Menomonie dredging results

Lake Menomin

 I don't think the results can ever be measured since any given day and each individual person brings their own expectations to the location.

Above is the most amount of blue-green decaying spotted for many years.   This small spot is enough to fill the surrounding Menomonie neighborhood with the unpleasant odors.

Still, below, past  the year 2 (out of an expected 20 year project life expectancy) the dredged location is still green, a very active cyanobacteria bloom.    All of that "muck" that was removed has not changed anything here.   In fact, compared to 2017, this bloom is lasting much longer.

Lake Menomin cyanobacteria bloom 2018

There is no news, no follow up, and in the 5-1/2 years since I have been on site, not much change.

I don't think a lot of people were aware of the size and scope of the project as I have found in my own conversations with people in Menomonie, many don't even know the name of the road they used to get here.    And some of these are longer term residents than I.



History does not repeat but rhymes, as it is said, so I have to wonder if the same cycle of small town ego plagues the lake as much as the cyanobacteria.   I have had limited conversations with higher-valued lake property owners from Tainter Lake that have nothing but contempt for rules that limit their impact on the watershed, but in the same conversation they expect something to be done about it all.


That's why I keep looking back while observing the present.   2013 had a large media and local business backing presence to support dredging Wolske bay.   Let's take a look at one example, from a person not really from the Wolske bay neighborhood at all.

If a person was asked to take the money out of their pocket and pay for the project on the spot, I think more people would be hesitant to hand it over.    A lot of people will gladly spend other peoples money, and this is a more conservative personality starting off this conversation, a person who supports less regulation toward the watershed as a whole and more unregulated building and industry that will impact the watershed.   All resulting in more impact to the watershed and more nutrients for the cyanobacteria to bloom.

There are even some threatening comments toward city council members who did not support Mayor Randy Knaacks idea, likely some of the very people who denied this very Mayor a free hand-out of $25,000 public money for his scum sucker machine.    And still, the Mayor looks like someone who wants a more full time office with recent runs for the state assembly and county sheriff.   This does not sound like a person who wants to be here at Wolske bay.

Let's look back at that 2013 media and business push.....