Koshkonong dredging ‘experiment’ could start this fall
Photo 
Brian K. Christianson
WHAT’S NEXT
Another workshop/public input meeting will be held this fall. No date has been set. The lake management plan could be completed by Christmas, officials said.
NEWVILLE — Full-scale, multimillion dollar dredging of Lake Koshkonong is many months if not years away, but a small, experimental project could be done this fall, a federal official said Sunday.
The official spoke after a public-input meeting in a large tent outside the Anchor Inn, near the lakeshore.
About 200 people attended the meeting, where a key question was: Who’s going to pay for this?
The short answer: “You,” said Stephen Russell, project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers.
But there’s lots of potential for grants from foundations, endowments, environmental organizations and the government that have yet to be explored, said Brian Christianson, chairman of Rock-Koshkonong Lake District.
Christianson told the property owners who live in the district that they will be able to vote on any project proposed—along with an associated property tax assessment to pay for it.
Christianson said after the meeting that no vote is possible until the district’s annual meeting one year from now.
Christianson said the district is working with the Army Corps on a possible experimental project and that he hopes to get grants to pay for it. No location for the experiment was named.
Russell said that project could be done in October.
Meanwhile, a lake district consultant, the Army Corps and the state DNR are working on a lake-management plan. The plan will assess the impacts of various improvement proposals and make recommendations.
The plan would guide future decisions on modifying the lake, Russell said.
The lake district board will consider the report and make its own recommendations before submitting a plan to voters, Christianson said.
People have lived on the lake for many years without anything being done to address problems of depth, boat access and shoreline damage, Christianson said, and many want something done.
Another key question—something the experimental project might answer—is how long it would take for dredged areas to fill in with sediment that is constantly entering the lake from the Rock River.
Pam Biersach, watershed program coordinator for the DNR, said the DNR dredged at boat landings in 1991. Those areas filled in within in one year.
“That’s exactly what we’re worried about because it’s an expensive price tag,” Biersach said after the meeting.
Jon Lefers of Montgomery Associates: Resource Solutions is the consultant working for the district. He outlined several dredging strategies, some of which would use stone breakwaters or dredged material to create islands, or a combination of breakwaters and islands, to reduce wave erosion of shorelines.
A downside of islands: The area between the islands and the shore would more easily silt up, so it’s important to put islands far enough out in the lake.
Several residents worried how islands might change their views.
“We bought—a majority of us—to see a view of the lake,” a woman said. “Will it happen that we will look out the back door and not see anything but an island?”
Biersach said it’s too early in the planning to tell, but views can be a part of the plan.
Officials said the islands could be built high enough to be above the water year round, or they could be submerged during high water.
Cost was on everybody’s mind.
“When you see the sticker shock on dredging, it even surprised me, and we knew it was going to be tough,” Russell said.
Lefers said dredging the entire lake 2 feet deep would remove 34 million cubic yards of sediment, at a cost of $5 to $10 a yard, or $170 million to $340 million.
More realistic would be dredging in front of residential shorelines and making islands to protect the shorelines, Lefers said.
Sep 6, 2010 at 9:17 p.m.
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Go for it. Let's see what the experiment does. If it improves the ecology of the lake a.k.a. better boating and fishing, the recreational value of the lake is better. What is wrong with that concept?
Sep 6, 2010 at 8:48 p.m.
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It's good to see some comments that finally make sense after all the years, the wasted taxpayer funds and government employee time to solve a "problem" that nobody wants changed except for a handful of property owners right on the lakeshore. This was once a beautiful area with clan clear drinkable water and full of life. Now it's become Geneva Lake II for a few flatlanders that can't afford the real thing. Tourism in the lake area is a myth.
Remove the dams on the rock and let it return to what it's supposed to be. And if you flatlanders desire otherwise, then pony up the money to pay for it yourself. These people are whining about $100?? Get real, even 20,000 members would only be able to just cover preliminary studies and outlines for dredging and overhaul to make the lake comparable to something like Rock Lake at that rate. $15,000 a piece for each lakeshore owner sounds a little closer to reality, which will never happen.
Pull the dams.
Jul 20, 2010 at 4:29 p.m.
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Opinionsforfree - You sound like a flatlander. So just you and your boat having fun are what we should be concerned about? I don't think so.
Jul 20, 2010 at 3:44 p.m.
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This is an absurd waste of money to placate some lakefront property owners on the shores of what in reality is a large, flooded, dirty, smelly swamp surrounding the Rock River's main channel. It was formed to create a dam that would generate power, not to facilitate recreational boating, and the surrounding municipalities won't even prioritize floating some navigational and hazard aids/buoys on it--which is a direct indication of its value to them and their estimation of its use.
And most people that acquiesce to swim or ski in Koshkonong would seriously think twice (and then some!) about even wading through a puddle that had the same color and consistency and smell of that lake, and for all practical purposes appears to mimic a third world drainage ditch!
Lake Koshkonong is hardly one of the seven wonders of WI--though to even consider to waste such vast sums of money on a project so likely to ultimately fail and silt back in would definitely rank among even Doyle's, not to mention Obama's, "Seven Wonders 'Why'?"! Please stop wasting taxpayer money on such pork barrel nonsense! This issue could be a Tea Party poster child (the water has the right color, though someone obviously forgot to strain the tea leaves out of it more than once!).
Jul 20, 2010 at 3:41 p.m.
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Let the lake revert back to a river. Stop wasting money.
Jul 20, 2010 at 2:30 p.m.
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omg are your serious? with your story wanting this lake turned back into a swamp. this lake needs to be dredged for the home owners who own property, or for boaters like myself who would like to go out and have fun and not worry about how shallow the lake is. Get over your shooting the arrow and killing a duck. Dredging the lake would bring in more tax review as with generating tourist revanew for janesville newville and Milton. People
Jul 19, 2010 at 7 p.m.
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The Lake Management Districts around the state have proved to be effective at improving lake quality in almost every instance. The Koshkonong District is doing a fine job in pursuing this effort. Working with the DNR and Army Corps. to develop ideas to improve the Lake is hard to do with all parties involved. This is a lake district and will never ever be returned to a marsh as some of you suggest. Thanks to the board of the lake district for your efforts. Jvilain your comments are obtuse at best.
Jul 19, 2010 at 6:42 p.m.
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All the money in dues and what do we have---nothing but talk and lawsuits.
The association is a joke! Started at $25 year up to $100 now $41 for all the property owners.
As usual promises, promises andd they just continue to spend money.
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