A new era is arriving... Alum treatment.

Most summers I charter a sailboat on Lake Superior from Superior Charters. One of the things I love the most about these trips is the absolute crystal clear waters.  You can see forever. Clarity in Lake Superior is said to be over 100 ft in places.  Well... We won't see THAT, but it will certainly be a lot better than we have ever seen.

So, what's the status of the Alum treatment, you may ask??

On May 5th, the Alum treatment will begin. It will encapsulate 1200 lbs of phosphorous in the water and drop it permanently to the bottom of the lake. This will result in an amazing transformation in the clarity of the water. We'll be able to see results almost immediately. We will be the jewel of Ramsey County. No longer will we have to live with green slimy stinky water. The treatment will require 10 days for the application of the chemicals. The contractor will suspend operation during the fishing opener weekend and resume the next week. If you happen to be on the lake while this process is active, please give the boat room to work and don't water ski through the milky waters. There will also be a tank at the boat launch and trucks delivering chemicals on a regular basis over this period.

There will be a second treatment in two years to complement the first treatment. It is hoped that this will keep the lake clear for up to 20 years. Infiltration of new chemicals from the various inlets will degrade the lake over the years. To minimize this, we all need to do our part to keep nasty chemicals out of the lake. Consider a rain garden or a rain barrel to slow down the movement of water into the lake. I have access to rain barrels if anyone wants one. Free. It may take a few weeks to get one. They are 55 gallon blue and white plastic barrels used in the food industry. I'm going to use one and spray paint it brown so it isn't so obvious.

For many of us that have worked on it for so many years, this is a really big deal.  We are all very excited to see this finally come to a head. It's been great to have all of the support of everyone in this endeavor.

Have a great summer on the lake. Hope to see you out there.

It's springtime?? Dam status. Spring dinner in three weeks.

Such crazy weather.  As I sit here, I look out over the lake, which apparently still has over 30" of ice on it.  I see our Island neighbors have a car parked in front of their house on the ice. The lake was ice free last year on May 2nd.  Any guesses what it will be this year?

Our annual spring dinner is coming up in 3 short weeks. Some of our board members have been busy investigating the deterioration of the dam at the north end of the lake and trying to figure out if there is anything we can do to improve the chances of public funding of the rebuild of the dam.

So, what's going on with the dam?
At present, we are waiting to see how funding goes with the current session of the MN legislature.  Our dam is 7th on the list for DNR funding. There appears to be a good chance that the specific funding request will happen this year.  But, there is still a shortfall and Hugo will not proceed until they have all the funds.

The dam continues to degrade and need inspection and repair by Hugo city staff.  You might want to stop at the dam and inspect it yourself.  At present, no one is expecting total failure in the near term, but monitoring is necessary.

What can you do?
Tom Weyandt stated it well on our Facebook page:

• The estimated cost of the replacement is $600,000 with $258,000 coming from MnDot for the road and $250,000 from the DNR controlled Dam Safety Fund. There is no reported source for the $98,000 shortfall. The Bald Eagle project is seventh on the list of dam repair funds sought by the DNR. The DNR funds need to be approved in a bonding bill being considered at the Capital. 
• At this point residents biggest impact would come from contact with area legislators. Sen. Roger Chamberlain sen.roger.chamberlain@senate.mn, and Rep. Matt Dean rep.matt.dean@house.mn and Linda Runbeck, rep.linda.runbeck@house.mn represent the area. Others can be found at http://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/legislators.aspx. Consider contacting them and anyone else you can think of to try and assure that the funding is approved, increased to cover the projected cost, and that the Bald Eagle Project is one of the ones that gets funded in 2014.

 Spring Dinner
You should have gotten the party invite in the mail.  Please send it back as soon as possible.  Special thanks to those who donate to the silent auction items and to Kristi Gavin and Keely Huberty on their efforts toward making the dinner a success.

We look forward to seeing you at the dinner on April 22nd, starting with happy hour at 6pm at Dellwood Country Club.  If you haven't gotten an invite, send me an email to me at: 
 

Reminder of the Alum Treatment Public meeting at White Bear Lake City Hall this Thursday evening

Looking forward to seeing you all.

Regards,
Jim Moore

Meeting with Hugo Staff and Mayor regarding the Bald Eagle Lake dam replacement

On January 29th, we ( Board members:  Jim Ascheman, Gary Krejcarek, Rick Gwynn & I) met with Hugo City staff and several leaders about the dam project.  In the meeting we went over the project and the history of the dam and who the owner may be.  Ownership presents a problem.  No one will claim ownership for it.  Full funding becomes the task to be accomplish.  We're part way there. We told Hugo we would do what we could to get support for more funding.

