GLSD Receives Second Water Quality Grant

As described in the article below, titled “Big Green Lake Water Quality Protection Grant”, the GLSD did apply for a second water quality grant in the Spring of 2000.  This grant will provide $ 100,000.00 of State Funds to be used for field practices designed to protect Big Green Lake from nonpoint pollution runoff.  The field practices are referred to as “Best Management Practices (BMPs)” and include a number of alternatives, such as:  grass waterways, no-till farming, contour filter strips, sediment basins, and many more.

 The BMPs will be designed by Green Lake and Fond du Lac County Land Conservation Staff and should start to be installed beginning in the Spring of 2001.  The ultimate goal of this project work is to realize a 35% reduction in phosphorus and sediment running into the lake over the next 10 years.  Under normal conditions (i.e. rainfall, etc), Big Green Lake receives approximately 18,000 lbs. of phosphorus and almost 3,300 tons of sediment runoff from its 114 square mile watershed annually.

Big Green Lake Water Quality Protection Grant
 

 In 1998 the Green Lake Sanitary District applied for and received a State of Wisconsin water quality grant, one of just 27 grants awarded throughout the state.

The grant funds a project to determine a target nutrient level for Big Green Lake. A high nutrient level is a major source of water pollution, contributing to excessive weed growth and algae bloom.

The state is contributing $121,000 to the project, which has a total projected cost of $175,000. Work on the project began in August of 1998 and is expected to take 12-18 months to complete.

Once the work has been completed (year 2000) and the target nutrient level has been determined, the Green Lake Sanitary District will apply for a second lake protection grant. This grant will fund implementation of the actual practices needed to reduce Big Green Lake’s nutrient level to the target.

The four primary activities under the current grant, which are listed on the reverse side, involve state-of-the-art methods and technology for measurement and modeling. The use of these procedures and related computer software is considered groundbreaking throughout the nation.

Working with the Green Lake Sanitary District on this project are the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Green Lake County, Fond du Lac County, City of Green Lake, the Green Lake Association, the Green Lake Preservation Society and the Fox-Wolf Basin 2000 organization.

Primary Activities Funded by the 
Big Green Lake Water Quality Protection Grant

 1. Update Big Green Lake’s Watershed Inventory 

Provides detailed information on the status of non-point source runoff to the lake. Nonpoint runoff is pollution that drains into the watershed from many sources, as opposed to one specific site. There are 120+ farms, 60+ barnyards, residential areas, and commercial and urban areas (cities of Green Lake and Ripon) in the Big Green Lake watershed which must be inventoried.

 2. Develop Watershed & Lake Computer Models

These models will be used to measure and predict the impact of various activities on the lake (i.e., farmland runoff, urban runoff, geese, etc.) and will allow us to perform “what if” scenarios. Most of this work will not be started until the inventory work outlined above has been completed.

 3. Define Acceptable Lake Nutrient Levels

We will determine what the lake can handle in terms of nutrient loading (i.e., phosphorus) by analyzing the sediment core information (item 4 below) as well as by running the computer models (item 2 above).

 4. Define Lake Historical Background Through Paleolimnologlcal Corings

Sediment cores were taken from the lake bottom in late October 1998. After extensive lab analysis (6-12 months) the sediment information will be used to help us to understand the history of the lake and to establish the lake’s nutrient target level.