Des Moines Register
09-21-06
State looks into E. Okoboji pollution
Developer in question also to run Rathbun Lake Resort State Park
By PERRY BEEMAN
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
The Iowa attorney general's office has been asked to investigate a developer's
repeated pollution problems at the Bridges Bay Resort project along East Okoboji
Lake.
The case is being watched closely because the developer has been chosen to
run the state's first resort park at Rathbun Lake.
State environmental inspectors say contractors at the controversial Bridges Bay
development repeatedly allowed silt to run into East Okoboji, one of the
centerpieces of the popular Iowa Great Lakes vacation area. Contractors also
illegally burned materials at the site, said Diana Hansen, a lawyer for the Iowa
Department of Natural Resources.
Violations have spanned more than a year and came after months of heated
meetings in which residents of the Iowa Great Lakes area told officials that the
project could pollute East Okoboji. Silt carries chemical pollutants, kills lakebottom plants, can clog fish gills, and makes it harder for some fish to find food.
Bridges Bay is a project of Regency Hotel Management of Sioux Falls, S.D. The
resources department in March chose Regency as the manager of the $40
million Honey Creek Resort State Park project near Centerville. That resort will
span 828 acres of lakefront property and is set to open in 2008. Construction is
expected to begin this fall.
The governor-appointed Iowa Environmental Protection Commission voted
Tuesday to refer the matter to the attorney general's office. Bridges Bay Resort
L.L.C., the name used for the project, could face fines of up to $5,000 for each
day of water-quality violations, and $10,000 a day for air violations related to the
open burning.
Darryl Halling of Milford, who heads a lake-preservation group, was among
hundreds who packed meetings before Bridges Bay was approved, pleading with
local officials to block the project, or at least protect the lake.
"We're all upset with it," he said. "We worked hard so when they started
destroying the oak savannah that they would have some responsibility for the
trees and for the runoff.
"Fortunately, there were enough watchdogs so that when they screwed up, we
got their butts kicked."
Regency officials could not be reached for comment. The consulting engineer on
the Bridges Bay project said the company wants to protect the lake and has
worked to improve erosion control. State and local officials working on the Honey
Creek project said multiple safeguards are in place to protect Rathbun Lake.
Bridges Bay problems span many months
In the middle of the 25-acre site, a channel carried silt freely to the lake weeks
after the firm was ordered to erect silt fences there. Silt fences were knocked
down, or improperly placed, at times. The developers had agreed to low-impact
development guidelines (LID), meant to protect the lake.
Donna Buell of Spirit Lake, a member of the environmental commission, grilled
the firm at a meeting Tuesday.
"I'm amazed you brought up LID," she said, referring to the low-impact
development agreement. "This is as far away from LID as I can imagine.
"The citizens were right to be worried. Bridges Bay is concerned about the lake?
If this is our best developer, we have huge problems. You knew before the
groundbreaking that the public was watching this very closely. This isn't one
instance. This is months of violations.''
A certification statement intended to ensure that contractors on the project
comply with regulations still had not been signed by all parties on Tuesday, more
than a year after construction began.
Scott Brunsvold, Bridges Bay's consulting engineer, said the developers take
water quality seriously. "The last thing Bridges Bay wants to do is be a detriment
to the lake, because that's its livelihood," Brunsvold told the commission
Tuesday. The $200 million project to be built over 10 years includes several
hundred condo units now under construction and an indoor water park.
The state repeatedly told the company to fix its silt fencing, but found problems in
almost every visit over the past year.
A visit in the past week found improvements. "We were having problems with a
subcontractor who would be in and out of there doing landscaping and would tear
the fences down and not put them back," Brunsvold said. A rain of 1.5 inches in
an hour one day in mid-June "couldn't have happened at a worse time,"
Brunsvold said.
Brunsvold said crews were unaware the state banned open burning. When
inspectors told them to stop, they did.
Arnie Sohn, who has supervised the Honey Creek project for the resources
department, said Rathbun should not suffer a similar fate.
In addition to a different team of consulting engineers hired by Regency, the
Honey Creek project will be overseen by an independent engineer hired by the
state, by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and by a team of engineers from
Iowa State University. The state and contractors will supervise construction
before Regency takes over operations of the resort, Sohn said.
Sohn said the ISU team is monitoring water quality before construction begins,
and will continue to after crews start building the lodge, cabins, golf course and
other facilities. All the plans will be reviewed to prevent runoff.
"That is one of our key concerns," Sohn said. "The whole idea is Rathbun is a
high-quality water body to begin with, and we can't afford to detract from the
quality of it."
Bill Duey, Rathbun lake manager for the Army Corps, said his agency also will be
watching to make sure the lake isn't damaged. The project, which is about half on
state land and half on federal, will have to get federal permits before construction
can begin.