Current funding status:

• Total estimated cost: $600,000
• MnDOT Bridge Funds: $252,000
• DNR Dam Safety Fund request $348,000 of which they have recommend $150,000

Hugo is still in discussions with the DNR to see if they will up the ante.  Not hopeful, though.  The DNR funding is dependent on the bonding bill during the 2014 legislative session.

So, with current funding projections, the dam is short about $200,000.  Other possible sources are Ramsey County, White Bear Township, and the Rice Creek Watershed District (RCWD).

So, the task of the board is to make contact with all possible stake holders to see if we can get additional funds, which we will do over the coming months.  As is most likely typical with government decision making, this will take some time.  I'm not hopeful of a spring project, but I'm a pessimist.  Budgets have to be made and funded.  We need to get commitments before the next funding cycle.  If you can help, let the board know.  Maybe you have some extra cash under your mattress.

Check out my video of our last blizzard.

Regards,
Jim Moore

January 26th blizzard video in front of my house.

The wind really whipped up, at times.  I had a front row seat.  Luckily, I was inside looking out!  I took some video to show the craziness.

Alum treatment status & Annual Christmas tree burning

I met with Matt and Jessica of the RCWD last night and everything is still on schedule for a spring Alum treatment. They will begin the treatment when the water temperature reaches 40F. Depending on the weather, it should take about 3 weeks to complete the treatment. During this period they will use the Ramsey County boat launch area to stage the chemicals and have regular truck deliveries of chemicals to fill a storage tank. They don't have a specific contractor under contract, yet. During the treatment, the treatment areas will be a milky white. There will be no use restrictions in these areas, but it is important for efficiency if we all give them room to work. I'll keep you all posted with news as it comes in. I'm getting excited. Stay warm.
The annual Christmas tree burning on the lake on Saturday, Feb 1st.  Party on the lake starts at 8pm.  Trees are lit at 11pm.
2 weeks ago, the ice was 21" thick, so I have no fear in driving on the lake to get there.  Don't forget to leave you seat belt off if you are driving on the ice.

The trees will be piled high near the Hobie neighborhood.  Volunteers are welcome.  The pile is built starting at 10am on Saturday.  It's a lot of fun. Beat the winter blues and come join the festivities!


Regards,
Jim

Bald Eagle Lake Bridge / Dam replacement needed

The damn dam at the north end of the lake is in dire need of replacement. It is failing and the corrugated culverts under the road are rusted out and leaking.  Last summer it caused a sink hole in the road that needed to be repaired. Hugo added liners to the culverts as a short term fix.  Since 2008, Hugo has been working on a plan to replace the dam. Recently, they have asked us to get involved to help organize support for their plan.  At present, Hugo has invested $100K for full engineering plans for the replacement of the bridge and dam. They have also gotten partial funding from MNDOT.  The last cog in the wheel is to get funding from a MN DNR dam safety grant.  This grant program was set up, specifically, for this purpose.  Hugo just recently applied for the grant.  The DNR is in initial conversations with Hugo to go over the details of the application.  I am feeling good that they will get the funding to move forward with this project next summer after the water has dropped below the current dam, but to be safe, we need to cover our bases.

To help make sure this moves forward, Chuck Haas of the Hugo City Council contacted me last week to talk about the project and talk to us about how we can help.  It turned out that I had already scheduled a meeting with the board for last Wednesday to discuss the damn dam.  Chuck was nice enough to join us at our meeting and to enlighten us on the history and current situation.  Board member Rick Gwynn will be setting up a meeting at the beginning of the new year for the board to meet with Hugo city staff and go over the plan.

One of the items that Chuck asked us to do is to write a letter of support for the project and send it to the appropriate DNR representative, which we will do.  We will also be contacting other government organizations and representatives to have them express their support to the DNR.

On Hugo's end, everything is ready to go.  They just need the funding to get it done.

We are on the way to a new bridge and dam that should last another hundred years.

I will keep you posted on the progress of this project.

I took this video last June 30th when I heard that there were issues with the dam.  The water was really flowing, at the time.

FYI: If you enter your email address at the top of this post, you will get notified when new posts occur.

-Jim

White Bear Press post

You may have noticed the article in the White Bear Press written by Jessica Bromelkamp of the Rice Creek Watershed District (RCWD).  The article is titled, "A sea of green".  She is working hard on getting neighbors to add rain gardens.

Also, I added a feature at the top of the blog that allows you to put in your email address so that you can automatically get updates via email.

Have a great weekend.

Jim

Couldn't resist adding this picture from White Bear Lake last week.