by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
The proposed Little Rock Lake drawdown is far from a done deal, even though a majority of people who filled out survey postcards support the drawdown.
Potential hurdles that remain for the proposed project include regulatory permission and cooperation from the Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and a go-ahead from the electric dam operator at the Sartell hydroelectric dam.
A drawdown would lower the level of Little Rock Lake near Rice and the Mississippi River between the lake and Sartell in order to help restore the environmental integrity of those waterways. The remedies would include prevention of shore and bank erosion, and an increase in water clarity and a decrease in nutrients that cause algae growth.
With enough support, the Department of Natural Resources would like to do the drawdown for an eight-week period in late summer 2017. The drawdown would be accomplished by letting more water over the dam in Sartell.
Residents along the lake and river were sent survey postcards earlier this summer by the Department of Natural Resources. Results of the postcard survey, as well as the online survey, were released Aug. 29 by the DNR.
The following are key elements of the survey background and survey results:
- A total of 819 postcard surveys were sent to residents with shoreline access on the Mississippi River (between the Sartell dam and Two Rivers Campground) and to residents along Little Rock Lake (including those near Harris Channel).
- A total of 378 filled-out postcards were returned, a return rate of 46.2 percent, which is considered a “very valid” return rate as most survey responses tend to be less than 25 percent.
- The online survey was available for almost three weeks and drew responses from 133 respondents.
- Of all the surveys completed, via postcards and online, 195 of them were from people who identified themselves as residents of Little Rock Lake or Harris Channel, 262 from residents along the Mississippi River and 53 from people who stated they were not residents of those areas.
- Of all respondents, 331 showed support for a potential drawdown of Little Rock Lake and part of the river; 113 indicated they do not support a drawdown; and 66 noted they were undecided at this point. Those responses translate into 64.9-percent support, 22.2-percent non-support and 12.9-percent undecided.
The DNR will release more detailed results soon about the other questions on the survey.
