Unwanted Legacy

Many people desire to leave a legacy. Some legacies, whether or good or bad, are well deserved. Some are not. History will judge the legacy of a person.  Legacies can, however, go beyond an individual person. They can be related to collective actions from the past. What is happening in some Dane County streams is a multi-year project to remove a legacy of our collective past--silt, or more appropriately, muck, laden with phosphorus. Sediment, particularly when laden with pollutants, is not a good legacy. Sediment comes with runoff from farm fields, construction sites, and where ever soil is exposed.  Phosphorus was in many products for a long time, particularly in cleaning products and fertilizers.  The chemical was banned in many fertilizers and home care products but is still present in muck located in the streams, rivers and lakes of Dane County, and many other communities. Phosphorous sticks to particles of soil, and the use of the chemical, combined with erosion one can see a great deal of pollutant loaded silt in varied waterways. The "Suck the Muck" campaign is being used in Dane County to remove some of the phosphorus laden sediments in the waterways. This will hopefully lead to cleaner water.

Heavy equipment along Yahara River, just upstream of 
Lower Mud Lake.  Part of the piping to be used is to left 
of the equipment

For many years attempts have been made to clean our surface waters.  In the late 1980's detention ponds were put in place for new developments to hold back storm water to help reduce flooding, but to also potentially settle some sediments. Several years later water quality ponds were required for new developments. In many cases, cities and villages have also installed more community wide ponds and facilities to treat the storm water from developments that predated the requirements. These ponds are called wet ponds because they contain water, with the idea that the ponds better hold back pollutants. The water that leaves the ponds would, presumably, become cleaner.  For over 30 years I have been kayaking or canoeing on Mud Lake and Lake Kegonsa, and at times Lake Waubesa, but have yet to see any improvement in water quality. The Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) has worked with many partners on a program called Yahara WINS, to better remove some phosphorous in dairy waste. 

This fellow can stand on the algae accumulation.
People are not as fortunate.

While programs can attend to the urban and suburban, non-point source, such as agriculture, is more difficult to control and regulators and politicians often lack the desire to place controls on non-point sources.  Part of Yahara WINS, and other programs, is undertaking seeding of cover crops, generally in the fall, on fields to hold back sediment for the fall through spring. There are programs that pay farmers to place buffer strips along water ways. Part of me wonders if the old conservation practices of the 1970's have gone away with the large equipment now used to farm. Many point source polluters are, I believe, doing their fair share, and maybe, just maybe, picking up part of the share from non-point source polluters.  It is easier for DNR and other agencies to go after point source than non-point source polluters.

Dredging barge, it is listing as much as Kevin
Wenstob's barge on Netflix's "Big Timber"

That is not to say all point source polluters do a good job, many a construction sites lack proper erosion control.  I noticed this a couple years ago for the school construction projects in the McFarland School District.  It was hard getting anyone to take responsibility for the sediment.  At one point the contractor emptied a rain garden under construction (which is to help infiltrate water) onto pavement which sent the silt laden water to the street storm sewer. 

Outlet of Barge

The next tool, or program to reduce pollutant loading is to suck the muck, some of these sediments which contain phosphorus and other pollutants were deposited long ago. Although it would not surprise me if some of sediment from the schools is in the top layer.  The idea is that the phosphorus is the main contributor to the algae and growth of lake weeds that inhibit use of the lakes and streams for fishing, swimming and other recreational activities. MMSD treated effluent does not go into the Madison lakes, rather it is discharged to either Badfish Creek (south of Madison which is in the Rock River basin) or Badger Mill Creek on the southwest side of Madison/Verona.  MMSD treated effluent is generally fairly clean, and is disinfected for several months, currently from mid-April to mid-October. Hence, other sources lead to the pollution.

Dischrage pipe runs along center of photo, by buoys and 
then beyond along far edge of the river

Nature itself is a contributor, as leaves and some other debris contain phosphorus.  That is why land girl and I clean our gutter, regularly, particularly in the fall, of leaves and debris to prevent them from entering the storm sewer and reaching the streams and lakes. Wauwatosa allows leaves to be raked into the street and as rain water travels through the leaves it becomes a phosphorus laden tea. That is why street sweeping, at least in McFarland, is more common than it used to be, but perhaps not sufficiently common today as it perhaps it should. 

Looking downstream from Exchange St Bridge
The "snake" in the water is the pipe

Dane County's contractor, which is sucking the muck, has now reached the Yahara River, less than a mile from my house.  In preparation, A large area of trees was cut down last year and large berms built to hold the legacy sediments that are pumped from the dredging machine.  I noticed the dredging machine on Monday, July 5, and thought it would be at work on July 6 or 7, but it is still in the same place as I saw it on 5 July.  On July 7, the only work I could see being accomplished was on some heavy equipment on the large berm.  At some point I will kayak and see how the work has progressed.

Looking upstream toward the disposition area.
The algae deposits are held in place by the pipe

What surprises me is how small the barge or boat is that holds the dredging equipment.  That and to wonder how it is sufficiently powerful to move the sediment several thousand feet to the berm area.  I suppose they may have another piece of equipment at the other end that helps such it along.    

Beyond the trees, are berms for the muck, the 
discharge site

Time will tell if this will assist in improving the water quality of the lakes.  I have found mother nature to be surprisingly resilient, but the earth can also only take so much of a beating.  I certainly hope it works to help our surface waters. The warm weather in May and early June certainly led to a bumper crop of blue-green algae, which is a rather disgusting and poisonous type of algae that harms people and some animals. I used to be able to swim at Lake Kegonsa State Park beach until after the first week of June when the water became too yucky, but this year the water was yucky in mid-May. Part of the problem is the location of the beach in a bay on the east shore of the lake, so all the weeds and gunk blow into the bay, and onto the beach.  I recall as a child swimming at Law Park in Madison, and also boating on Lake Monona.  Law Park is now mainly the Monona Terrace.  I realize a child is more likely to not pay attention to water quality, but I am quite confident the water quality of today is much worse than the water quality five decades ago.

Better view of the muck discharge site. 

If banning most sources of phosphorous, sucking the phosphorous laden muck, retention ponds, cover crops, grass buffers, and the many other methods that have been tried fail to work, I am not sure what the next step will be.  Nor, do I know how long it is expected to take to see if any improvement is realized.  I do hope that the county's efforts to clean up an wanted legacy will work so people can once again more fully enjoy the area lakes and streams.