Posted on March 3, 2020
FONTANA – With the Abbey Marina filling quickly with sand and requiring costly annual dredging, the harbor is seeking long-term solutions with the village to address the rapid sedimentation.
Along with heavy rainfalls that have affected Fontana in recent years, a storm water system constructed near the Big Foot Country Club by the village about five years ago to reduce water from pooling around golf course fairways is also contributing to the recent spike in sedimentation pooling into the harbor.
The storm water system drains water from golf course ponds and channels it down a steep hill toward Potawatomi Creek, which feeds into the southwest corner of the harbor. Because the new storm water system channeled water down what was never a waterway, the water picked up high levels of sedimentation while carving a path to the creek.
The new water source also increased water levels, generating more sedimentation from eroding shorelines the creek did not reach before.
When Ed Snyder first took his position as harbormaster in 2004, he said parts of the harbor would be dredged every three or four years. However, since the storm water system was installed and heavy rains have hit the area, the marina dredges areas of the harbor annually.
Snyder said when the southwest corner of the harbor was dredged in 2018 it had a depth of about six feet, but that depth has since decreased to about two feet in the area where Potawatomi feeds into the harbor and the most sediment collects. He said while no boats have been seriously damaged yet, the shallow depths could cause serious issues.
“Because the water is so shallow the boats are sucking silt into the boat into the strainers and overheating the engines,” he said.
While the harbor has historically funded $15,000 to $20,000 spot dredging each year without assistance from the village, the rapid accumulation of sediment in the harbor and the role the new storm water system in the increase has led Snyder to seek village assistance to find a long-term solution to the issue and to dredge the southern third of the harbor.
Snyder presented his findings of the rapid sedimentation to the lakefront and harbor committee during a Jan. 29 meeting and asked for village assistance to reduce sedimentation in the harbor and avoid annual dredging during a Feb. 19 meeting.
During the Feb. 19 meeting, trustee Rick Pappas made a motion to discuss possible solutions with the village’s public works department and to seek assistance from village engineer Terry Tavera of Ruekert-Mielke as well.
“Storm water is a huge issue in this whole community,” Pappas said at the meeting. “Everyone keeps trying to follow it but I don’t know how much money we have to fix everything.”
Snyder said the dredging he hopes to accomplish this year covers a much larger area of the harbor than typical spot dredging.
“To do something on a much larger scale like we’re talking, it is going to be way more expensive,” he said.
Snyder said he had consulted with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, NR Basin Supervisor Travis Schroeder about installing a catch basin behind the E. Dewey Avenue bridge over Potawatomi Creek, but was told installing a basin in the creek may impact the natural, life-supporting waterway.
“You don’t want to get into it where you’re blocking fish spawning areas,” Snyder said. “It’s totally understandable and we want to work with them on making sure everything is protected and right for the environment.”
Schroeder said a better course of action for reducing sedimentation intake may be to locate sedimentation areas and divert water away from it.
“We really don’t have a great feel for where the sediment in coming from,” Schroeder said. “If there were things farther up in the water shed they could investigate that might be more beneficial than installing something at the bottom of the flow.”
He added that while dredging may be a temporary solution, the sedimentation may continue to build until it is diverted from the creek.
Source: lakegenevanews.net
