A new ordinance introduced to help control the impacts when the water levels are high.
I thought some of you might be interested in this:
Dane County Lakes and Watershed Commission
Thursday, August 19, 2010, 5:15 p.m.
Room 351, City-County Building
To reduce the effects of high lake levels, John Hendrick (and others) are sponsoring an ordinance amendment to create an automatic Slow No Wake zone across any Yahara Lake where the lake level is significantly above the permitted “summer maximum”. Right now Lake Monona is 22 inches above the highest level allowed by law and approaching the so-called “100 year flood” level. These levels combined with boat wakes cause shoreline erosion which threatens public and private property. For example, B.B. Clarke park in district 6 has lost shoreline trees to erosion and will lose another tree if this continues.
Please come out to the Lakes and Watershed Commission to support this ordinance. If you can’t make this meeting there will be future opportunities to support the ordinance. Or, you can email the supervisors county_board_recipients@co.dane.wi.us or the committee members, there is a contact form here.
The language isn’t available yet that I could find anywhere, but eventually, it will show up at the end of this ridiculous document. It is hard to comment on something you can’t see . . . so I don’t know what “significantly above” is . . . or who the other sponsors are . . . but it sounds like this is a start.
wouldn’t a better idea be to fix the underlying problem? Shoreline erosion can be better adjusted by reducing Mendota’s maximums, increasing the flow at the rail bridge between Mud Lake and Waubesa, between Waubesa and Kegonsa and between Kegonsa and the Rock River. The lakes, properly maintained, are big enough for canoes, kayaks, wind srufers, paddle boardsers, ski team practice, UW and other crew use, fishing and power boaters and sailors without significant shoreline erosion and basement flooding.