Posted on August 8, 2016
By Mark Feldmann, The Journal Times
Village residents who live along the Fox River on Tuesday emphatically said no to any and all plans to lower the level of the waterway each and every winter.
About 60 residents, many of them living along the river, gathered at the Waterford Village Hall Tuesday night to discuss how continuing efforts to dredge nearby drainage canals would negatively affect the waterway.
The Racine County Drainage District wants to draw down the Fox River between the Waterford and Rochester dams every winter to help dredge drainage canals of excess silt and to control erosion and flooding.
In a drawdown, the river’s water level is slowly lowered in the fall until the level decreases between 4 and 5 feet. The river is refilled in the spring and returned to its normal level.
But residents and village officials on Tuesday night said recent drawdowns have destroyed fishing, decreased property values and had a major impact on the river’s recreational opportunities.
“We want to preserve our river,” said Village President Tom Roanhouse. “We never, never, never want there to be a drawdown again.”
In the past several years the village has invested a lot to develop the river and the nearby land. In June, the village opened kayak and canoe launches at Village Hall Park with easy access to the river.
“The activity on the river is amazing,” Roanhouse said.
And village officials and residents said that they want to keep it that way.
“We want to be a recreation destination, and we need the river to do that,” said Barbara Messick, the village’s administrative analyst.
A citizens group that opposes the drawdowns has suggested the drainage district use hydraulic dredging — which can be done almost any time of the year — on the canals, and that there is no evidence that an annual drawdown is helpful.
The district wants to use mechanical dredging, which requires frozen ground for the heavy excavating equipment.
“We’re not opposed to dredging,” said resident Fred Koeller of the citizen group. “We believe you can dredge without drawing down the water.”
The drainage district is in the third year of a five-year permit from the state Department of Natural Resources to dredge the canals. But despite drawing down the river in 2014 and 2015, no dredging has occurred.
The drawdowns have left that section of the river shallow and mostly mud. “We don’t like the mud or the stench,” Koeller said.
The village has been dealing with the issue since January 2015, when many residents complained about the effects of the previous drawdown.
In March 2015, more than 100 people with land along the river, other concerned citizens, and state and county officials gathered to discuss the drawdowns.
Officials from the village, county and state have been working to resolve the issue ever since.
State Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, State. Rep. Dave Craig, R-Waterford, and Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave, who all attended Tuesday’s meeting, urged residents to contact legislators, write letters and enlist neighbors to keep the issue on the front burner.
“These letters and calls can make a difference,” Wanggaard said.
Source: The Journal Times
