9.1. SR 06-20-2016 - Laserfiche WebLink

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July 28, 2015 Dear Mayor Dietz, Elk River City Council Members and Administrative Leaders, In an ongoing manner the members of the Lake Orono Association, and its members in the Lake Orono Water Quality Committee in particular, have had many discussions about the overall condition of Lake Orono. I am submitting this letter of concern on their behalf. We believe the lake usability has been experiencing a lengthy period of gradual decline, the consequences impacting both local quality of life and possible home values decreasing as a result of the degraded conditions. There are three distinct sets of background elements, timelines and patterns for our primary lake concerns: Sedimentation: Lake Orono depth and sedimentation really first became a major concern in the late 1980s. We took a couple of runs at building a coalition to address it, and a lake drawdown and sedimentation removal was successfully completed in 1998. We projected at the time that it would need to be done again in approximately 20 years, and that looks to be quite accurate. Curly -leaf Pondweed: CLP became a major issue in 2001/2002 and we successfully navigated all the hoops to get a permit to do a lake drawdown to freeze the CLP in late 2003. It worked well and we tried to get a permit in 2004 to get the rest of it, but a resident complained that turtles were disrupted in 2003 so the DNR rescinded their initial approval and said we should do it earlier in the year. From then on the rules kept changing to get a drawdown permit. The CLP continues to get worse each year. In 2009/2010 we successfully obtained 83% of all lakeshore owners signatures requesting a drawdown permit (by law 75% is now needed) but the DNR turned us down saying in their opinion, "the problem wasn't bad enough." Native Plant Overgrowth and Algae Proliferation: Both of these became major issues in 2010. No one is yet quite sure why it started then, but it also started happening at the same time in other lakes around the state. A couple of things that we believe contributed: in 2009 we had very light to no snow cover on the lake so a greenhouse effect may have been created, and we had a couple of years of heavy rainfall and runoff that "flushed" both nutrients and plant material down the Elk River and tributaries to Lake Orono. We have reviewed the long-term plans of the city as well as the park and recreation plan. We see goals related to water quality and assume the lake itself is at least a portion of those goals. We are interested in entering discussions with appropriate city representatives to see if there are steps in these goals and actions where we may be helpful and possibly give some input regarding our observations and concerns. Enclosed is a map depicting the main concerns outlined above. We have heard some exciting things relating to increasing water activities through the Parks and Recreation Department, but we have also heard of discussions on whether this body of water should be viewed and maintained as a lake or a river. That decision could have significant implications on long-term conditions and uses. Left unchecked, the encroaching vegetation and sedimentation will render a significant portion of the lake unusable for boats, canoes, kayaks, swimming, fishing, pontoon rides, or even our volunteer efforts to collect lake samples for testing. While we do not pretend to have answers to all the considerations necessary for this discussion, we do have some significant longevity and experience on the lake as well as a desire to protect what we feel is a major community asset. We are in a unique position to give first-hand history and have the ability to provide large- scale monitoring of conditions as any potential action steps are implemented. We would welcome an opportunity to meet with the parties involved in City long-term planning goals to help us understand your thoughts and concerns regarding the future of Lake Orono as well as identifying any way that we can be helpful. Please contact me either via email ekbury@charter.net or phone (763) 241-8887 to let us know if any additional information is needed and when we could meet. Sincerely, Ed Bury, President Lake Orono Improvement Association