Des Moines Register
11-03-06
Easter Lake cleanup cost projection: $5 million
JASON PULLIAM
Register Staff Writer
State and county officials plan to work together on an $85,000-plus study to
pinpoint ways to rehabilitate sediment-packed Easter Lake and its troubled
watershed.
Polk County Conservation Director Pat Boddy said she will soon ask the Board of
Supervisors for $37,000 to help pay for the study.
The project will be a collaboration among Polk County, the Iowa Department of
Natural Resources, Iowa State University and local volunteers. State money will
cover the rest of the study’s cost.
In 1998, Easter Lake’s excessive siltation earned it a spot on the state’s
“impaired” waters list for heavily polluted waterways.
Mike McGhee, the state’s lake projects coordinator, said the need for aggressive
action to address the lake’s growing silt problems is “critical.”
The agency estimates that one-quarter to one-third of the lake is filled with
sediment.
"If we keep that up, we're not going to have a functional lake in 25 to 30 years,"
McGhee said.
Officials hope to begin the restoration study as soon as possible. Once the
project is under way, McGhee said it will take roughly one year to complete.
Costs for the full slate of restoration projects will likely exceed $5 million and take
five years to complete, McGhee said. State money will make up the bulk of the
funding.