By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Town of Delavan Lake Committee has sent a letter to the Walworth County Land Use and Resource Management department asking for better communication with the town.
Town Supervisor Mary Knipper, also Chairman of the Lake Committee, asked for authorization from the Town Board on Sept. 22 to send the letter.
Knipper told the board the letter was in reference to a manure injection a farmer made in his field near the intersection of highways 50 and F. She said the injection was done legally but the location of the injection was problematic for the lake. According to Knipper, the town has spent a lot of money and time over the last several years in an effort to reduce nutrient and sediment input into the lake and this injection was a threat to that effort.
She explained that a waterway the town put in recently to better filter the water that enters the lake from the area the injection was done could have provided runoff from the injection to enter the lake. Luckily, she said, there was no rain in the days that followed the injection. Knipper said 95 truckloads of manure were injected in the field and so much manure was injected that it did not all remain submerged beneath the soil. Some manure was clearly visible on the surface.
According to Knipper, members of the Lake Committee met with LURM and found out LURM knew about the injection but had told the farmer to do it in a different manner than he did. Knipper said the town needs to have a closer relationship with area farmers due to the huge amount of watershed that is being used for agricultural purposes.
The letter sent to LURM by the Lake Committee asks for more effective communication and information sharing between LURM and the town. It said the town has spent more than $10 million in an effort to maintain and improve the water quality of Delavan Lake, recently focusing on addressing the nutrient and sediment loading that begins in the watershed.
The letter stated the farmer had been instructed to build a grass waterway prior to the application of the manure and that did not happen. The Lake Committee asked that the waterway be constructed as soon as possible and that the committee be kept informed of the progress.
“It would be questionable environmental policy to invest $350,000 in a project to reduce nutrient loading while paying incentives to a person adding an estimated 152,000 gallons of phosphorus laden manure waste into what is essentially an adjoining property,” the letter stated.
Town Chairman Larry Malsch said similar incidents, reported by a member of the public during public comments, around Brown’s Channel and the inlet should also be investigated.
For more coverage from the meeting, which included discussions on several topics, see the Oct. 1 Delavan Enterprise.
