Partnering for improved water quality not out of the question for local lakes

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A meeting on the Summit Lake project was held Tuesday in Creston City Hall. Iowa Department of Natural Resources Lakes and Rivers Project Coordinator Mike McGhee gave an update on the possibility of beginning work on Summit Lake as part of the Green Valley Lake project. The Iowa Legislature set aside funding from the general fund for lakes in need of restoration. “There are 128 lakes on the list,” said McGhee. “There is a subset of 35 lakes listed as high priority and Green Valley Lake is one of those lakes.” McGhee said it’s estimated that to do restoration on the 35 prioritized lakes it will take approximately $200 million. Work has been started in the watershed and after July, the water will be lowered in the lake in order to begin work. Petition The Summit Lake Association submitted a letter to the DNR petitioning to have Summit Lake included in the Green Valley Lake project. McGhee addressed that request. “There’s nothing in the rules that says it can or can not be included,” said McGhee. “I’ve tried to be pretty honest here, but I would probably not recommend inclusion.” McGhee said $4 per gallon gas is hurting projects. “We’d be very open to working with you guys, if we could get additional dollars,” said McGhee. “If you could help us out, that’s the name of the game.” McGhee explained the proposal has already been approved for which lakes would receive committed state dollars. “I haven’t gotten those lakes done,” said McGhee. “I can’t start adding other lakes without additional dollars.” Benefits Lake programs are valuable economic drivers for the communities when the water quality is improved. “We’re showing success,” said McGhee. “We want to work with you. I can show you the economic value of your project. It’s just how can I balance it and work it in with the list of projects I have out there.” Chris Larson, with Iowa Department of Natural Resources Field Office in Atlantic, explained there are benefits to working on Summit Lake fishery at the same time as Green Valley Lake fishery. “We are going to take the lake (Green Valley Lake) down 10 to-12 feet after July,” said Larson. “Since we are doing the fish renovation at Green Valley, it would be beneficial for us to renovate the fishery all the way down through Mitchell Marsh and Summit Lake.” Larson said there will be some improvement in the water quality just by renovating the fishery. Next step “The next step is to see how the association feels about this,” said Larson. “We need to see if the gate works and if we can even lower it (Summit Lake) down. That’s where we are hoping to go for now. The dredge work on Green Valley isn’t going to happen this fall, it will be the year after or the year after that.” McGhee explained these are multi-year projects. Infrastructure inspection Dan McIntosh, executive director of Southern Iowa Rural Water Association asked if they would be looking at the dam at Summit Lake if they did the fish renovation. McGhee said that would be a good time to do an inspection of the dam while the water level was lowered. “Can we start this partnership and does it make sense for you guys?” asked McGhee. “We can still go ahead and continue our work at Green Valley, but it makes the most sense if we can eliminate the rough fish all the way through the system.” From the fish renovation, the Summit Lake project could move forward from that point once additional funding was found. A fish barrier will be built on Green Valley Lake as part of the renovation, said Larson. “We’re going forward with Green Valley fish renovation,” said Larson. “If we don’t do Summit Lake this year, we can do it next year.” The Summit Lake Association will meet at a future date to discuss partnering with the DNR on a fish renovation for Summit Lake. ____________ Valarie Allen can be reached at 782-2141, ext. 233 or vallen@crestonnews.com