June 22, 2017 at 1:04 p.m.
Dead Pike Lake Association gets nod from Natural Resource Board
Independent firm to analyze long-standing water quality issues
Dead Pike Lake Association gets nod from Natural Resource Board
A system of dykes and ditches was created in the 1950s to control the water levels in the Powell Marsh. When there is no water flow through the ditch system, it contributes to the production of iron floc (precipitate). Because the water flows directly into Dead Pike Lake through the ditches rather than being filtered by natural vegetation in the marsh, iron floc is sent directly into the lake.
A week-long charette was conducted last winter to create a new master plan for the Powell Marsh. Input was taken from a variety of stakeholders, including residents and members of the Dead Pike Lake Association.
"The product that came out of that was that the Department (DNR) was going to attempt to do two things," said Gale Wolf of the Dead Pike Lake Association. "The first was they were going to put in a temporary plug in the main ditch and secondly they were going to put in a sprinkler system that would disperse water over a little less than 100 acres of tag alder. They made no projections whatsoever as to what their expectations would be or the amount of help that would be for clearing water quality."
He said the Department also gave themselves the option to "pull the plug" on the plan if there was an indication iron floc was forming in the ditches. "I have a strong suspicion that it would have been," he said. "They called the president and asked if he was completely satisfied, and he told them it would depend on what kind of implementation we get and what happens with the department."
Both the temporary plug and the sprinkler system were put into an amendment to the Powell Marsh Master Plan before it was sent to the Natural Resources Board (NRB). Wolf himself attended the meeting to voice some concerns and asked the board to delay acceptance of the amended master plan until more research could be done. There were several people who spoke in regard to allowing further research before accepting the master plan.
"It's time to fix the Dead Pike Lake situation and the Powell Marsh situation that was created back in the 1940s and '50s by the precursor to the Department of Natural Resources. It's time to fix it now," said Senator Tom Tiffany as he addressed the Natural Resources Board in December as they were looking to approve the master plan for the Powell Marsh and Dead Pike Lake.
Manitowish Waters town chairman championed the effort to get both Tiffany and Representative Rob Swearingen involved in helping the people of Dead Pike Lake get some answers and solutions to their water quality issues.
Gary Zimmer asked for an amendment to address the iron floc problem and the water quality issues in Dead Pike Lake as part of accepting that master plan. It was directed the department work with the Dead Pike Lake Association to address those issues.
"The assignment was given to a fellow by the name of Dan Helsel, who has been working with us," Wolf said. Helsel's plan was to engage USGS to redo the research to try to address the problem. "We said no way. No way in hell are we going to work with two governmental agencies on this."
Wolf said the Association wanted to hire an independent firm. Between Helsel and the USGS, Wolf said, it was decided it would take approximately $75,000 to complete the research. Wolf said the Dead Pike Lake Association committed to take that amount of money and find an independent firm with which to work to see what could be accomplished what that money. They were given the nod to do just that, to Wolf's surprise.
The association contacted Applied Ecological Services (AES) from Broadhead. Last week, Steve Apfelbaum and a crew of six scientists came to Manitowish Waters to start the process of planning how to right the wrongs in Dead Pike Lake. The team from AES worked for about three and a half days last week to lay the initial ground work.
The town of Manitowish Waters is handling the contract with AES, so the money will be transferred to the town and the town will then pay AES for the research and eventual plan to improve the water quality in Dead Pike Lake.
"It's an interesting arrangement," Wolf said. "It's one that kind of blows our minds, the degree to which they (the department) agreed, and rapidly agreed, on all of these provisions, which are so unusual."
In the September NRB meeting, to be held in Minocqua, a progress report on the research at Dead Pike Lake is to be given to the board as a provision of the amendment to the acceptance of the Powell Marsh Master Plan. Wolf said the Association would like Apfelbaum to give that presentation.
"The preliminary arrangements are they wanted that to happen on site," Wolf said. However, the Association is resisting that as well. They would much rather have the ability to put together and present an audio-visual presentation to the board that has some clout. "We do not want to lose the opportunity to translate this research project into a direct procedure for addressing the quality of the lake."
Wolf said it will be interesting to see AES' determinations and recommendations. "The thing is, we feel in the driver's seat for the first time in our lives with working with these people. We have been jerked around and pushed around and told we have no idea what we're talking about with our observations."
Apfelbaum said the process will take some time and they will go over a great deal of information already compiled. AES will look at other situations with similar problems and challenges as well as listening to the various groups who have already looked at this problem specifically.
"I think it's a challenging process," Apfelbaum said after a presentation he gave at the Manitowish Waters library for his new book. "So much care and attention has been given to the issues by the DNR, by the citizen group, that we're climbing on the shoulders of an awful lot of work that has been done and we're so appreciative of that."
From there, he said a series of solutions they believe are worth looking at will be formulated. After that selection process, each solution can be tested using a very customized numeric model. Various different techniques will be modeled and a full model run from there. This will help the scientists get an idea of what results could likely be expected using various solutions.
Last week was a week to gather information, with AES now looking into building models and testing those models, which will continue on through July or early August, Apfelbaum said. From there AES will come back for guidance from the town as well as the Dead Pike Lake Association and the DNR on how to craft the story for the NRB, he said. Possibilities will be framed with this process, but it will take time and more consideration to refine the ideas before looking into an adaptive plan, learning from each phase of the project and adapting it at each phase.
Wolf said the Association is looking forward to this process and to working with AES with an eye on the future and finding solutions to the ongoing water quality issues.
Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].
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