Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District: reducing sediment could be a 20-year process
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — Reducing the problem of sediment entering Tainter Lake could be a 20-year process for the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District.
The sedimentation committee for the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District has been reviewing a report by the Tainter-Menomonie Lake Association on sedimentation that was written 10 years ago, said Tom Bilse, the Town of Tainter representative on the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation Board of Commissioners, at the February 15 meeting.
The report details the erosion along the Red Cedar River, he said.
The largest erosion site is by Dobbs Landing and is several hundred feet long. The price tag for the erosion sites is huge, Bilse said.
Village of Colfax
The Tainter-Menomin Lake Association presented the report to the Colfax Village Board in August of 2014.
The report details more than 60 erosion sites that have been identified along the Red Cedar River, in addition to the (previously) eroding banks by the Colfax wastewater treatment lagoons and the Colfax school district, from the Barron County line down to Tainter Lake.
According to the executive summary of the report, “Because phosphorus is largely transported attached to fine sediment, and because the Red Cedar River is delivering relatively large volumes of sediment to (Tainter Lake), limiting upstream erosion could potentially decrease both the nutrient and sediment inputs. By reducing erosion at critical sites along the river, they hope to effectively address both impacts. This study aims to identify and quantify erosion issues along the Red Cedar River upstream of Tainter Lake and identify potential treatment options. In part, it builds on an initial bank erosion survey completed by the Dunn County Land Conservation Division (2006).”
The study includes a map that documents the shifting of the river channel since 1938.
The northern part of the Red Cedar River, toward the Barron County line, has not meandered much in the last 76 years, according to the report.
From Twenty-Two Mile Ford to Tainter Lake, the river has moved dramatically. Whole sections of the river that existed in 1938 now no longer have any water because the channel has moved so much.
An aerial map of that section of the river shows other “meander scars” where the river existed hundreds or thousands of years ago.
Colfax project
The report was part of the reason that the Village of Colfax applied for a Community Development Block Grant to stabilize the bank along the Red Cedar River near the village’s wastewater treatment lagoons to keep the river from washing out the lagoons.
Over the years, the Red Cedar River had eroded the bank along the wastewater treatment lagoons so that the river was coming alarmingly close to the lagoons.
A thunderstorm that dumped eight to 10 inches of rain in August of 2010 over a several-hour period contributed to additional erosion along the river bank.
Anecdotal reports of people who were familiar with the area by the wastewater treatment lagoons stated that 25 years ago, vehicles could be driven where there is now — nothing. The bank had collapsed, taking away solid ground and trees that had been growing along the river.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed that the river bank along the lagoons was a priority, and the village applied for CDBG funds, which amounted to up to $1 million, with the village paying one-third of the $1 million and the grant paying two-thirds.
The final cost of the project to stabilize the bank of the Red Cedar River near the Colfax wastewater treatment lagoons was $2.6 million.
Group effort
Taking on the problem of sedimentation coming from erosion sites along the Red Cedar River would require the work of multiple organizations, Bilse told the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District Board of Commissioners.
The report is interesting reading, said Al Brown, chair of the Board of Commissioners.
The report includes information concerning the amount of sedimentation and the cubic yards of sedimentation washing into the lake every year, he said.
The report is 33 pages long and is rather technical in certain areas, Brown said.
The next meeting of the sedimentation committee was scheduled for February 26.
Vegetation committee
The vegetation committee planned to meet next on March 26, said Chuck Tack, a member of the Board of Commissioners and chair of the vegetation committee.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is planning to do a plant and weed survey on Tainter Lake the first week of July, he said.
Tack said he had done research on what kinds of plants could be introduced to Tainter Lake that would take up the phosphorus and nitrogen which fuels the cyanobacteria blooms in the lake but ultimately came up with nothing.
The plants were either surface plants or were invasive, and invasive plants must not be introduced to the lake, he said.
Tack said he had asked Dr. Scott McGovern, a biologist at UW-Stout, who had suggested one particular plant that does not spread and “soaks up” nitrogen and phosphorus.
Dr. McGovern has been a speaker at a Board of Commissioners meeting. His presentation focused on the problem of cyanobacteria and what can be done to help mitigate the problem.
The last weed and plant survey of Tainter Lake was done in 2018. There was no milfoil at that time, Tack said.
Milfoil is highly invasive and can spread throughout a lake over a period of several years.
Tack said he hoped that the plant and weed survey could be completed before the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District’s annual meeting in early August, although he was a little nervous about whether it would be completed the first week in July because the DNR has recently lost some of the technicians who could do the work.
Strategic planning
Brown, the chair of the strategic planning committee, said that surveys have been sent to landowners around the lake.
All together, 600 postcards were mailed out about the survey, and at the time of the February 15 meeting, there had been a return of a little more than 230 surveys, he said.
Brown said in his experience, a return of 10 percent on surveys is very good.
Brown is a retired school district administrator, and school districts often use surveys to gauge support for a possible referendum question.
The Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District Board of Commissioners is planning to hold three or four public meetings to discuss the survey results and to get more public input on what the public sees as potential outcomes for the lake district’s work, Brown said.
After the public meetings, the Board of Commissioners will have a work meeting to outline the strategic plan for the lake district, he said.
Grant
The Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District has a received a surface water grant from the DNR of $4,288, Brown said.
The grant is aimed at defraying the cost for developing a strategic plan, he said.
The long-range plan is to leverage the surface water grant to apply for other grants, Brown said.
The plan is to develop a management plan and then apply for bigger grants that will support the management plan, he said.
Obtaining smaller grants will work toward building the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District’s track record for grants so that when the district applies for larger grants, the district will be able to show that grants are used in a timely manner and are reported appropriately, Brown said.
Treasurer’s report
Grant Peissig, treasurer of the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District, reported that $3,615 had been received from the property taxes assessed to the residents of the member townships.
Since the last meeting, the district had two expenses amounting to $140.25 for meeting notices published in the Colfax Messenger and $2,119 for insurance, he said.
The current balance for the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District at the time of the meeting was $4,296.95, Peissig reported.
