Today’s Abuse

The noise pollution from today’s environmentally irresponsible MNDOT abuse of Savage Lake came from a giant pile driver inserting these pieces of steel into our side (the west side) of the lake. Nothing good can come from this, I suspect.

The other day, Rocky Waite brought a representative of the DNR to look at the sorry state of our lake. He’s trying to convince the Powers That Be that the lake height is unnaturally low and that is contributing the lake’s demise. Fifteen years ago, our lake had a small spring near the north eastern corner. In most years, even when the water level was “low” (for the time) that corner of the lake didn’t freeze over until well into the winter. After the mess the Watershed District made of the drain on the east side and the water level dropped dramatically, the spring seemed to have re-routed itself. MNDOT followed that with the entrance ramp and bridge drain near the middle of the south-bound entrance ramp. That drain dumped tons of sediment into the lake until it overwhelmed itself and clogged with its own sediment. That turned the spring corner into a silt island, which the Watershed District has been ignoring with its pointless measurements and water samples for a decade.

With the latest MNDOT addition to the freeway, the irresponsible I35E drainage is bound to be even more aggressively harmful to the lake and our peace and quiet. I suppose this is pretty much what it feels like to be a second-class citizen. I suppose the only thing MNDOT and the Watershed District will have left to do to our lake will be to install a rest stop along the lakeshore with toilets that dump directly into the lake. I can hardly wait.