residents such as Painter are stuck in a stalemate between local politicians and Appalachian Power over who is responsible for sediment and debris piling up where Smith Mountain Lake and its tributaries meet.

Local leaders are pushing for a compromise, emphasizing that sediment would not build up to such extremes without the lake. They see an opportunity to negotiate a solution as Appalachian Power works to renew its federal license -- a process that requires the company to seek input from local governments, residents and environmental organizations.

But sediment mostly washes into the tributaries from privately owned land in the county, which the power company says is not its responsibility, especially because counties around the lake have inadequately enforced state-mandated sediment control.

While they've hoped for some resolution, Painter and her neighbors near the end of the Blackwater River in Franklin County, where the problem seems most extreme, have watched their waterfront property disappear.

"I lost my water. I lost my shoreline. Property values have plummeted because I have lakefront property with no lake," Painter said.

Janice and Bill Meier, who have lived on the Blackwater for 12 years, got rid of their dock about five years ago after it became landlocked with sediment.

"We've been mowing down there for years. It's all flat ground down there and we mow it," Janice Meier said. "We tried everything. We've gone to meetings. We never got anywhere. Nobody could be bothered."

Bill Meier, who is president of the Windsor Point Homeowner's Association, said Franklin County or the power company -- he doesn't care which -- should dredge and clean up his area of the Blackwater.

"You keep trying and trying and the same thing always happens," he said. "You do kind of get frustrated and you say 'To heck with it.' "

David versus Goliath

County leaders said their case is simple: If the lake wasn't there, sediment would move downstream instead of settling in the tributaries.

Anywhere flowing water hits deeper, slower water, sediment falls out as the velocity slows down. This occurs where all tributaries meet the lake, but in varying extremes, said Thom Leedom, a biologist for the Army Corps of Engineers who has been working in the Smith Mountain Lake area for about 20 years.

"This land was taken under eminent domain for a public good," said Union Hall Supervisor Charles Poindexter, who also serves on the Tri-County Relicensing Committee, a group of lake-area elected officials that seeks comments for the lake's relicensing process. "They [Appalachian Power Co.] have some responsibility for removing the sediment."

Poindexter takes the problem personally. He points out a bridge over the Blackwater under which he could water-ski 40 years ago. Today, that section of the river has filled in almost entirely. Four rotted wooden posts jutting from the mud are all that remain of the once thriving marina that was there.

"Every time it rains, the mud gets higher," he said. "You couldn't bring a boat in here by 1980."

The power company must contribute financially to protection from sediment buildup where the tributaries' flowing water meets the lake's still water, said Gills Greek District Supervisor Russell Johnson, who is chairman of the Tri-County group.

"We've lost what we've lost already. It's going to be at least double the next time this is looked at," Johnson said. "Now is the time for them to stop and say, 'Look, we took this land to create public good. Have we created anything that's not good?' "

But Johnson said the power company has been resistant to local officials' ideas to fix the problem.

"It's really a David versus Goliath problem," Johnson said of the situation between the county and power company.

"There is no doubt the project has created a lot of good," he said. "But this is the biggest deficit in the project."

Moneta District Supervisor Chuck Neudorfer, who also serves on the Tri-County panel, said sediment problems on the Bedford County side of the lake are not as extreme as in Franklin County, but he notices some worrisome areas where sediment has begun to gather.

"It's primarily erosion or sedimentation coming into the lake from the watershed," Neudorfer said. "It's sort of a clear area both for the county and the power company to be concerned."

In the relicensing process, Neudorfer said erosion and sediment control are major concerns and he anticipates the Tri-County Relicensing Committee will negotiate mitigation with the power company.

"I would be looking for a serious discussion about some kind of trap on the upper end of the lake and the Roanoke River in particular, maybe also in the Blackwater, to control watershed sedimentation coming in, but particularly also debris," he said. "We need to have future serious discussions about that sort of thing."

Where problems begin

Human action such as construction and agriculture that accelerates natural soil movement causes most sediment pollution, according to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, which oversees erosion and sediment control in the state. Only 30 percent of sediment movement in the United States is natural, according to the department.

Sediment in the lake's tributaries mostly originates from land within the counties such as farms and new developments where there is tilling or where developers knock out trees to make way for new construction.

"We focus on the project boundary. We're not responsible for all that," said Frank Simms, the power company's hydro support manager. "People want us to do so much, pay so much, but they want cheap power ... People forget they're living on a power plant."

Before they have completed at least a dozen surveys required in the relicensing process, power company officials won't say whether sedimentation at the lake is a problem.

"There are cove areas and upper reaches where there is sediment. It's not a surprise to anybody," Simms said. "I'm not going to say there is a problem, I'm not going to say there isn't. We're not going in with preconceived notions."

Simms said it is premature in the relicensing process to discuss funding for erosion and sediment control projects. He believes county officials and power company officials understand their own responsibilities for erosion and sediment control.

State inspectors gave Franklin County a failing grade in a 2004 review of its erosion and sediment control partly because staffing shortages prevented required inspections of every construction site once every two weeks to ensure proper sediment and erosion control.

With 663 single-family home construction projects and 51 commercial projects in 2005, the county's two inspectors are forced to prioritize, said Jay Carter, deputy director of planning and community development. The county slated money to hire a third inspector in next year's budget.

Campbell and Bedford counties also were given failing grades, while Pittsylvania received a provisionally passing grade, in the most recent state reviews.

Waiting for help

Some local leaders, such as Poindexter and Johnson, said the relicensing process, including the required studies, aren't comprehensive enough. If a solution can't be determined during relicensing, they aren't sure what will happen.

"The process seems flawed since the people most directly impacted have the least influence," Poindexter said. "We must participate in the process. We must get our points across."

Simms said he could foresee the power company agreeing to require homeowners on the lake to put in more erosion control, such as planting more vegetation when they build docks out into the lake, because that construction falls within the power company's project boundaries.

The power company's controversial Shoreline Management Plan, approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in July 2005 as one of the early steps in the relicensing process, provides guidelines for construction within the lake's boundary partly aimed at preventing erosion and sedimentation, but only within the bounds of the lake project.

Painter and other homeowners in her area have been encouraged to wait until the relicensing process is over to see what solutions are proposed.

"We've just kind of been waiting to see, but just in the last 12 months or less, the situation has just gotten so much worse that we may have to step up our efforts," Painter said.

During the recent heavy rainfall, the cove in front of the Ponderosa Campground, which is downriver from Painter's house, turned a rich brown, and sediment piled up in some areas above the water line. Because this happens each time there is significant rain, they now have 10 to 12 feet of water where they once had about 20 feet, Johnson said.

Concerned homeowners have consulted with environmental groups and even contacted environmental law firms. They see it as an urgent problem but don't see it being addressed as such.

"Everyone seems very sincere when you approach them," Painter said. "But it's like, 'I'm sorry your house is on fire, but I can't give you a water hose.' "