The Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation shoulders responsibility for maintaining, protecting and improving the water quality of the Wawasee watershed. The result of this effort benefits everyone living within the watershed and the water flowing downstream to the Elkhart River and ultimately Lake Michigan.
There are lakes in our area that have deteriorated due to carelessness and misuse. Lake Manitou in Rochester was forced to close for two years because of the release of an exotic weed, and Shipshewana Lake actually “died,” costing the state more than $1 million to restore. Should the water quality of Lake Wawasee be compromised, we risk the health of our lake, the loss of water rights and a resultant erosion of property values. Our carelessness and indifference may carry heavy costs.
We are facing a serious problem with the threat of dredging 827 feet of Oakwood Park shoreline for 248 proposed boat slips. The site is a natural lake bed, and there is no source, stream or ditch of additional sediment at the proposed dredging location. These proposed group piers represent more boat slips than all the marinas on the lake combined. The potential for large volumes of sediments sent downstream during the dredging operation would cause the release of decades of nutrients currently locked in bottom sediment, exposing the lake to an increased risk of algae blooms and a smothering silt flow into a much larger area of the lake.
A mega-increase of 20 times the usual boat activity will result in more spilled fuel, more propellers and bottom-churning in an already-sensitive area of the lake, and result in reduced water quality. The conservancy foundation is dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of the Wawasee-area watershed, and this proposal is directly contrary.
We have a critical need to stop the proposed group piers and dredging so we can prevent irreversible damage to our lake. Each of us must shoulder the consequences of the decisions we make today. A public hearing for the dredging will be at 5 p.m. Thursday in Room C of the Warsaw Public Library, 310 E. Main St.
We urge you to take action now to prevent approval of the proposed piers and dredging.
Email or write the DNR:
Michael W. Neyer, P.E., Director, IDNR, Division of Water,
402W. Washington St., W264,
Indianapolis, IN 46204
JOHN HOLDEMAN, Chairman
HEATHER HARWOOD, Executive director, board of directors
Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation, Inc.
