Paul R., I know you seem to have made your desision some time ago, but I thought I would add some information that could help others in a similar situation. I have lived on a 27 acre lake for about 23 years. The lake is about 35 years old and there is a homeowners association there. I have served on the board of directors on and off over 2 decades.
We find that the state inspectors tend to go overboard and overstate what needs to be done on our dam. We do keep the trees off of the dam, and watch erosion, but we don't go overboard in responding to their demands. Every few years a new state person comes on board and "recommends" we spend alot of money to bring our dam up to current standards. They recommend we hire an engineering firm to formally design their proposed changes. Some officers have naively gone to engineering firms and have paid dearly for opinions that only restated what the state person said. (what else would you expect? a licensed engineering firm is NEVER!!! going to recommend less than what the state person said!)
Coincidentally, I work for the federal government and work with state and federal regulators from many agencies. It is my experience that most bureaucrats who regulate public activities tend to "cover their b--ts" by overstating what we/you "should do" to meet their interpretation of what is required by the law. You have to understand that there is no downside for a bureaucrat to recommend more than is required by the law. If you follow their recommendations freely, they get "credit" for "improving the states waters", for "protecting the public", and generally for "doing their jobs wonderfully" by getting you/we to make repairs without making them follow the letter of the law! The downside for them is to recommend too little and then in the extremely rare case that a damn fails, they can say "well we recommended such and such, but they failed to follow our recommendations."
First I recommend getting copies of the statutes and carefully read them yourself. Second, read the regulations put out by the state regarding what you "are and are not" required to do and carefully read how the state is supposed to notify you of what you MUST do. We find the state inspectors are quick to verbally tell us what we should do and are also quick to make written recommendations, but, they have never sent the required certified demands for us to do anything other than monitor the conditions they say are unacceptable.
I'm not advocating anyone ignore the law or get into a feud with a state regulator. I'm saying simply that everyone should know what the law is and is not. At our lake, we try to stay calm and courteous to the state, and make the repairs and changes that WE believe are warranted and make sense. We do most of the work ourselves rather than paying an engineering firm, and so far it has worked.
Please don't let an overzealous bureaucrat scare you away from something as wonderful as a great pond with great fish in a great place! Regards!
