For those who continue to complain and blame the farmers for the condition of the lake please read. First a little back round of myself. I was born and raised here in Mercer County. I lived in Celina area my entire life with the exception of my time spent on active duty in the Army and deployments with the Ohio National Guard. Growing up I spent my summers fishing, boating, waterskiing, and swimming on Grand Lake St. Marys. In the winters we spent many weekends snowmobiling on the lake as well. I also spent much of my summers working on my grandparent’s farm in the southern part of the county. I have held many jobs over the years, to include being a Class II Water Treatment Plant Operator for the City of Celina. With this job, I found myself intrigued with the history and condition of the lake as it is the source for Celina’s drinking water. So now time for a history lesson of the lake. As we all know the lake was built to supply water to the Miami-Erie Canal. Contrary to many beliefs it was not dug, but a low lying, swampy, wetland area was dammed, where the Coldwater Creek, Grassy Creek, Bruntwood Creek, Beaver Creek, Prairie Creek, Chickasaw Creek, Little Chickasaw Creek, and Barnes Creek all flowed together and out the area primarily to the west down the Lower Beaver Creek to the Wabash River. Spotted across the lake was over 150 islands. Due to erosion, of these islands today roughly only about a dozen or so remain and those that do remain are severely reduced in size. Example of this reduction in size is Safety Island which at one time was over 10 acres and now only about 2.5 acres. As the islands eroded away the dirt and clay have been and settled on the bottom of the lake reducing the depth of the lake. Most of the land along the south side of the lake between State Route 219 was state owned until the early 1920’s at which time the state started to sell this land. The land that I am referring to were wetlands that filtered farm runoff from the southern part of the county. Over the last 75 years the wetlands have been destroyed by real-estate developers to build housing developments, trailer parks, and campgrounds. So what once filtered the incoming water was no destroyed. Now I will admit that I am unsure of when the state started to dredge the lake, but I do know that the state has failed to properly dredge the lake. The state has only dredged the channels and bay areas not the main body of the lake. In recent years with the issues of the blue-green algae blooms, blame has primarily been thrown in one direction, the farmers in the watershed. So let us take a step back and look at what has truly caused the problems in our lake. Destruction of wetlands, building of housing developments, erosion of islands, poor dredging management and lack of state funding. There are many home owners to blame as well, especially ones who’s homes are in the developments I spoke about earlier. Many of these home owners over fertilize their yard and then illegally steal state owned water by pumping it out of the lake on to their lawns. Excess fertilizer is then washed directly in to the lake. The state recently tried the application of alum to help bond the nutrients to the lake floor. They wasted, what about 20 million dollars over about a 3 year time frame only to discover our lake is to shallow to work. If the state would have checked around they would have realized study was done in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s by a chemist at the Wright State Lake Branch that already proved this. So far the only fix has worked so far is the construction of a new wetland area over on the Prairie Creek. Another possible fix that should be seriously considered could solve many more issues concerning the lake is as follows. Haul rip-rap to the lake and lay out 20 to 30 islands spotted across the lake. Make each island about 10 to 20 acres. By doing this, it all of the following issues: 1. Provides a location for the state to place dredge spoils while dredging the main body of the lake, 2. It eliminates wave action, 3. Elimination of wave action reduces and prevents erosion, 4. Once the dredge spoils settle, the islands could even be sold for large amounts of money, and the money placed into a trust to help fund future projects with in the lake. I hope that you find this not only helpful but also educational
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 18:38:17 +0000
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